The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #132247   Message #2990740
Posted By: JohnInKansas
21-Sep-10 - 06:41 AM
Thread Name: Tech: Sibelius vs Finale
Subject: RE: Tech: Sibelius vs Finale
It's not clear (to me) whether the original question asks specifically about the product Finale, published by the company named Make Music, vs the product Sibelius, published by Sibelius, or if other products with similar or other names by the same (and/or other) publishers are of interest.

If only the "flagship" products, Finale and Sibelius, are intended, I've found little difference between the two although I haven't used either to any extent.

Both are fully capable of creating "engraver quality" scores of any complexity desired.

Both are incredibly complex with steep learning curves if other than simple scores are needed (and in some respects are a bit "cumbersome" for simple scores).

Both are "reasonably(?) priced" if you qualify for their "student discounts" but are "punitively priced" if you don't.

Both companies (and also gVox) offer "lesser products" that are of varying capabilities and complexity. Print Music is a "lesser product" that I find "clumsy" to use, but LiK likes it and uses it some. I generally use MusicTime Deluxe from gVox (flagship program Encore), but only because it's the only thing available that imports my old scores made in a cheaper (and IMO better) program that gVox bought and destroyed. (MusicTime, in the version I have, is "unstable" in Vista and frequently crashes, among other problems. Newer versions might not have that problem.(?))

If the full features of the Sibelius or Finale programs (full flagships) are not needed, one of the simpler and cheaper programs would likely be more suitable; but a knowledgeable choice from the many lesser programs can only be made in the context of the specific capabilities needed and with fairly specific knowledge of what features are not necessary for a user's intended purposes. Giving too much credibility to the opinions of others who may have even "trivially different" needs and uses can be dangerous.

For the flagship programs, trial versions should be available by download or in some cases on CD from larger music stores. The CD trial version of Sibelius that I have curiously (I might say "stupidly") disables the Help files, but selecting a command on the toolbar and "F1" opens the help for that command and you can navigate to other info if you leave it open. It's a rather old version.)

John