Avid has released Sibelius 2024.10 across its desktop and mobile platforms. The previous 2024.8 release was only for mobile platforms, so this update is the first for Mac and Windows since Avid released the 2024.6 update in June of this year. Sibelius 2024.10 is also the first update to Sibelius MakeMusic announced it was discontinuing development of Finale and partnered with Steinberg to offer its users a discounted crossgrade to Dorico Pro. Responding to that news, Avid discounted its own competitive crossgrade offer, and seeks to appeal to Finale switchers in the 2024.10 update with improvements to the MusicXML importing process.
There is a new feature in Sibelius 2024.10 that makes it easier to place diatonic or chromatic glissandi between two selected notes. Tuplet handling when switching voices is improved, and several other issues have been addressed.
Sibelius 2024.10 also brings official support for macOS Sequoia, coming on the heels of 2024.6 being the first to run natively on Apple silicon.
What’s new
Here’s what’s new in Sibelius 2024.10.
MusicXML import
Avid has said that they’ve had significant interest in Sibelius from Finale users following August’s news (full disclosure: representatives met with me, among others in the New York music copying community, during a recent swing through the city to gauge response to the news and feedback about Sibelius). Although the desire to appeal more to Finale customers spurred the latest round of MusicXML improvements, they will benefit anyone using MusicXML files to get music into Sibelius, regardless of its originating platform.
Sibelius 2024.10 will now recognize multirests, instrument and part names more reliably; although this will depend to a large degree upon how well the originating file was set up, Sibelius will try its best to choose instrument names or staff names when appropriate (see the 2022.9 update for a further explanation of this). Page margins, staff margins, and rehearsal mark styles are more accurate, according to Avid. Further, users should find that scores using less common meters such as 5/8 and 9/8 are more reliably interpreted; system spacing is less likely to overlap; more house style information is respected from the MusicXML file, and that a warning message won’t totally block a file from opening.
When considering these Sibelius improvements with Dorico’s MusicXML import improvements in 5.1.60, it appears that the end of Finale had a silver lining in it being the impetus for the other software to better their offerings in this area.
Notate Glissando
Sibelius 2024.10 includes a conceptually straightforward, but useful feature that will calculate the number of notes in equal duration necessary to notate a glissando between two selected notes. The notes can be selected individually or as the first and last notes of a passage; note that, in the latter instance, any intervening material will be overwritten by the glissando that Sibelius generates. Both diatonic and chromatic glissandi are possible.
A selection does not need to consist of two consecutive notes, nor does it need to be contained in a single bar. However, a selection that spans one or more barlines will pose some challenges for Sibelius; if the glissando would result in a tuplet that would need to cross a barline, Sibelius will not process that command.
Despite that limitation, Sibelius returns otherwise reasonable results. Slurs are retained, as is the concluding articulation. Diatonic runs respect the current key signature. Upward chromatic glisses are notated with sharps, while downward chromatic glisses are notated with flats. Groupings are by beat in simple and compound time.
It’s worth mentioning that the duration of the first note in the selection doesn’t affect the result, as it will be superseded with the duration of the notes in the glissando. The duration of the last note, however, is retained, once the operation is finished.
If you’ve spent a lot of time doing the math just to enter a simple run of notes, you’ll appreciate this feature. (This also makes it possible for mobile users to enter a tuplet larger than a nonet, because the Other Tuplet dialog is not accessible on the mobile version of Sibelius.)
This feature can be found in Command Search via the respective commands Notate Glissando: Chromatic and Notate Glissando: Diatonic, or directly via the Ribbon in the Note Input tab.
macOS Sequoia, Avid Link, and licensing
Avid has fully qualified Sibelius 2024.10 for support on macOS Sequoia. Avid Link, the application that installs and manages Sibelius and other Avid software, is planned for an update in the near future as well. Avid says that together with some changes in Sibelius, these updates will improve the licensing experience for customers.
Sibelius Connect
An update has been made in Sibelius 2024.10 that improves the user experience when connecting remotely to Sibelius during a session. (We’ll have more information about the benefit this brings to Notation Express, soon!)
Other improvements and fixes
- Tuplets will remain selected after changing voices. When changing the voice of a tuplet, the notes and the tuplet number are all selected, allowing you to perform further editing. Previously, these were deselected, which was inconsistent with other similar editing actions
- The correct note is now displayed in the Status Bar after moving a note up/down chromatically on a TAB staff.
- Show bar rests option in Engraving Rules is no longer lost after closing a score when the score has this switched off and the part has this switched on.
- Switching parts with W and navigating the score with Page Up/Down is no longer captured by Enhanced Redo (Ctrl+Y / Cmd+Y).
- Running the Tuplet command from Command Search or from the list of Commands in Sibelius Artist now works as it should.
- On Sibelius for mobile, the text now wraps in Command Search, allowing you to see the whole command’s name when searching for it.
- Sibelius now respects the DPI scaling more accurately on Windows, so you can use 125%, 150%, and so on. You may see visual artifacts when changing this while Sibelius is running, however these should get resolved after restarting your computer or logging out and in again. Sibelius doesn’t natively support some of the scaling, so it’s best to use what is recommended on your system.
- The following Command IDs now work:
- keypad_*(Windows)_/(Mac)
- keypad_-(Windows)_*(Mac)
- keypad_/(Windows)_=(Mac)
- keypad_-(Mac)
- Sibelius no longer crashes in rare cases when closing a score.
Compatibility and availability
Sibelius 2024.10 uses the same file format as previous versions going back to Sibelius 2023.11, so you can share files among any of those versions freely.
Sibelius 2023.11 used a new file format, to accommodate additional system objects. Files saved directly in 2024.10 will not be able to be opened in an earlier version of Sibelius prior to 2023.11 without first exporting them in File > Export > Previous Version. If you’re collaborating with someone else that’s using a previous version, be sure to find out what version they’re using.
The Sibelius 2024.10 desktop update is free for all Sibelius users with active subscriptions and upgrade plans. The updated installers for desktop are available through users’ Avid accounts and through Avid Link.
The Sibelius 2024.10 iOS/iPadOS update and the Sibelius app for Android and Chromebook are available in the usual way, and will be delivered automatically, or, if you’ve disabled automatic updates, you can manually update the app on your device. Some of the features in 2024.10 are only available on the desktop version of Sibelius.
Typically our Scoring Notes coverage only extends to the Sibelius Ultimate version of the application. Not all features are available in all tiers of Sibelius.
A reminder that if you’re an existing Sibelius customer with an active support plan or subscription, you get the mobile version at the same tier at no extra charge. If you have a subscription to Sibelius Artist (mid-tier) on your Mac or PC, that will carry over to Sibelius Artist for Mobile, and the same for Sibelius Ultimate — a Mac or PC subscription allows you full access to Sibelius Ultimate on iPhone and iPad.
Learn more
For the latest information about compatibility for Sibelius, Dorico, and MuseScore, as well as links to the latest news and reviews about product releases, please see the Scoring Notes Product Guide.
Avid also has a “What’s New in Sibelius” page highlighting the features in recent Sibelius updates.
