Sibelius

Sibelius is a software program for writing, playing, printing and publishing music notation. Users can experience their scores in clarity with the exclusive, professional quality sound library.
Sibelius is a music notation software, trusted by top composers, publishers and students alike. Inserting rests into your score is now easier and more intuitive. Whenever you add one, Magnetic Layout automatically repositions the rest to align optimally with the phrasing of preceding notesno manual fixes required. Create easy-to-read scores faster than ever. Plus, you can now move rests and notes horizontally in your score. It's now possible to have the same pitched note display a different accidental in any part compared to the rest of the score. You can also create concise first, second and third time bars that appear and play back exactly like you'd expect them to, eliminating manual correction. Plus, all time signature changes now appear after the barline but before repeat barlines by default.

Key Features:

• Get All Access with Sibelius: With the latest version of Sibelius, creating beautiful, accurate, easy-to-read scores is more effortless than ever.
  
• Share your music more easily: You now have the option of exporting your score as an MP3 audio file, making it faster and easier to send your music through email or over Skype, or even posting it across all of your social network channels.
  
• Give it a rest: Inserting rests into your music just got a whole lot easier.
  
• Get perfect repeated endings: If you've ever written music with first, second and third time bars, you may have spent some time fixing lines that Sibelius created a bit too long.
  
• Repeat barlines appear before time signatures: Where start repeat barlines and time signatures coincide, Sibelius now correctly places the time signature before the repeat barline.

Sibelius - Features

Sibelius is complete software for writing, playing, printing and publishing music notation.

New features in version 4 include:

Look & feel

• hide all tool windows
• adjust tool window translucency
• more accurate text width on screen (Windows option)
• new screen smoothing options
• new shortcuts for changing bar rest or notehead type
• new shortcuts for laptops without keypads
• school feature set now lets you disable obscure text styles, plug-ins, etc.
• dashed slurs draw faster
• undo moves to edit position
• button to switch between score & part

Plug-ins

• Chord Symbols as Fractions (writes bass note below a line)
• Show Handbells Required (compiles handbells used chart)
• Add Accidentals to All Sharp and Flat Notes
• Strummer (plays guitar strumming)
• 12-tone Matrix (calculates all transpositions/retrogrades/inversions)
• Duplicates in Staves
• What Is Where (lists all objects in score)
• Check Attachments
• Add Note Names now supports French, Spanish and German
• Add Cautionary Accidentals improved
• Find & Replace Text now works with lyrics & system text
• many new ManuScript functions

Playback & MIDI

• Kontakt pre-loads sounds, so no delay when you start playback
• new staff types to play Kontakt Gold extended percussion
• plays ties between different voices
• turn page early, for sight-reading from screen (option)
• multi-channel MIDI guitar support
• omits spurious MIDI guitar notes
• set tightness/looseness of MIDI guitar chord input
• tempo slider in Scorch (Mac)
• improved Playback and Input Devices dialog

Video

• supports AVI, MPEG, WMV (Windows), MOV formats
• show hit point name, timecode and/or bar/beat
• show timecode at start of system or every bar
• specify positioning of timecode & hit points horizontal
• set video start time in score
• SMPTE offset imported from MIDI files
• imports MIDI markers as hit points

Engraving

• lyric hyphen centering improved
• new text styles
• fixed text size even on small staves (option)
• fingerings on chord diagrams
• slurs/ties don't flip at page breaks
• move articulations on rests up/down
• allow notes & systems to compress to fit more music on a system/page
• flip fractional beam left/right
• tremolo positioning improved
• repeat barline spacing improved
• pick-up (upbeat) bars show written-out rests automatically
• extra bar number position options
• new page sizes (9.5 x 12.5, 10 x 13)

Files

• opens & exports Sibelius 2, 3 & Sibelius Student files (also opens Sibelius 1.x files)
• new File>Export menu listing each file type separately
• export any rectangle of music as graphics file
• auto-save & auto-backup improved
• automatically include date, time etc. in extracted part filenames
• tuplets import better from MIDI files
• import MIDI file tempos up to 4 decimal places
• MIDI files open faster (Mac)
• improved EPS export with Illustrator & Inkpen2 Script
• move word menus between computers as files

Installing & upgrading

• drag-and-drop install (Mac)
• updates old scores with new options
• checks for future software updates
• separate settings for each network user
• non-admin users can't register (to prevent student misuse)

Other improvements

• new & improved instruments, from Fife to Balalaika family
• write remote keys enharmonically in transposing instruments (option)
• wildcards to include title, page number, date, etc. in text
• print 2-up
• printing spreads improved
• reorder words in word menus
• improved Quick Start dialog
• many bugs fixed

Features include:

• Navigator: click the Navigator to look through the score quickly or drag the paper itself
• Keypad: choose notes, accidentals and other markings using the mouse or numeric keys
• Starting a Score: start a score from scratch by specifying instruments, page size, title and tempo. The score is set up including instruments, clefs, transpositions and layout
• MIDI Input: play with both hands to enable Sibelius to follow at the same speed. Listen to music written whilst playing music on top. Use Step-time to play pitches from a MIDI keyboard with one hand and choose rhythms and articulations from the keypad with the other
• Mouse and Keystrokes: pick note-values and accidentals from the keypad using the mouse and click to place them in the score. Use the computer keyboard to specify pitch using the letters A to G and rhythms from the keypad using the numeric keys. Markings such as clefs, slurs and time signatures are available from menus and are placed correctly
• Scanning: PhotoScore Lite scans printed music for editing or transposing, playing back, extracting parts and printing in Sibelius. PhotoScore Professional is available separately and includes additional features for reading slurs, articulations, hairpins and text
• File Conversion: open Finale, SCORE, Allegro, PrintMusic, MIDI and NIFF files to transfer existing music to Sibelius
• Sketch and Refine: sketch a solo piece and add an orchestra to create a concerto. Write in sounding pitch and make a transposing score in one click. Add bars at the start of a score to enable Sibelius to reformat the pages. Undo up to 10,000 operations retaining a backup of forty previous versions
• Text and Lyrics: Sibelius adds dynamics, titles and lyrics in the appropriate font, size and position. Text styles can be edited throughout the score. Input lyrics by typing; Sibelius positions the words under the notes, adds hyphens and lyric lines and allows extra room for long syllables. It is possible to copy lyrics from a word processor
• Arrange: select music and specify how it is to be arranged or orchestrated. Sibelius uses appropriate instruments and doublings, etc and can handle keyboard reductions, exploding chords onto separate staves, band styles using high brass and pitched percussion, choir stykles with the tenor doubling the soprano an octave below, jazz and impressionist orchestration with harp and strings
• Focus on Staves: write large scores by viewing the current staves
• Copying and Transposing: make multiple copies simultaneously to put the same dynamics onto every instrument and transpose music into any key including for transposing instruments. Write music in sounding or written pitch and switch between them
• Highlighter Pen: marks rhythms that do not add up or notes that are too high or low to play, making adjustments for players of different abilities
• Playing Back a Score: click the play button to hear music including trills, repeats, crescdo and diminuendo, hairpins, octaves, glissandi, percussion and drum sets, guitar tab and quarter-tones
• Mixer: adjust sounds, volume and pan position
• Kontakt Player and Creating CDs: Kontakt Player Silver from Native Instruments provides high-quality playback of nineteen pitched sounds and one hundred unpitched percussion sounds. Kontakt Player Gold can be purchased separately and includes sixty four pitched soundsand one hundred and ten unpitched percussion sounds. Create CDs and MP3 files using the Kontakt Player sounds
• Live Playback and Mixer: fine-tune playback in real time using the Mixer and use the Live Playback feature to tweak the nuances of the original performance
• Espressivo and Rubato: espressivo makes subtle adjustments to the dynamics to produce musical phrasing and Rubato varies the tempo
• Rhythmic Feel, SoundStage and Reverberation: rhythmic feel styles make subtle enhancements to the rhythm. The SoundStage feature positions the sounds correctly in 3D space as if the instruments were on a concert stage. Reverberation characteristics replicate natural acoustics
• Repeats: support for da segno, da capo, coda, segno and fine and complex repeat structures with up to eight repetitions. Make Sibelius jump between arbitrary points in the score during playback to skip guitar fill boxes or simulate aleatory performances etc. Apply individual notes or dynamics etc to specific verses or repeats with timecode timings for each repeat
• Page Layout: automatic spacing and formatting using the optical spacing algorithm
• House Styles: applies subtle music engraving rules to optimise the appearance of the score. Adjust the rules and design custom styles, saving them to disk for importing into other scores
• Controlling Layout: move staves, specify page and system breaks, lock the format of pages, alter note spacings and squash or spread whole passages of music
• Part Extraction: extract instrumental parts in less than one second each, transposing where necessary, inserting cues and adding page turns
• Plug-ins: check for mistakes (parallel 5ths and octaves), add brass and string fingering, create sets of scales and arpeggios, halve or double note values, add chord symbols above chords, realise figured bass and chord symbols, generate drum patterns and highlight all occurrences of a motive. ManuScript programming language enables the writing of custom plug-ins
• Properties: view and edit advanced information about score markings including numerical positions, notehead shapes and text sizes. Information is provided in panels that can be opened and closed to reduce screen clutter
• Rulers: show individual position measurements for each marking and staff
• Find and Filters: search for notes, text and other markings. Use filters to find and edit an unlimited number of occurrences simultaneously
• Timecode and Score Duration: calculate the time position (timecode) of every bar and the total duration of the score to high precision. Timecode is written above barlines and shown as a digital clock during playback, taking into account tempo marks, irregular bars and ritenuti and accelerani. Display formats include seconds, one hundredths of a second and various frame rates. This feature does not display or synchronise to incoming SMPTE or MTC
• Graphics and Color: import colour and black and white graphics for adding pictures, logos, photographs, cover pages and special notations to music. Graphic libraries are included. Export music from Sibelius to graphics, desktop publishing and word processor programs in a variety of standard file formats including EPS and TIFF
• Difficult Notations: including collisions between voices (layers), multi-arc slurs with an unlimited number of arcs, beams over rests and across barlines, cross-staff beams between three staves, text and wavy lines at any angle such as glissandi and ossias
• Music Fonts and Symbols: the standard Sibelius music font Opus produces a high-quality engraved appearance including alternative noteheads conforming to the US Music Publishers Association design standards. The Inkpen2 font simulates handwritten music and text. Fonts include more than four hundred and fifty music symbols including special noteheads, percussion markings, ornaments and avant garde notations and Sibelius is compatible with Petrucci, Jazz, Susato, Sonata, Tamburo and Ghent etc. Design custom symbols using any combination of characters from any mixture of fonts
• Scorch: Web site visitors can download the free Scorch plug-in to browse scores online and music can be saved from a site to disk
• SibeliusMusic.com: use this site to publicizse and sell music worldwide
• Sibelius Internet Edition: for commercial Internet publishing. The standard Sibelius program is not licensed for commercial Internet use
• Avant Garde Notation: handles modern notations such as quarter tones that play and transpose, complex tuplets with multiple nesting, feathered beams, coloured markings, extreme note values, music in multiple keys and special note designs. Import graphics for invented notations and graphic scores
• Guitar Tab and Chord Diagrams: input tab using MIDI, mouse or keystrokes or convert notation to tab or tab to notation. Support is provided for markings such as bends, slides, hammer-on and vibrato bar. Write tab for any fretted instrument (mandolin, banjo, lute, Dobro etc) in any tuning. Obtain a chord diagram by naming the the chord and selcting the frame from the choice provided. Sibelius calculates all possible positions for any standard chord and produces chord diagrams for any fretted instrument in any tuning
• Jazz, Commercial and Rock Music: chord symbols, drum sets, slashes and other popular notations are included
• Early Music: notate ossias, figured bass, numerous ornaments, incipits, all C-clefs, special barlines such as Mensurstrich, stemless notes and longs. Writes and play back lute tablature
• Internet Studying: publish coursework to an educational Wb site for students to view, play, print and save to disk. Obtain worksheets, exercises and pieces from other educators from SibeliusMusic.com. A special button provides free time-limited access to grovemusic.com
• Arranging and Transposing: create arrangements and keyboard reductions
• Playback: use Sibelius to play aural tests and accompaniments and create CDs and MP3 files
• Colour and Graphics: notes that are out of the range of an instrument are shown in red; adjust instrument ranges for players of different abilities. Music can be hidden enabling students to fill in an exercise on computer to reveal the answer
• School Features: switch off the advanced features leaving main features required for coursework
• Sibelius Notes: an educational resource pack that contains ready-to-use exercises, worksheets and resources, ten copies of a step-by-step manual of Sibelius features and a CD-ROM of Sibelius files.

Sibelius - System Requirements

Sibelius 3

Macintosh:

• Mac OS 9.1, 9.2, 10.1.5 or later
• iMac G3, G4 or G5 processor
• 128 MB RAM (OS 9) or 192 MB RAM (OS X)
• 70 MB available hard disk space
• Scanning requires a TWAIN-compatible scanner and may need additional RAM.

Microsoft Windows:

• Microsoft Windows 98, Me, NT4, 2000 or XP
• Pentium processor or faster
• 64 MB RAM (128 MB for 2000 or XP)
• 70 MB available hard disk space
• Scanning may require additional RAM.

PhotoScore Lite and Professional 3:

Mac:

• Power Mac G3, G4 or G5
• OS 9.1, 9.2 or 10.1.5 or later,
• 128 MB RAM (OS 9) or 192 MB RAM (OS X)
• 70 MB available hard disk space
• Scanning requires a TWAIN-compatible scanner and may need more RAM.

Microsoft Windows:

• Microsoft Windows 98, Me, NT4, 2000 or XP
• Pentium processor or faster
• 64 MB RAM (128 MB for 2000 and XP)
• 70 MB available hard disk space
• Scanning may need more RAM.

Kontakt Player Silver and Save as Audio Track Mac:

• Mac OS 9.1, 9.2 or 10.2 or later (not 10.1.5)
• G3 with 500 MHz or faster processor (G4 or G5 recommended)
• 128 MB RAM (OS 9) or 256 MB RAM (OS X)
• 250 MB available hard disk space in addition to Sibelius 3.

Microsoft Windows:

• Microsoft Windows 98, Me, 2000 or XP (not NT4)
• Pentium III or faster processor ( 700 MHz processor or faster recommended)
• 128 MB RAM (196 MB for 2000 and XP) (256 MB recommended)
• 250 MB available hard disk space
• Sound card (not a sound chip on the motherboard).

Kontakt Player Gold:

Mac:

Power Mac G4 or G5 (G5 with 1 GHz processor recommended) 256 MB RAM (768 MB RAM or 7200 rpm hard disk recommended)

750 MB available hard disk space in addition to Sibelius 3.

Microsoft Windows:

• Microsoft Windows 98, Me, 2000 or XP (not NT4) (2000 or XP recommended)
• 700 MHz processor or faster (Pentium 4 or Athlon XP recommended)
• 256 MB RAM (512 MB RAM or 7200 rpm hard disk recommended)
• Sound card (not a sound chip on the motherboard)
• ASIO driver support recommended
• Separate graphics card recommended.