Product Reviews

We reviewed Sibelius 3 in What's New, October 2004, and found it to be a powerful music notation tool. Its presentation of even the most complex music was neat and attractive, it was easy to learn, fast to use and its scope for customisation was seemingly inexhaustible. It was hard to imagine the developers could improve upon it. However, while version 4's core features remain pleasingly familiar, Sibelius Software has found ways to speed up the use of its eponymous software and has added some impressive new features for those working in education and writing music for picture.

The Dynamic Parts feature alone makes version 4 worth the upgrade. All notation software makes it easy to extract and print individual parts for performers to play from, but now extracted parts remain linked to the full score. Editing the score affects the parts, and vice versa, but each can be formatted differently, perhaps to allow for page turns or cues in the parts. A new floating window allows the formatting of one part to be applied to others, and an entire set of parts can be printed with a single click. Dynamic Parts isn't just a great

Version 3 integrated a Native Instruments software synthesiser for score playback without the need to configure a separate synth. Version 4 builds on this with a playback window for sequencer-style score navigation and playback, plus a video window for composing to picture. QuickTime, Windows Media and MPEG video is supported. Moving the slider on the playback window moves a marker across the score and scrubs through the video. This is fantastic for orchestrators working in TV and film.

Teachers will love the Worksheet Creator. This comprises over 1,700 education exercises and templates ranging from simple theory and aural tests to creative tasks such as composing in a specific type of scale. The library is well presented and includes projects relating to Key Stage 3 and GCSE syllabuses. Other new features run well into double figures, and include a new music font, more keyboard shortcuts and the ability to copy a section of score to the clipboard as a graphic for importing into a word processor or image editor.

The downside of such a sophisticated product is the inevitable expense. For anyone who produces scores as part of their job, it's an essential purchase (or £163 upgrade). But for the average jazz or function band leader, £595 is a lot of beer money to shell out. Still, Sibelius 3 was available for around £450 from retailers, so hopefully the same deals will soon become available for version 4. Meanwhile, schools are eligible for education discounts and site licences. And even at its full price, whether score production is your job or just your passion, Sibelius 4 is money well spent.