Feature Comparison, Finale vs. Sibelius?

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STEVE LATHAM Edited August 03, 2018 23:50

Years ago I was able to find comparison tables on features in both Finale and Sibelius.

Sibelius recently released "Ultimate" 2018 v. 4 and I see they've fixed some things they should have fixed 10 years ago (!) and I did find a somewhat recent comparison from MOLA (but that thing that was fixed in Sibelius happened more recently than the MOLA article).

The only other things I can find via Google are too old to be relevant.

I'd be interested in things that Finale does that Sibelius just can't do, and the reverse. The way the stupid pickup measure (and it still won't replace the time sig!!!) works in Sibelius drives me insane, but there are of course many things I do like about the program. I like the idea of just clicking a staff and pressing the space bar and having it play only the selected staves. I've been using Finale since probably 1995 ish but haven't kept up with and there are plenty of "why TF did they implement things this way..." moments but the latest version I have is 2014 and I hope that 25 really has some significant updates that bring it more in line with the cool features of Sib while still having things like Page Attached Text and customizable noteheads and beams that Sib still doesn't seem to do well. Those are important features to me and one of the reasons I've not really looked at Sib.

I've got a chance to buy one or the other. Finale is cheaper, and I know it and like it (unless they've really goofed up 25) but my work uses Sibelius and that alone is a powerful incentive even at what would be a far more ridiculous price.

But if I still can't get in and really adjust the beam angle and so on, or create custom beaming, or re-size individual noteheads, Sibelius isn't that great a choice. Yet if the sounds are far superior, or some other feature set just blows Finale out of the water, that's worth considering.

6 comments

Date Votes

MIKE ROSEN Posted August 04, 2018 14:16

I suspect most of us on the forum use Finale, and may not be very familiar with Sibelius.

J ADRIAN VERKOUTEREN Posted August 04, 2018 14:56

Perhaps https://www.scoringnotes.com/ has a comparison on its site.

It has been several versions since I tried out Sibelius, but I would not switch to it from Finale.

MIKE HALLORAN Posted August 04, 2018 15:08

Tried it. Never appealed to me. I’m just not interested.

STEVE LATHAM Edited August 04, 2018 19:30

Mike H, I suppose my biggest issue is simply it's the software used where I work and that alone makes it worth considering. There's nothing else about it that would really want to make me switch from Finale to it for personal use that I can see - but I'm working comparing 2014 Finale (which still looks godawfully 1990s looking!) to the version of Sibelius right before Ultimate - so not sure what F25 or Ultimate bring to the table.

But neither of you really went into detail about why you opt for Finale over Sibelius...Is there something you can do in Finale Sibelius just can't do? What was the deciding factor - just always been a Finale user like me, or have you done objective comparisons?

J ADRIAN VERKOUTEREN Posted August 04, 2018 21:31

I tried a demo of Sibelius several version ago and found note entry difficult and their magnetic layout harder to control than I found doing spacing manually in Finale. I think S eventually added options to make their note entry more like Finale's, but (speaking personally) I did not find the extra effort to learn S worth the effort considering the experience and workflow I already have in Finale.

And--I detest the idea of a subscription payment mode, so Avid sealed the deal against when they added that.

MIKE HALLORAN Posted August 05, 2018 02:40

The British Isles Seem to be S shops (understandable considering its origins). When my daughter spent a year at University College, Dublin, I offered to buy the crossgrade. She thanked me but said to keep my money. Being the only composition major on Finale didn’t bother her.

As for a “90s look”, S and Encore always stand out. I still perform a lot and when I notice the notation app when viewing a score, that’s a distraction. It means I am also going to notice every mistake and unnecessary dotted slur.

Bad looking Finale scores have their own issues.

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