Hi. Well I have both Sibelius and Finale. I have only been using them for about 3 years now so am not an "old hand". I had to start to use them from a completely greenhorn start as a first time composition student. One lecturer used Finale.. The rest all used Sibelius. My first 6 to 9 months was completely Finale based until I eventually got Sibelius.
I have found - and this is totally personal - that Sibelius works best for my thought patterns and work habits. I also found that Sibelius was a total breeze to learn. Now I was not a died in the wool long term Finale user so when relearning a new product I was not loaded by lots of historical usage baggage and was totally open minded. Personally, and I know this might not be everyone's experience, Sibelius is the tool for me. It produces output that is "professional enough" for my uses at the moment. And yes I have written works have been played by soloists, chambers groups, chamber orchestra's and full orchestras - including outputting scores and parts. Once I sorted out the "standard required" I have had no complaints with my output. And, although I freely agree that Finale has the ability adjust just about everything to the Nth degree, I am not convinced on the actual need - or at least not for me - to be able to do so. I buy software to help me do the job quickly and efficiently and Sibelius does that. If I was that fussy I guess I would consider using Finale but only if I could not get Sibelius to do what I want. So far that has not been the case. Or I guess if it was that quirky or had "extremely difficult to do" requirements I would possibly simply do it all by hand or pay someone else to do the job - after all I am training as a composer and in the end that I what I want to be.. There are professional engravers out there that use various products (not just Finale) and so it was that fussy a piece and or client then I would leave it to them and get on with the next composition task. So.. In the end.. Sibelius does what I need - I am not saying Finale is not capable - that would be a stupid statement - but I am saying that for me Sibelius works, it is quick and easy to learn and learning how to do something new is quick and easy. Also on the Sibelius list I find Daniel Spreadbury an invaluable resource.. As are many of the other Sibelius users. I do not intend stopping working with Finale.. But will only be using it for say 15% of my work. And in almost all those cases it will be either 1/ to make it easier for me to pass the Finale file onto another Finale user person or 2/ simply to keep my Finale hand in on the off chance that Finale finally gets it together to a level where I feel that Finale has become a "better" product for my working style and work habits. But I am not holding my breath I am afraid. Steve Currington Mature Student Composer Wellington, New Zealand _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
