Barbara, I have used Encore and Sibelius. There are advantages to both. Encore has a feature that allows you to play along with what you have just written to rehearse it by just hitting the space bar. Then gives you the option to immediately record it in notation. Sibelius will not do this easily.

Sibelius prints a much better looking score and the lyrics program is excellent. It is also
user friendly and takes less steps than does Finale to accomplish notation. Sib makes a professional looking lead sheet as well. I miss the Encore feature I described and wish that Sib would incorporate it.

Sib also has a nice little mixer and it's tempo control is easy to use. The only problem with this that I have noticed is that when going into cut time, there is a limit on how fast the notation can be played back. You have to compensate by using a regular 4/4 time signature or use 2/4.

Sib also lets you size your notation. The larger the size of the notes, of course, the more pages you will have to use. I think it's easier to read than Encore.

Both programs really work much better with MIDI than typing keyboards. MIDI makes them faster. Using the number keypad on the keyboard makes the process even faster in producing a score.

Sib will export MIDI data including lyrics to some of the major sequencing programs such as Logic or ProTools. It is easy to make a MIDI file with Sib as well.

Frank Hamilton