Sibelius 4 Professional Edition Description:

Sibelius 4 Professional Edition review:
4 stars (Comparison with Finale) - I'm a Finale user who was tempted by Sibelius's competitive upgrade offer. After playing around with Sibelius 4 versus Finale 2006, I can offer some observations. As an initial one, both programs are excellent and neither has serious flaws.



(1) Sibelius is simpler to learn and to use, and is probably a quicker tool for inputting scores. Its default settings print out a prettier score than Finale and are generally "correct." Both programs can produce beautiful scores.



(2) Finale ultimately seems to offer more power and control, or at least in Finale it is easier to figure out how to override default settings. The flip side of this is that it seems to take longer in Finale to set up a final polished score.



(3) It is harder to compose directly at the computer using Sibelius than Finale, because Sibelius locks in notes in a way Finale doesn't. It is easier to move notes around in Finale than in Sibelius -- e.g., if you want to find out how a line would sound if it came in an eighth-note later, this is easy in Finale but hard in Sibelius.



(4) Sibelius is packed with music-ed tools that would probably be great for students and teachers but aren't of value to professional musicians.



(5) Both programs include play-back features, but neither can compare with even a basic dedicated sequencer program.



(6) On balance, I would lean to Sibelius for generating printed scores, while Finale (once learned) is a better composing tool.