On Sunday, June 8, 2003, at 03:46 PM, Jonathan Smith wrote:
21. In part extracts of Multi Wind parts you will loose the transpositions for each instrument change.
Oooh. Yes, I forgot about that. That's a deal-breaker right there, especially for jazz arranging students.
24. So you want to move an Articulation? This is what the Sibelius manual says on page 69:
"In the unlikely event that you want to move an articulation, delete it and create a new one as a symbol. Be aware that articulations created as symbols have no playback effect."
This is what I'm talking about when I say the manual is dripping with condescension.
31. Tenutos collide with ties on notes and you can't move 'em.
Yes, goddammit. You have to move the ties, instead (or put the articulation in a symbol), and ties are hard to move. Ties over system breaks are impossible to adjust satisfactorily.
34. Speed users will find that you are constantly grabbing the wrong items as the application is so slow to react.
Especially on the Mac, as you noted earlier. The gap between PC performance and Mac performance is appalling. I mean, kudos to them for getting the OS X version out on time, but their Mac version needs a serious overhaul.
38. 1st Repeat bars come out too close to key signatures and need to be dragged to avoid collision.
You forgot the whole business about getting ending repeat brackets to display on multiple systems. (This is a nightmare -- for starters, the height of the ending bracket is not adjustable when it spans multiple systems. You have to position it exactly right when you click it in, because once it's there, it ain't moving.)
40. When editing a text block you don’t get WYSIWYG, the last letters are usually missing.
Incredibly, incredibly annoying.
43. Page breaks won't stay in place if you adjust the systems afterwards, for instance if you alter the number of measures in each system.
See above.
47. Treble and Bass Clef changes in LH or RH Piano/Keyboard parts get mysteriously changed upon part extract requiring a reproof.
This I hadn't encountered. See, you find new things to hate all the time.
48. You can't move a 8va--------- extension over system breaks to the left or right.
Gah. Yes. Terrible.
50. Sibelius began life as a University project undertaken by the Finn brothers and thus it comes over as such; a rather amateurish application, even the manual has a snooty 'we know better than you do' air to it. They don’t.
Indeed. "In the unlikely event that you want to move an articulation... "
58. Menus are confusing, too long (submenus), and sometimes inappropriate. For example: ‘Create Text’.
Oh, yes. Sibelius seems easy to use until you need to create a text indication that isn't in the default set, like, say "Solo over vamp" or "Build towards shout at [R]".
61. Sibelius doesn’t believe in using handles for any element which is a great idea until two or more elements overlap and then you can’t select anything.
Urg. Absolutely.
62. Restrictive copy protection especially if you need to use it on more than one computer.
Of if you need to reinstall the OS.
64. The Sibelius web site for user problems is monitored in such a way that you only see the problems and solutions they want you to see.
Didn't realize that. Not surprising.
- Darcy
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