Sibelius 7

Sibelius 7 is out!!! Grab it now!

http://shop.avid.com/store/product.do;jsessionid=817C7A1BAB382D4C109C2576EE4023D9.ASTPESD2?product=307407083402400

this is annoying, I just got the SIb 6 upgrade a few months ago ....

Ahhh so Sibelius 7 is finally out. Should be a good program

Is YC still selling Sib via its own store?

Wow you HAVE been gone a long time. I don't know if we even still HAVE a store

Yeah, I've been rather busy....:(

According to the Sibelius web site, one of the main improvements in Version 7 is the sound quality of the instrument samples. Yet the music samples that are posted on the Version 7 web page don't strike me as noticeably better than what I was getting with Version 6. One of my goals for this year is to create better-sounding mock-ups of my compositions. Has anyone had an opportunity to compare the quality of the instrument sounds of Versions 6 & 7? Does Version 7 sound better enough to justify the upgrade?

They're way better if you have a computer that can handle them.

I dislike the keypad doesn't obey the position I tell him :angry: (on V.7)

I don't like Sib 7 that much. It's such a bit difference from 6.

Then get acclimated to it!

They're way better if you have a computer that can handle them.

Do you mean anything in particular by this beyond the minimum listed requirements? It turns out that I need to buy a new computer, so now would be the time to make sure I have whatever I need. I write a lot for orchestra and large ensembles, and it often takes a loooooong time to load all the instruments. I'm thinking about getting two hard drives and loading the sound library onto the second hard drive to hopefully speed this process up a little. Is it possible to do this with Sibelius 7. I haven't tried this with Sibelius 6 because I didn't have a second hard drive on my old computer, (the one with the recently fried motherboard).

Do you mean anything in particular by this beyond the minimum listed requirements? It turns out that I need to buy a new computer, so now would be the time to make sure I have whatever I need. I write a lot for orchestra and large ensembles, and it often takes a loooooong time to load all the instruments. I'm thinking about getting two hard drives and loading the sound library onto the second hard drive to hopefully speed this process up a little. Is it possible to do this with Sibelius 7. I haven't tried this with Sibelius 6 because I didn't have a second hard drive on my old computer, (the one with the recently fried motherboard).

The minimum requirements are very much a minimum. Sibelius 7 will crash if it doesn't have enough RAM to load the sounds, for example. All three "traditional" speed-inducers will need to be upgraded for Sibelius7 to be faster: Hard Drive speed (ideally an SSD if you can get one), lots o' RAM, and a fast processor. A bottleneck in any of these will slow things down.

Then get acclimated to it!

That's too much work :P I like my sibby 6!

Here's my take on Sibelius 7...

Note that I've been (and still am) a Finale user, so I got Sibelius out of necessesity!

The functions are generally very good, and for a newbie at this software the ribbon works fine. Finally you can import any graphic format (not only TIFF like in Sibelius 6) and you can edit the size of the graphic, any way you want. The hidden info will still be shown (unlike Sib 6) and that's about it.

The sounds are, quite honestly, rubbish, for a 34 GB library! Anyone can listen to the demos and decide for themselves. Personally I don't care since I don't care to listen to the things I'm writine (I'm simply editing or copying existing music), but for others this may be a problem. The problem is not only the sounds themselves, but also the way Sibelius plays back (personally I prefer human playback from Finale).

THE MOST IMPORTANT PROBLEM with Sibelius 7 though, is the speed issues! Larger scores (let's say 80 pages symphonic work), was simply impossible to work! It seems that part of the problem is the tuplet drawing function (!!!??!?!?!!) but also other stuff which may criple the software. And I'm talking about a stripped down software (no textures on pages, or background, no sounds, no vector (or however they are called in there), and a top notch computer (i7, 6 GB of RAM, almost 3 TB of hard drives...).

Personally I was forced to go back to Sibelius 6 (and thanks to the company for allowing me to do that), which is 100% faster (something that needs 20 secs in Sibelius 7 needs 11 in Sibelius 6).

Unless they change this VERY SERIOUS speed issue, the software is, sadly, unusable for larger scores. I'm currently editing an 110 page score and I'm doing so in Sib 6. Once I'm done with anything that needs heavy handling I'll switch to Sib 7 to change text fonts (sizes, fonts, etc), import graphics and stuff like that, which are more difficult to do in Sib 6!

Just hacked my old Sibelius 5 to get Sibelius 7. 5 is pretty much obsolete now. I would be surprised to see it in museums.!

Five is not obsolete yet. Most of the improvements in Six and Seven have been to add bigger sound libraries and other relatively minor tweaks in the grand scheme of things. Five introduced new features that were actually new, such as panorama view and the Ideas Library. and for that reason it's still useful as notation software. Most universities and colleges that have it will continue to use Five until they see fit to spend money on an update.

I wholeheartedly agree with Nikolas on the problems caused by having such large sound libraries. It seems this is symptomatic of 'function creep'; whereby a feature (score playback) that was a nice bonus on the earliest versions now seems to have taken over as the primary attraction of the program. I suppose if you're a beginner who really wants to hear what you've written as something close to a live performance (still a long way off though) it's a selling point. For composers who write music to be performed live, though, it's a nuisance, and by slowing down the machine is actually counter-productive to efficient work.

Most of the improvements in Six and Seven have been to add bigger sound libraries and other relatively minor tweaks in the grand scheme of things.

Magnetic Layout was a *minor* tweak to you?!

It seems there is little improvement in the sound quality. I use Garritan though which while not great, is better than the stock sounds. The triplet drawing tool seems useful. Im not sure if I will upgrade or not yet.

Magnetic Layout was a *minor* tweak to you?!

Well, previous versions had a form of snapping objects to notes, albeit a little more primitive, so it's not exactly a quantum leap. To be honest it is getting to the stage where the program has so many features already the only improvements possible are in the sounds department.

I'm sorry guys but I just got Sib 7 and I hate it.

They messed up a decent piece of UI just to get the new and trendy "Task Oriented" ribbon bars.

I only had it for a day so please correct me if I'm wrong. I really hope that perhaps there's sth wrong with my version ;)

- Alt + key no longer lets you navigate the menus. I mean that really sounds like something's wrong. For example Alt+F opens the File menu in every decent application on Earth and generally Alt+key speeds up your work incredibly by letting you navigate using keyboard only.

- Full screen is no longer full screen. Ctrl-U in Sib 6 would hide the status bar, the windows title bar and the menu bar and show the actual notation but it's no longer the case in Sib 7. In Sib 7 you're still left with 4 layers of bars (the useless save, undo redo toolbar, the File, Home, Note Input, etc menu bar, the Full Score, tab menu, the status bar)

Anyway so far I really dislike Sib 7 as it just slowed me down. If I want high quality audio I'll use Logic or Cubase. I want Sibelius to let me write a score quickly, not slow me down by introducing a whole new navigation UI and confusing me.

I'm sorry guys but I just got Sib 7 and I hate it.

They messed up a decent piece of UI just to get the new and trendy "Task Oriented" ribbon bars.

I only had it for a day so please correct me if I'm wrong. I really hope that perhaps there's sth wrong with my version ;)

- Alt + key no longer lets you navigate the menus. I mean that really sounds like something's wrong. For example Alt+F opens the File menu in every decent application on Earth and generally Alt+key speeds up your work incredibly by letting you navigate using keyboard only.

- Full screen is no longer full screen. Ctrl-U in Sib 6 would hide the status bar, the windows title bar and the menu bar and show the actual notation but it's no longer the case in Sib 7. In Sib 7 you're still left with 4 layers of bars (the useless save, undo redo toolbar, the File, Home, Note Input, etc menu bar, the Full Score, tab menu, the status bar)

Anyway so far I really dislike Sib 7 as it just slowed me down. If I want high quality audio I'll use Logic or Cubase. I want Sibelius to let me write a score quickly, not slow me down by introducing a whole new navigation UI and confusing me.

You'll get used to it.

Alt + anything doesn't apply anymore because Menus don't exist. So don't expect those shortcuts to work. Granted, the full screen issue is kinda lame. But you shouldn't need to use it consistently unless your monitor is 10" diagonal. So... yeah.

You'll get used to it.

Alt + anything doesn't apply anymore because Menus don't exist. So don't expect those shortcuts to work. Granted, the full screen issue is kinda lame. But you shouldn't need to use it consistently unless your monitor is 10" diagonal. So... yeah.

Yes, getting used to it is one thing, Making a good and efficient piece of UI a piece of crap (pardon my French ;) ) is another thing.

Keyboard is faster than mouse and Sib 6 gives you a whole range of useful Alt+key functions that virtually let you forget about the mouse (or track-pad if you're using a laptop)

An example that annoyed me recently amd actually triggerred this angry post? :)

I wanted to add/remove staves. In Sib6 you press "I" that opens the instrument window.

Then Alt+key lets you toggle between lists of instruments on the left and on the right, add and remove them without the need of using mouse.

Just press Alt and the key letters in the labels become highlighted so you know momentarily which keyboard shortcuts to use for what

Two seconds and you've got your staves just the way you want them.

It's no longer possible in Sibelius 7, which means that what I would find a huge efficiency gain in Sib 6 was removed and replaced by a flashy UI.

Sibelius 7, Fail.

An example that annoyed me recently amd actually triggerred this angry post? :)

I wanted to add/remove staves. In Sib6 you press "I" that opens the instrument window.

Then Alt+key lets you toggle between lists of instruments on the left and on the right, add and remove them without the need of using mouse.

Just press Alt and the key letters in the labels become highlighted so you know momentarily which keyboard shortcuts to use for what

...

Type the name of the instrument you want in the find instrument field. Then hit enter. You have your instrument. Its no faster using Alt anything. Use your Tab key to go between fields, like any other application on earth.

BTW, you can use Alt shortcuts to navigate around the ribbon if you really want to as well. Try it. You might find it to be slightly familiar.

...

Type the name of the instrument you want in the find instrument field. Then hit enter. You have your instrument. Its no faster using Alt anything. Use your Tab key to go between fields, like any other application on earth.

BTW, you can use Alt shortcuts to navigate around the ribbon if you really want to as well. Try it. You might find it to be slightly familiar.

Heh, yes I checked out the new semi-Alt+key navigation after browsing some Sibelius forums where users would post similar angry "No Alt+key functionality" threads.

Yes, the new functionality is similar to the previous one. I could go into "still, it's a few keystrokes more than previously" kind of conversation but I'll pass here.

Complaints were voiced by more people than just me and Sibelius guys are aware of it so I take it as a good omen for future :)