Kevin Callahan is a Seattle-based guitarist, composer and teacher who happens to be a Sibelius user. I’ve communicated a lot with Kevin over the years: he’s a Mac enthusiast, dabbles in software development, and always has interesting ideas about how Sibelius should be developed. Kevin was recently interviewed by Christopher Davis, who runs The Classical […]
There’s a great little piece up on the Avid web site about the 2009 Academy Awards, which were presented last night. It says: We’re honored to announce that the industry’s best chose to use Avid products and solutions in the production of 5 out of 5 films nominated for major awards including: Best Motion Picture, […]
Everybody knows that when you’re looking for professional-quality music notation software, you basically have a choice between Sibelius and Finale, and people sometimes ask me why they should choose Sibelius over Finale. Both are very capable programs, but in my personal opinion, there’s no contest (though perhaps that’s not surprising!). My reasons are below the […]
Everybody loves lists, so I’m told. So here’s a list of five extra plug-ins available for download from the Sibelius web site that you should consider adding to your copy of Sibelius today. 1. Narrow Two Voices Sibelius automatically aligns notes in two voices, and when they interlock, it positions them “stem-to-stem”. Some publishers and […]
There are currently almost 200 additional plug-ins for Sibelius available for download from the Sibelius web site. They’re really an incredible resource, and if you’ve never taken the time to have a look at the plug-ins on offer there, you’re strongly recommended to do so. Just about all of those plug-ins have been contributed to […]
Unpitched percussion is one of the more complex parts of music notation, and although we have tried hard to hide as much of this complexity as possible in Sibelius 5, if you find writing for percussion instruments and getting appropriate playback difficult, you’re not the only one. I’ve put together a short tutorial video (just […]
Tom Rudolph’s latest post is about the Worksheet Creator in Sibelius 4 and later. He says: If you are a Finale user, you might want to purchase a copy of Sibelius just to have access to these worksheets. Finale has a few helpful worksheets, but I think Sibelius has enough to make it worth the […]
Last night I had the pleasure of attending the award ceremony for the Sibelius Student Composer of the Year 2008 competition, at the Royal Academy of Music in London. All of the runners-up and winners (bar one) in each of the three categories (Jazz, Film, Classical/Contemporary) in the two age groups (11-16 and 17-18) attended, […]
Philip Sheppard is a British composer, cellist and Sibelius user, and this year he’s giving a series of lectures at the Royal Academy of Music in London about how to succeed as a composer in the new media age. He’s just posted the first set of tips on his blog, and there are some wise […]
Today’s Guardian newspaper in the UK has a fascinating article about composer Derek Bourgeois, who has been a Sibelius user for many years. Derek has completed 44 symphonies, making him the most prolific British symphonist in history! And still he goes on. He marked the end of 2008 by remarrying, and by completing his 30-minute […]