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" . . . my scores are not exactly 'clean' for offering to others to play . . ."

What??? You're giving people dirty scores to play on Nikolas??? For shame!

What is Cubase? I haven't hear of that one.

Yes, I have noticed players breathing a sigh of relief when I don't hand them manuscripts to decipher. I've heard such complaints as, "Sanskrit . . . how quaint!"

lol on all accounts!

Cubase is a 'sequencer'. Google will reveal more. Not based on score, but on something called 'midi roll'. In any case it helps you make 'great' recordings.

I'll admit something: While copying manuscripts on Finale, I always play some music. It's the ONLY time I can listen to some music, so it's very healthy for me!

Ah . . . I have an old Alesis midi sequencer, which I've used a lot over the years. That and my old Korg DSS-1 sampling synthesiser have logged many hours.

I have to play loud, irritating music when entering anything on my computer, otherwise furry critters jump up on my lap and interject themselves in front of the screen. In their minds I'm not doing anything important . . .

Can Sibelius do dynamics? I wish it could do that kind of stuff, but does it?

From what I've seen of both Finale and Sibelius, they both have control over dynamics. You'd have to ask someone with more experience, but I'm pretty sure you can input dynamics directly by playing parts on a midi-keyboard, or else by inputting performance information dirctly into the score.

"Do dynamics".

both Sibelius and Finale are notation programs, firstmost. This means that, OF COURSE they can show dynamics on the score.

Now that the recent versions can also work with VSTs (Virtual Instruments), they can also express these dynamics in sound.

And of course if you are recording something with a midi keyboard, they will respond and capture it.

Hope this helps.

I only create lead sheets or simple piano parts for jazz, and I choose Finale Songwriter, which only costs around $50.00 The cheapest version of Sibelius was about $130, as I recall. It was a cost based decision for me. I can't say Finale has been a piece of cake to learn, but I'm pretty comfortable with it now and can turn out pretty good lead sheets. I just don't need all the features of the more expensive programs.

Does anybody know how to put a whole note and a tremolo in the same hand in the same measure?

For example you are doing a tremolo with the notes G and E with your right hand and at the same time in your right hand, you are holding down a C. Does anybody know how to do this in Sibelius?

I answered this in the other forum, but just to make sure:

Create the tremolo as usual, then add the C in another voice.

if you are purely interested in the paper product coming out of your printer or the pdf's being generated when you're done - then you have to get sibelius.
finale is a sloppy program and it makes many engraving errors by default - many of which are very difficult to fix. sibelius still makes errors (which drive me NUTS) but they are fewer than in finale.
if you care about the playback sound - i'm not really sure what to tell you.

a friend of mine is a composition student (ph. d candidate) and i asked her for similar advice when i was looking at software and she told me that if i wanted to be taken seriously at the post-secondary level i had to get sibelius.

pilgrim: I wholeheartily dissagree with the gist of your post.

First of, myself, a composer, would say that if you want to be taken seriously you need to stop giving advice like that (in such an absolute way, with no examples to showcase what you're saying)! And I happen to hold a PhD in composition. So there, a counter advice from your female friend, doing composition.

Point is this: Both programs are almost equally good. It used to be that Finale was better at playback, but I doubt this is the case now. On Sibelius, as far as I'm aware is better at creating sparse scores, with 'bed sheets' as they are called, in contemporary scores. With Finale it's easier to go in different tunnings (again, it USED to be this way).

I happen to know many composers who use Finale and less so who use Sibelius! BUT what is more interesting is that the composers who use Finale are mainly from the US, whereas those using sibelius are from the Uk and Europe. And this is the core issue in choosing software, whether this is a sequencer, sounds, samples, computers, notation, or whatever else: The people you will work with. If your tutors have Sibelius, get Sibelius. If the studios around you ALL use Pro Tools, get PT! My partner in North By Sound got Cubase, not because it is better, but because I used it for so many years.

I will repeat, both are equally good, and as far as I'm aware there are trial versions for both software. Get down, work a score, try to copy a complicated score, time yourself, or see what feels better. Personally I could never get my head around Sibelius, but I hardly think it's the software's fault! But now, due to circumstances I will probably need to buy Sibelius, alongside Finale. This is life I guess...

I wish they had the option where you can copy and paste an Idea into the score, transposing it relative to the chord progression you're working on, rather than transposing it relative to the key signature. It would make things a whole lot easier.

Let's say the key is Bb, and I paste an idea somewhere into my score, it transposes it to suit Bb. But if I am imputing notes that work well with for example, a C minor chord, it doesn't transpose the notes to suit C minor. It only transposes them relative to the key signature.















I am not sure if using the Idea's feature would work or not. Even if I did have the option, many of the ideas I would paste in my score would probably not work well with the piece I am doing, since every passage in a piece of music has to have some kind of relevancy to what was placed before and after it, and you can't just place any old idea into the score, even if the idea sounds good in exclusion from the piece.

This isn't really the right question! Both these programs are primarily score publishers - tools for preparing music for top-quality printed output, including deriving instrumental parts from a full score. The playback facilities are incidental. Both come with very similar (if not identical) bundled sound sets. Both can access a wide range of additional sounds, if you choose to buy them. For instance an orchestral composer will maybe buy "Garritan Philharmonic Orchestra", a jazz writer will add "Jazz and Big Band". And those are only the entry-level sound sets - you can pay MUCH more for more comprehensive or specialist sets.

But if your priority is fine control over the nuances of playback your best tool is a sequencer such as Cubase. Finale and Sibelius are obsessed with controlling playback from traditional notation. There are much easier (and better) ways available in a sequencer.