Klarinet Archive - Posting 000306.txt from 2001/01

From: "Karl Krelove" <karlkrelove@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Music Programs for PC??
Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2001 20:20:25 -0500

I second Dee's advice - regardless of which program, Finale or Sibelius,
wins more votes in a discussion like this, both may be more program than you
need and commensurately more expensive than necessary for your situation.
Finale has several "step-down" levels that handle the more general tasks
without the complex and very detailed control capabilities that the top
programs provide. I don't think Sibelius has put out a light version yet. A
number of other relatively less expensive programs have been suggested.

If you need the power of Sibelius or Finale, they both do music notation
excellently and both can produce publication quality output. Finale (2001 is
the latest version) has the reputation for having a steep learning curve.
Sibelius is more like a word processor - you do more directly on the display
instead of having to invoke different "tools" for each task.

Beware, though, that Sibelius has a protection scheme that requires you to
get a new registration number from Sibelius each time you have to re-install
it. This is a headache if, like me, you like to fool with your computer's
configuration and peripheral setup a lot. Each time I have to renew a
corrupted Windows registry or re-install the OS itself or want to upgrade in
a clean directory, etc..., I have to get a new serial number from Sibelius
(it will run for a limited number of days without the number, giving you
time to reach Sibelius by phone or email) in order to re-install it. I have
a similar difficulty, by the way, with Musitek's SmartScore (music
scanning/OCR), which allows you some limited number of re-installs before
it, too, requires a new number from the publisher. When I need to fix a
problem (usually of my own creation) with the computer or the OS, it's a
pain having to worry about whether I'm going to re-install the music
software I rely on easily.

On the plus side, I have never had to pay for any of the several upgrades
Sibelius has issued since I bought it a year ago. Finale issues a version
upgrade more or less annually (interim bug fixes are free) and charges
significantly for them.

Karl Krelove

> -----Original Message-----
> From: deehays [mailto:deehays@-----.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2001 12:42 PM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: Re: [kl] Music Programs for PC??
>
>
> > I am interested in the various music programs out there. I have
> heard that
> > Sibelius is a really good one for PC. Any comments? What else
> is there? How
> > do you rank them?
> >
> > I greatly appreciate your input!
> >
>
> Very, very expensive. It would be better to first define what
> you need in a notation program and decide how much you are
> willing to spend. Then see how close the available products come to that.
>
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