Finale or Sibelius

Check out LilyPond's essay about computer engraving ;-)

just an added note: that "essay" is actually the laughing stock of professional music engravers.

I wouldn't put that much weight on what the good people at Lilypond have to say about engraving.

I use siblius all the time, its great for knocking up a quick sketch of a composistion, my only negative about it is the flexitime recoding, which 99% of the time messes up on me

sibelius much easier and practicall

I've found that Sibelius has always been much easier and much more intuitive to use than Finale. With each successive version, it only gets easier to use. I currently use Sibelius 3, and I've been playing around with the Finale demo and it just doesn't compare in terms of usability.

I'd personally say get Sibelius 4, since it's much better and, despite what chopin up there says, it's more than capable of outputting scores that are as good as, or even better in some cases, than actual engraved prints.

LilyPond is good if you don't have the cash to spend on Sibelius or Finale, although it's a pain in the jacksie to use if you aren't used to scripting things.

When I'm composing I use a combination of a program called Harmony Assistant and Sibelius. HA is fantastic for choral writing, not least because it will actually sing your music to you.

I find Finale to be much easier to use than Sibelius.

So I may purchase Finale 2006 or 2007 when it comes out.

I've found that Sibelius has always been much easier and much more intuitive to use than Finale. With each successive version, it only gets easier to use. I currently use Sibelius 3, and I've been playing around with the Finale demo and it just doesn't compare in terms of usability.

I'd personally say get Sibelius 4, since it's much better and, despite what chopin up there says, it's more than capable of outputting scores that are as good as, or even better in some cases, than actual engraved prints.

LilyPond is good if you don't have the cash to spend on Sibelius or Finale, although it's a pain in the jacksie to use if you aren't used to scripting things.

When I'm composing I use a combination of a program called Harmony Assistant and Sibelius. HA is fantastic for choral writing, not least because it will actually sing your music to you.

Having spent a great deal of time teaching both Finale and Sibelius, I can confidently say that both Finale and Sibelius can be either easy or difficult to learn, and new users are not on the whole more likely to find Sibelius easier to pick up than Finale. Learning to use either program efficiently depends entirely on how the user goes about the process. If you're learning Sibelius, read the manual - all of it. I was faster after a week with Sibelius than many people are after years. There's a lot of functionality there that you will never realize exists if you don't read the manual. If you're learning Finale, go through the Entry Exercise.ftm tutorial file and then through the tutorial book. I've never met anyone who actually knows how to use Finale that still says Sibelius is faster.

My experience has been that Finale is a little daunting the first "day" or so, but after you begin to understand it's "language," Finale is really fast and logical.

I was just asked by a friend to give him a lesson in Finale basics - he'd just bought it and was finding getting started a bit daunting. Once I gave him a one-hour introductory lesson, he was delighted to see how much sense the interface made, and he picked it up with lightning speed. The next day sent me a score he'd processed with it, and it was every bit as good as anything I do now with 5 years' experience under my belt.

Buy Pro Logic!

is the most "complete" music program ever, i think.

But if you should coose between those, then I'd say Sibelius

Hay guys guess what. I couldn't figure out which one I wanted to get... so I got them both.

Amen, J.Lee.... Amen.

Hay guys guess what. I couldn't figure out which one I wanted to get... so I got them both.

:w00t: i have both too!

Hay guys guess what. I couldn't figure out which one I wanted to get... so I got them both.

The best thing to do when you don't know which one to choose, buy both :w00t: ´

I used both. I was a Finale person until I received the Sibelius software. If you understand the shortcut keys on Sibelius, it'll make life so much easier. I think both are equally good but now I'm use to Sibelius and Sibelius provide more assistance, eg. there's a package for different instruments with explanation of each instruments and samples of their sounds. Those will be rather useful when composing an orchestral music. You can try to download the demo versions of both of them and have a play with them and see which one you prefer.