For one month only, Avid has reduced the price of single-user Sibelius 6 upgrades by 50%. If you’re currently using Sibelius 5 or any earlier version and you hold a single-user educational, professional or competitive crossgrade license, now’s the time to upgrade. Sibelius 6 features literally hundreds of improvements over previous versions, including revolutionary features like Magnetic Layout, and it will transform the way you use notation software on your computer. This offer won’t be repeated, so act now to take advantage of this opportunity.
After the jump, find out how to make sure you’re eligible, and how to order your upgrade right now!
Eligibility
Only single-user licenses are eligible for this offer. Check you’re eligible by looking at your Sibelius serial number, which begins something like SCEP. If the fourth letter is E (for Educational), P (for Professional) or X (for, er, crossgrade), then you’re eligible.
If you hold a multi-user or network site license, then unfortunately this offer doesn’t apply to you: but in fact it costs less than you might think to bring your site license up to date.
How to order
You can order your upgrade either direct from the online Avid store, or from selected resellers. If you order from the online store, you can buy your upgrade as an electronic download (with optional back-up DVD-ROM) for instant access, or as a physical upgrade (which includes the DVD-ROM and an 80-page booklet with full installation instructions and printed documentation of the new features). If you order from a reseller, you can only order the physical upgrade, but you may find that shipping rates are cheaper from a reseller in your country than from Avid’s online store.
Should I upgrade?
Perhaps you’re already reaching for your credit card, but perhaps you need a little more persuasion. Here are just a handful of reasons why deciding to upgrade to Sibelius 6 might be the best New Year’s resolution you could make this year:
- Sibelius 6’s unique Magnetic Layout automatic collision avoidance feature is the biggest time-saver to be introduced to notation software since dynamic parts (and if you’re currently using Sibelius 3 or earlier, then you have the wonder of dynamic parts to come as well!). Magnetic Layout does more than simply prevent objects from bumping into each other: it automatically and intelligently aligns objects according to the established conventions of music notation, and it includes extra benefits like Optimize Staff Spacing, which can automatically improve the vertical spacing of staves throughout your score in seconds.
- Sibelius 6 includes significant improvements in key notation features, including beaming (stemlets and other beamed rest improvements, feathered beams), slurs (including best-in-breed avoidance of collisions under the arc, and new handles to make shaping slurs easier than ever), note-attached arpeggio lines, repeat bar symbols (with playback!), note-attached jazz articulations, and more besides.
- You can sync Sibelius’s playback to your sequencer or DAW, including Pro Tools, via ReWire, which is invaluable for projects where you want to e.g. augment a real performance with some extra tracks from your notation software.
- Sibelius 6 includes AudioScore Lite, which allows you to input music using an acoustic instrument via a microphone, and an updated version of PhotoScore Lite, which now includes the ability to open PDF files directly.
- The sound sample library included with Sibelius has been extended and expanded, including new sounds from Garritan Personal Orchestra, Garritan Jazz and Big Band, and Garritan Concert and Marching Band, plus new rock and pop sounds including keyboards, guitars, and drum kits.
- When you install Sibelius 6, your existing version of Sibelius will remain unaffected, so even if you’re in the middle of a project right now, you can buy your upgrade and install it, safe in the knowledge that you can complete your current project in your older version if you need to (though see this article about Sibelius 6 coexisting on Mac with earlier versions).
- If you’re still working with people using earlier versions of Sibelius, fear not: Sibelius 6 can export files in old file formats, all the way back to Sibelius 2, so you can continue to share your work with them.
- Sibelius 6 is fully compatible with the latest operating systems, including Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and Windows 7. Sibelius 6 is also Large Address Aware on Windows, meaning that on 64-bit Windows 7 it can access up to 4GB RAM directly for use with large sample libraries.
I could go on and on, but hopefully you will have found at least one or two reasons in the list above that have you considering buying your upgrade. So what are you waiting for?