Today Avid released Sibelius 2019.7, its latest update to Sibelius. As with the 2019.5 release, today’s update contains no new major features. There are some MusicXML improvements, and the rest of the release mainly focuses on stability and fixing items in the areas of fonts, PDF export, and playback, as well as preparing for macOS 10.15 (Catalina).
Here’s a list of improvements and fixes in Sibelius 2019.7, as provided by Avid:
General
- It’s possible, once more, to check-in a checked-out license (this affects School Network licenses only).
- It’s possible to resize the Video window again using the controls in the Ribbon (Mac only).
- Added new Japanese translations in File > Preferences > Note Input.
- When exporting MIDI files as type 0, the initial Time Signature is now correctly included.
- The list of Recent Scores is now more reliable (previously, it was limited to only 500 scores).
Overall Stability
- In rare cases, Sibelius could crash on Windows. Thankfully this no longer happens.
- In similar rare cases, memory could have become corrupted in audio.
- Both the Sibelius and Sibelius First Sounds installers have been updated to 64-bit. This is in preparation for macOS Catalina that drops support for 32-bit applications.
- Note Input tab > Transformations > Retrograde no longer fails to run on a selection involving grace notes.
- Sibelius no longer crashes when editing chord diagrams.
Fonts, Printing and PDF export
- A number of small problems regarding PDF export have been resolved, especially for scores that use italic-face fonts.
- PostScript outline fonts now print correctly on Windows.
- The underline line is no longer too near to the text in some cases on Windows only.
Playback
- Forward scrub no longer causes the newly added Replay Position line to jump forward by a constant value.
- When scrubbing over chords, where some notes are tied and others not, Sibelius no longer crashes.
- While using NotePerformer, the playback line is now more reliably in sync with the audio.
MusicXML
- Lyrics are now spoken with Narrator in a score that was imported from a MusicXML file.
- Guitar bends and slides are now exported to MusicXML.
- Metronome marks in tempo text are now correctly exported to MusicXML.
- Sibelius now reliably includes rhythm information for all TAB instruments when exporting to Music XML. This only happens if you have Rhythms (stems, dots, ties, rests etc.) defined in the instrument in Edit Instrument > Edit Staff Type > Notes and Rests.
The Sibelius 2019.7 update is free for all Sibelius users with active subscriptions and upgrade plans. The updated installers are available through users’ Avid accounts and through Avid Link.
Hermann Schroeder
Hi Philip – what has become of Sibelius2019.6 ? The last was 2019.5 – or have I missed something?
Philip Rothman
Hi Hermann. No, you didn’t miss anything. Avid now numbers their releases corresponding to the year and month. So, since there was no release in June 2019, there was no 2019.6.
Hermann Schroeder
Thank you for your very quick answer, Philip!
Rex Thomas
Greetings, Philip! Here I am with my take on 2019.7:
“Bad Audio Settings” error message still came up on the 1st try. However, there was no error message on the 2nd try, the proper sounds loaded, program runs correctly. I launched from the Sib icon both times, not the files. While writing for a fairly large show since .4 & .5 came out with me worried I won’t be able to do playback, after a few tries & sounds finally load, what I did was just not quit Sibelius & let ‘er run while the Mac sleeps. This got me through, job got done. Now doing it this way, after maybe a few weeks playback would get a little squirrel-y, & though I was concerned it wouldn’t load sounds, I did do a complete Mac restart, & the 2 or 3 times I restarted during the time with .5, it loaded correctly the 1st time with 2 of those restarts & it taking at least 2 try’s (rebooting Sib, not the Mac) the 3rd full restart. So, sometimes it’s fussy, but Sib eventually starts correctly & loads sounds.
Thing is, why is this suddenly happening since .4? Well, to cut to the chase, I will be at Summer NAMM (next week), & assuming Avid Sibelius will be there, there will most definitely be a discussion in this matter. (Dragnet theme plays) ;-)
Philip, THANKS MUCH for Scoring Notes!