Sibelius vs Finale Sound Comparison

I do feel compelled to mention this subject here on the 'Tube' as we have to give enquiring minds a fair overview of Sibelius' capablilities.

Sibelius's audio output capabilities has been slandered on Finale's website: http://www.finalemusic.com/Finale/compareperformances.aspx

I just want to say to anybody who wants to purchase a music notation software that both Sibelius or Finale can produce good audio output. It greatly depends on the sound library used.

On Finale's website, Sibelius Sounds was NOT compared with Finale Sounds 'SmartMusic SoftSynth' but with a better vst. Sibelius' sounds are far superior to Finale's sounds.

So, it is NOT the notation software, but the Sound Library used that can produce reallistic sounds in audio files. Sibelius does actually have a 'human playback' feature. 'Live Tempo' together with 'Live Playback' and the 'Dictionary' can actually produce much more reallistic 'feel' than Finale's human playback. Still, both software are good for it.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• EDIROL
• Orchestral+Sibelius+Hans
• Nel+Finale+MakeMusic

[communityband1]

@Raindarsus One can be as serious about their work as they like and yet still be forced to live within their financial means. :-) If the included sounds of a particular notation program are better than one of its similarly priced competitors, that advantage is what it is, regardless of what improvements are available with additional money.

In any case, I know it to be true that many people are swayed to the purchase of one notation program over another based on out-of-the-box playback.

[Raindarsus]

@communityband1 Frankly any one that is serious about his work, will nearly never use the default libraries given with a software. For example I have over 2 terrabytes of libraries at the moment (part of my libraries are out due to the system hosting them being under repair) I can bet that anything I have right now would blow either libraries given with the softwares. It's not the sound of the softwares but how well it reproduces the notation that counts.

[risingsorrow]

i thought there was something strange on finale s website,anyway i ve been a sibelius user for a long time,i m not really enthusistic about the latest release and the new interface,it s always less messy than finale s anyway.concerning the sounds,the ones u hear in the demos around the internet aren t bad for both softwares,but people must keep in mind that sounds closer as possible to real performance are achieved with 3rd party libraries,sibelius 35 gb library let me down a little

[communityband1]

The library used for the Finale comparison was Finale GPO - which IS Finale's sound library. The fact that they bought the sounds from another source is irrelevant - Sibelius did the same thing with their sounds. The comparison is fair, because it shows the sounds included with Finale vs. those included with Sibelius.

Secondly, Sibelius music interpretation capabilities are not nearly as sophisticated as Human Playback. If you disagree, try talking to Robert Piechaud about it.