| Sibelius is the complete software for writing, playing,
printing and publishing music notation. It will make your life
easier, save you time, produce fantastic results - and
enable you to do things you might never have dreamed of, like
publish your music on the Internet, or create your own CDs.
The new version Sibelius 4 takes another giant leap forward,
with astonishing new features no other program can touch
Dynamic Parts
Imagine what it would be like if you never had to extract
parts again.
Part extraction may save a lot of time, but it's not
instant - you still have to check the parts and clean them
up. And if you revise the score later, you either have to spend
ages making the same revisions in the parts, or extract them all
over again.
So… what would it be like if parts were somehow already
there as soon as you started a score, beautifully laid out. And
they magically updated themselves whenever you changed the
music?
What's it all
about?
In Sibelius 4, you don't have to do anything to get parts.
As soon as you start a new score, all the parts are already there
- you can choose any of them from a list on the toolbar. As
you add music to the full score, it appears in the relevant parts
too. In fact, whatever you do to the score, Sibelius instantly
updates the parts. Or you can change the parts, and the score
will change to match!
Differences in parts
Sometimes you need to change things just in a part rather than
the score - such as nudging text, adding cues, or altering
page turns. Again, Sibelius 4 takes care of all this: you can
move objects and alter the layout in parts without changing the
score - useful when making final adjustments. And you can
make things like cues appear in a part but not the score, and
vice versa.
More handy features
Dynamic Parts saves you time in other ways, too. No need to
print each part separately - a single mouse-click now
prints a complete set of parts. You can even specify how many
copies you want for each instrument.
You can copy the layout between parts; so if the brass
instruments have roughly similar parts, just ensure one of them
is laid out how you want it, then copy the entire layout to the
other brass parts with a couple of clicks.
You can still extract parts into separate files if you want
to, but there's rarely any need.
Overall, Dynamic Parts will save you hours of work on every
score - all the time spent extracting and revising
individual parts is now a thing of the past.
Worksheet Creator
If you teach music, you'll know how long it can take to
produce high-quality curriculum materials. That's why we
invented the unique Worksheet Creator in collaboration with
experienced teachers and educators. The Worksheet Creator frees
up many hours of your time by giving you a comprehensive range of
ready-made teaching materials - over 1700 worksheets,
projects, exercises, songs, instrumental pieces, lyrics, posters,
reference material and other resources.
They can be used by individuals or groups in class, or for
homework - either on paper or on computer. All of the materials
are carefully designed to fulfil curriculum requirements, and to
suit school students of all ages. Some of them (such as the
repertoire and reference material) are also useful for
universities and instrumental teachers.
Many of the worksheets have random questions that are
different each time. You can produce both a worksheet for the
student and a completed answer sheet to save time when marking.
And it all takes just a few seconds.
Video
Sibelius is already used for many films and TV shows -
from Shrek 2 to The Simpsons. And now you can use it yourself to
write music to video. This is ideal for everything from student
multimedia projects to professional scoring. No other notation
program can do this.
As usual, it's very easy to do. You can simply add any
video file to a score; Sibelius displays the video in a window,
and plays it back in sync with the music. In fact, the video and
score are always kept in sync, whether you're writing music,
playing back, fast-forwarding or rewinding .
You can play the video at different sizes or even full screen
to watch the finished result; and Sibelius's audio export
feature makes it easy for you to add your finished music to the
video soundtrack.
But that's not all. There are various new improvements to
timecode in the score. And you can now add ‘hit
points' in the score to mark important visual events; these
make it easy to write music to fit the action. Hit points
automatically move when you alter metronome marks, so you can
tweak the tempo to make a hit point fall exactly on a beat.
Power
Tools
Copy & paste to
Word
To get music into other programs such as Microsoft Word, you
no longer have to save a graphics file - just copy the
music in Sibelius, then paste it straight into your Word
document. So adding music to worksheets, essays and books now
takes barely a moment.
Fonts & symbols
Sibelius 4 includes the new Helsinki music font, a traditional
design with a plate-engraved appearance, as an elegant
alternative to Opus.
There are three additional fonts for writing Roman numerals
with superscripts and subscripts (for harmonic analysis);
comprehensive figured bass; and complex metronome marks and other
rhythms. Also included are automatically positioned buzz rolls (z
on stems), enhanced chord symbols (e.g. with three stacked
alterations), and many new percussion symbols.
Look & feel
Sibelius 4 has a cool new look, featuring extra toolbar
buttons to switch windows such as the Keypad and Properties on
and off.
Zoom now zooms in to the selected object, or you can drag
round an area to zoom into it. Screen positioning is now very
sophisticated, with custom options for how and when to move the
screen during inputting & playback.
The world's most intuitive music
software
We believe that if you find a program hard to use, it's
not your fault - it's because it's badly
designed. That's why we made Sibelius as natural as possible
to use - the result of years of careful thought and
refinement.
Sibelius is so easy to learn and use that you can start
writing your first piece within minutes - not days! It
comes with a clear, friendly, non-technical handbook, which
explains all the main features in just 70 pages.
But if you don't like reading manuals, don't worry
- the program includes an hour of tutorial videos that
explain how to use it. It also has comprehensive on-screen
reference, so you'll never be stuck for an answer.
Creating music
Start a score from scratch - specify instruments, page
size, title, tempo etc. with a few clicks. Your score is set up
instantly, all of the instruments with the correct names, clefs,
transpositions and layout.
MIDI input
Flexi-time™ is Sibelius's unique system for
notating music as you play it on a MIDI keyboard in real time.
There's no need to tap a pedal or play mechanically -
just play naturally with both hands, and Sibelius will actually
follow you as you speed up or slow down.
You can even listen to the music you've already written
as you play in more music on top.
Mouse &
keystrokes
To input without a MIDI keyboard, pick note-values and
accidentals from the keypad with the mouse, and click to place
them in the score. For extra speed, use the computer keyboard
instead - specify pitch using the letters A to G, and
rhythms from the keypad using the numeric keys (see left). There
are many other useful keyboard shortcuts for "power
users."
You can get other markings such as clefs, slurs and time
signatures from menus; Sibelius even positions them in the right
place for you.
Scanning
Sibelius includes PhotoScore™ Lite - the
state-of-the-art program for scanning printed music. It takes
just seconds to read a page, and you can then edit or transpose
the music in Sibelius, play it back, extract parts and print
- just as if you'd inputted it yourself.
File conversion
Sibelius seamlessly opens Finale™, MusicXML, MIDI,
SCORE™, Allegro™ and PrintMusic 1.0 ™ files in
seconds - the ideal way to transfer your existing music to
Sibelius.
Composing and arranging
Sketch & refine
Sibelius lets you change music whenever you like. Sketch a
solo flute piece, then add a whole orchestra to create a
concerto. Write in sounding pitch, then make a transposing score
with one click. Add extra bars at the start of a score, and
Sibelius instantly reformats every page - far more flexible
than pen and paper.
If you completely change your mind, Sibelius lets you undo up
to 20,000 operations, and keeps backups of 40 previous versions
of your music.
Text & lyrics
Sibelius puts different types of text, such as dynamics,
titles and lyrics, in the appropriate font, size and position.
You can edit these text styles to change text consistently
throughout the score.
To input lyrics, just type - Sibelius positions the
words under the notes, puts in hyphens and lyric lines, and
allows extra room for long syllables. You can also copy lyrics
from a word processor.
Arrange
Arrange is a unique feature to help with arranging and
orchestration. It's ideal for students learning
instrumental writing, and saves hours of time for experienced
professionals.
Just select some music, and specify how you want it to be
arranged or orchestrated - Sibelius does the rest in an
instant, using appropriate instruments, doublings, etc. It
handles anything from keyboard reductions and
‘exploding' chords onto separate staves, to
sophisticated arrangement and orchestration styles
Copying &
transposing
Copying music is far faster than re-writing it, so Sibelius
copies anything with one click of the mouse - especially
useful for doubled instruments and repeating figures. You can
make multiple copies at once, e.g. to put the same dynamics onto
every instrument.
Sibelius transposes music instantly into any key, and handles
everything about transposing instruments for you. Write music in
sounding or written pitch, and switch between the two whenever
you like.
Checking for
mistakes
Sibelius saves you time by spotting all kinds of mistakes such
as rhythms that don't add up, or notes that are too
high/low to play (see picture). Sibelius knows every
instrument's range, which you can adjust for players of
different abilities.
Playback
Hearing is believing
Just click the play button to hear your music performed with
surprising realism. Sibelius reads, understands and plays back
all standard markings - including trills, repeats,
cresc./dim. hairpins, 8vas, glissandos, percussion and drum sets,
guitar tab, and even quarter-tones.
Sibelius understands musical words and phrases such as: rit.,
pizz., Allegro, mute, swing, and change to Piccolo. Musical terms
in various languages are already defined in a built-in dictionary
- and you can add new words to it, too.
Sibelius lets you select specific instruments and sections of
music to listen to, automatically playing the correct
instrumental sounds through your soundcard or MIDI equipment.
Rhythmic feel™,
SoundStage™ & reverb
Sibelius lets you choose from numerous "rhythmic
feel" styles which make subtle enhancements to the rhythm
- anything from jazz swing to Viennese waltz!
When playing back scores for ensembles such as orchestra or
band, Sibelius's unique SoundStage feature positions the
sounds correctly in 3-D space, as if the instruments were on a
concert stage. You can also choose the reverb characteristics of
different natural acoustics.
Because Sibelius has such sophisticated playback features, you
can use it for far more than just listening to music. Sibelius
makes it easy to check the notes you've written,
accompanies while you practice, and helps you make rehearsal
tapes and CD recordings of your music.
Dynamic Parts
Parts in other
programs
In other programs, to get instrumental parts you have to
'extract' them from the full score. You then have to
spend time checking them and cleaning them up. And if you make
revisions to the score later - which almost always happens in
practice - you either have to spend ages making the same
revisions in the parts yourself, or extract them all over again.
Not so in Sibelius.
Dynamic Parts
Sibelius has a unique feature called Dynamic Parts. You
don't have to extract them - in fact, you don't have to
do anything to get parts! As soon as you start a new score, all
the parts are already there - and you can look at any of them
from a list on the toolbar. As you add music to the full score,
it appears in the relevant parts too. In fact, whatever you do to
the score, Sibelius instantly updates the parts. Or you can even
write music in the parts, and the score will change to match! But
you can also change things in parts without affecting the score
if you like, such as adding cues.
The parts are transposed if necessary, have bar rests grouped
into ?multirests', and include all the relevant markings such
as time signature and tempo changes. So you don't have to
think about anything.
Worksheet Creator
If you teach music, you'll know how long it can take to
produce good curriculum materials. That's why we invented the
unique Worksheet Creator, in collaboration with experienced
teachers and educators.
The Worksheet Creator frees up many hours of your time by
giving you a comprehensive range of ready-made teaching materials
- over 1700 worksheets, projects, exercises, songs,
instrumental pieces, lyrics, posters, reference material and
other resources.
They can be used by individuals or groups in class, or for
homework - either on paper or on computer. All of the materials
are carefully designed to fulfil curriculum requirements, and to
suit school students of all ages. Some of them (such as the
repertoire and reference material) are also useful for
universities and instrumental teachers.
Many of the worksheets have random questions that are
different each time. You can produce both a worksheet for the
student and a completed answer sheet to save time when marking.
And it all takes just a few seconds.
Video
Sibelius is already used for many films and TV shows - from
Shrek 2 to The Simpsons. And you can use it yourself to write
music to video. This is ideal for everything from student
multimedia projects to professional scoring. No other notation
program can do this.
As usual, it's very easy to do. You can simply add any
video file to a score; Sibelius displays the video in a window,
and plays it back in sync with the music. In fact, the video and
score are always kept in sync, whether you're writing music,
playing back, fast-forwarding or rewinding.
You can play the video at different sizes or even full screen
to watch the finished result; and Sibelius's audio export
feature makes it easy for you to add your finished music to the
video soundtrack.
But that's not all. You can add ‘hit points'
in the score to mark important visual events; these make it easy
to write music to fit the action. Hit points automatically move
when you alter metronome marks, so you can tweak the tempo to
make a hit point fall exactly on a beat.
Power tools
Sibelius comes with more than 70 ‘plug-in'
features which do useful things to your score, such
as
- Check for mistakes, e.g. parallel 5ths/8ves
- Harmonise tunes
- Add brass/string fingering
- Automatically create sets of scales and arpeggios (see
right)
- Halve or double note values
- Realize figured bass and chord symbols
- Automatically generate drum patterns
- Highlight all occurrences of a motive.
Publishing
Elegant layout
Sibelius's unique page layout means that you won't
have to worry about spacing, formatting, or how your score will
look when it's printed. The music is beautifully laid out
onto pages for you as you work - you don't need to think
about it. If bars get too cramped, Sibelius pushes them onto the
next page for you, and instantly adjusts slurs, hairpins etc. to
suit. Even if you delete large sections, or change the shape of
the paper, Sibelius will reformat the whole score in an
instant.
But if you prefer, you can change the layout yourself:
you can move staves around, specify where systems and pages end,
alter note spacings, and squash up or spread out whole passages
of music. You're in complete control.
House Styles™ &
engraving rules
Sibelius makes your scores look stunning, because it
automatically applies hundreds of subtle music engraving rules to
optimize every aspect of your score's appearance. These
include Sibelius's unique Optical™ and Magnetic™
algorithms for positioning notes, ties, beams, accidentals,
slurs, etc.
You can set ‘House Style' options to emulate the
high-quality appearance of famous publishers, or design your own
house style(s) to make your scores look distinctive. A whole menu
of options is included, to control everything from text styles
and notehead shapes to complex engraving rules.
Internet publishing
The Internet is the fastest-growing technology of all time
- and Sibelius helps you use it to your advantage. Sibelius
not only prints your music conventionally, but also lets you put
it straight onto your own web site, or onto SibeliusMusic.com,
the world's largest site for self-publishing scores.
Additionally, teachers and educators can publish teaching
materials onto SibeliusEducation.com for their students to view,
play and print at school or home.
Teaching with Sibelius
Sibelius is suitable for all educational levels -
it's easy for beginners, yet sophisticated enough for all
university requirements. Special discounted educational pricing
and site licenses are available.
Sibelius helps teachers with preparing teaching materials and
arrangements. It lets students hear how their work sounds, makes
it easy to find and correct mistakes, and is much more fun to use
than pen and paper!
At university level, Sibelius satisfies the most advanced
requirements, from avant garde and early music notation to
Schenkerian analysis.
If you're an instrumental teacher, Sibelius makes it
quick to create exercises, scan in and transpose pieces, and
produce accompaniments and arrangements - you'll
never need to write out parts again!
System Requirements
Mac
- Mac OS X 10.2.8/10.3.9/10.4 or later
- 256Mb+ RAM
- 250Mb hard disk space
- Sibelius 4 does not support Mac OS 9/10.0/10.1
PC
- Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP
- Pentium or faster
- 192Mb+ RAM (128Mb+ for Windows 98SE/Me)
- 250Mb hard disk space
- Sibelius 4 does not support Windows 95/98 (1st
edition)/NT
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