|
From:Sibelius , Sibelius Software Ltd. ,
|
See Product Page
|
User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#949 |
| |
1 of 1 customers found the following review helpful:
Sibelius 5 is Great, 2008-05-20
I have wanted Sibleius since I used version 2 for my music theory classes in college. I took advantage of there $[...] and purchased Sibelius 5. I love it. The basic functionality of the software is easy to learn. It is loaded with features that may take a little bit to master, but it is amazing what you can make this program do. Also, you do not NEED an ASIO compatible soundcard. I am able to use my motherboard integrated card and still use the playbak feature. I am sure the sound may be better with the proper card though. Also, you will need a newer DVD-ROM. The older DVD-ROMs will not read the DVD's formatting.
4 of 4 customers found the following review helpful:
A powerful, versatile program, 2008-04-06
It is easy enough to use if you just jump right in, yet at the same time the wealth of keyboard shortcuts for just about everything allows power users to perform tasks quickly and efficiently.
The handbook is well written and organized and provides most of the basics for a new user. I highly recommend reading the Quick Tour, as it provides some very useful keyboard and mouse commands for navigating and editing that I never discovered while using the demo version.
The best way to evaluate Sibelius is to try out the free demo from the official website. The demo is fully functional with just two main restrictions: it cannot save files and it can only print the first page of a score. No review can substitute for trying it out yourself.
3 of 4 customers found the following review helpful:
Sibelius, 2007-12-21
The product is amazing, my eleven year old took to it immediately and we now have compositions in proper sheet form. We enjoy playing them back on the computer and will be getting a lead to feed his playing directly into the program.
4 of 5 customers found the following review helpful:
Sibelius delivers again, 2007-11-14
This is my review of the Professional Edition of Sibelius 5.
At our conservatory we have Sibelius 4, which I really liked. You can easily write out a whole compositions with time signature changes, different claves, dynamics, you name it.
<>The only few things that I found faulty is
1>There isn't a preference options menu. Everytime you start a new score, you need to re-input your preferences again.
2>Some graphic inputs are not so logical to do (very awkward), even though with some of them I understand it's hard to come up with a way to program it.
For instance if you want to input a triplet feel symbol you need to make one of your own by selecting a quarter note, paste, selecting an eight note, paste, select a triplet bracket, paste it on top, and so on. Okay, so maybe there's a better way of doing it, but this is the way the official reference guid explains it!
3>I really love the jazz notation font, but there's just something I find missing with all the other fonts. This is more of a aesthetic thing, and very subjective. That you can't zoom in the example page when selecting a house style is weird, though.
I think that's it for Sibelius 4, on to Sibelius 5.
Yesterday I got the package, it costed me $599 USD, and it was delivered very safely. It includes:
1>the installation CD with:
Sibelius 5 (notation software)
Microsoft .NET framework 2.0 (software you need for Sibeliu 5 to run)
Sibelius Sound Essentials (High Quality sound samples)
Scorch (browser plug-in, which is freeware by the way)
Photoscore Lite (Music scanning programme, which isn't that great, from what I've heard.)
2>The Sibelius 5 Handbook of 156 pages.
After installing the software, I felt like home right away, because the look is basically the same as Sibelius 4. There is a new Panorama thing, which lets you see the music bars only next to each other.
Kontakt 2.0 with the Sound Essentials give some decent Garritan sounds when playing .sib files, but I find it actually a bit disappointing. I wouldn't want to buy the Garritan Personal Orchestra by this 'demonstration' of sounds from the same company, even though I know that packages is a whole lot better than these 'Sound Essentials'. Sure, if you're normally only using standard GM-synthesized midi, this is a sure plus, but for others having experienced GigaStudio, Reason or the like, this is really nothing interesting.
I tried the new "reprise" House Style, which resembles handwritten notation. It does look quite nice, especially the font for the Title, but other than that, like with lyrics, it's a bit messy. Time signatures exceed the 5-staves bar, which I actually find quite unpretty. Again, this is a very subjective part, as I guess it's a very well done compared to the 'style' of the era, when this handwriting was used for notation.
Point 1 and 2 of my complaints (starting at <>) hasn't been resolved, unfortunately, or maybe I need to read the handbook better.
To be honest with you, I haven't tried anything more as of yet, I just wanted to give a very first impression, as it seems I'm the first one who got the product (or who BOUGHT it, then).
That is a point I do want to give concluding my review. This software, the professional one, costed me $599 USD, as I said earlier on. I bought it from amazon.com, as here in Europe (I'm Dutch), in the store it would've cost me 800,- which is $1174.21! That's almost TWICE as much. I agree about the market being more expensive in Europe, but this is preposterous. No wonder it's been pirated pretty badly.
This review will continue later.
Manuel
|
|
|