Hey, I'm doing GCSE composing at school, and we use Sibelius 5. I think it might be good but the setup at school is AWFUL, it takes so long getting my head round it, I currently have finale notepad at home and am wondering weather to buy finale print (one of the better ones anyway) or Sibelius. I prefer finale, but Sibelius would let me work on things at home + school rather than just at one place, 'cos you cant transfer finale documents to sibelius

Oh Sibelius is LOADS better than Finale, I can't STAND the Finale software it's terrible. I use Sibelius and it's really great for writing music =)

I would definately go for sibelius, which is what we use at my school, but we only have sibelius 3 or 4, and havent got 5 yet. i'm just about to get the sibelius student edition, which my teacher reckons should get me through GCSE, and is what she recomends for A level too, but then if you want to do a music degree, then it would probably be better to upgrade at that point to sibelius 3 or higher.

sibelius is probably a lot easier, seeing as you can transfer files from home to school, and is an easy program to use generally.

Jacob.

Definitely Sibelius. It's so much more powerful, it's worth the learning curve in the long run, I promise.

I would say Sibelius - I can't live without it. However if you wanted to get Finale then you could always save the work as MIDI files which can be opened by both.

Well, pound for pound I much prefer Finale. It does all that I need and more.

I've got Sibelius (4) and I think it's wonderful - I do an awful lot of work on it (for forum concerts amongst other things...)

Sibelius. I couldn't live with out it.

Maybe Sibelius (or the reduced version of it - student version?) in the short term, but be aware that in the long term (certainly as at a year ago or so) Sibelius is not as adaptable to changes of a more detailed level for the thorough user, whereas Finale contains many many adaptable settings (and many wonderful features), even though Sibelius is (apparently for the new user, but not for me) more immediately user friendly.

They're both world class programs (the big two), with big time users promoting both. Don't underestimate either!

I'd go for Sibelius, if only on the fact you can use it at school as well as at home.

(plus it's obviously a great programme and whoever invented it should be knighted)

I think it's great!

W

I use Printmusic (cheaper version of Finale) and Sibelius, and I prefer Sibelius. But I think you can open Finale files on Sibelius and vice versa, so it's just a matter of personal choice