Logic vs Sibelius vs Finale
I have spent the weekend checking out the demos of the latest versions of finale and sibelius, because i am getting a little tired of some of the bugs and limitations of logic score, and am considering buying a dedicated notating programme particularly for my concert works. (NB i have used these programs a long time in the past so i am interested in their current features)
here are some of my conclusions.
finale is by far the most intuitive, i found that i was able to organize the score and do most of the things i wanted too much faster than sibelius, and could find them more easily without help.
sibelius however has a couple of killer features that make it a shoe-in if it was ever going to replace logic as my notating prgramme of choice.
- dynamic parts: this allows you to display layouting for parts independent of the score
- intelligent part layouting, which automatically insert multi-rests and ensure there are rests at page turns - probably the most invaluable feature.
HOWEVER....
none of them compare to logic for ease of editing, speed at which you can make the score look just about right, and this is not just because i know it better. sibelius, for example, suggests making a completely different file for a section of the piece that needs a much larger forces, thus smaller staves. logic, it is as easy as creating and setting score styles. like finale, most editors can be opened by double-clicking the relevant object. in the end, for the time it takes to learn the programme and the extra time it takes to work with it, as well as the cost out-lay, it is hard to justify buying sibelius for the times it can do things logic can't.
or is it?.....let the discussion begin.
here are some of my conclusions.
finale is by far the most intuitive, i found that i was able to organize the score and do most of the things i wanted too much faster than sibelius, and could find them more easily without help.
sibelius however has a couple of killer features that make it a shoe-in if it was ever going to replace logic as my notating prgramme of choice.
- dynamic parts: this allows you to display layouting for parts independent of the score
- intelligent part layouting, which automatically insert multi-rests and ensure there are rests at page turns - probably the most invaluable feature.
HOWEVER....
none of them compare to logic for ease of editing, speed at which you can make the score look just about right, and this is not just because i know it better. sibelius, for example, suggests making a completely different file for a section of the piece that needs a much larger forces, thus smaller staves. logic, it is as easy as creating and setting score styles. like finale, most editors can be opened by double-clicking the relevant object. in the end, for the time it takes to learn the programme and the extra time it takes to work with it, as well as the cost out-lay, it is hard to justify buying sibelius for the times it can do things logic can't.
or is it?.....let the discussion begin.
