Sibelius 2024.8 updated for mobile and cloud

Avid has released Sibelius 2024.8. This update is only for the mobile and cloud publishing versions of Sibelius; the desktop version remains at 2024.6. The primary purpose of this update is to bring features to the Android/Chromebook version of Sibelius for Mobile, which Avid released in May of this year; today’s update adds wired MIDI keyboard support and chord symbol auto-completion, bringing it closer to parity with the Sibelius for Mobile on iOS.

Both the iOS and Android/Chromebook platforms see new playback features in Sibelius for Mobile 2024.8. The playback menu adds access to Flexi-time recording, loop playback, a metronome, and playback speed controls.

In addition, Avid has refreshed the Sibelius Cloud Sharing experience, with transposition, printing, downloading, full-screen view, and page layout views among the enhancements available with today’s update; some of these features were previously only available to commercial customers using the Sibelius Cloud Publishing product.

Finally, Avid has made several other fixes to the Sibelius for Mobile experience in the course of releasing this update.

About this release, Sam Butler, Avid’s director of product management told Scoring Notes: “This combined release brings Android closer to full parity with the iOS app, enabling us to start developing new features and workflows tailored for smaller screens and mobile devices. The updates to Cloud Sharing represent a significant effort by the team to modernize the entire cloud infrastructure. Additionally, commercial publishers now have access to a new API with this release, offering enhanced features and capabilities. We will be posting more information about this soon.”

Sibelius for Mobile updates

Wired MIDI keyboard support and chord symbol auto-completion on Android

MIDI keyboard support

Playing on a MIDI keyboard is among the most natural ways to compose and input music into notation software, but support for this was missing upon the initial release of Sibelius on the Android and Chromebook platform. This is now remedied with the 2024.8 update, at least for wired MIDI devices.

You should be able to plug in your MIDI keyboard and have Sibelius automatically detect it so that you can use it immediately. However, Avid cautions that with some Android devices, you’ll need to save your work and restart the Sibelius app before you can use your MIDI keyboard.

Bluetooth MIDI keyboards are currently not supported, but Avid said that future support is forthcoming.

Chord symbol auto-completion

The chord symbol auto-completion feature first introduced in Sibelius 2023.6 has made its way to Sibelius for Mobile on Android and Chromebook. As you enter chord symbols, Sibelius will suggest the most likely chord based on the surrounding music. Avid says that the AI-based neural network that powers the feature is running locally on your device, but you are still asked to opt into using the feature for the first time.

Flexi-time and other playback features

Making use of the new MIDI capabilities, Sibelius 2024.8 adds the ability to record using Flexi-time, which is the term that Sibelius has used since its earliest days for recording directly from a MIDI device in real-time, while attempting to account for, and correct, the vagaries of human performance.

On your mobile device, in Sibelius 2024.8, long-press on the Play triangle to reveal additional buttons for Flexi-time recording; loop playback; a metronome; and controls to adjust the relative playback speed.

Sibelius on the desktop has long offered some finer controls that can be accessed in a dialog box, but to streamline the mobile experience, Avid has pre-set the following options:

• Non Rubato, so Sibelius won’t slow down and speed up
• Replace existing music
• Recording into multiple voices is limited to voices 1 and 2
• Adjust Rhythms is set to semiquaver/16th note
• Staccato will be added to short notes, however tenuto won’t be added for slightly longer notes
• Split point is ‘auto’
• Triplets and sextuplets will be added where played, but not smaller tuplets

Other playback features, bringing more desktop features to mobile:

• Sibelius added Loop playback to the desktop back in 2019; it’s now on mobile.
• A Metronome plays a woodblock during playback and will stress the downbeat and any irregular beat groups.
• The Tempo controls will scale the tempo during playback. Tapping the – and + icons will decrease and increase by 5% at a time. You can also slide the % amount left and right with your finger to alter the tempo scaling.

Sibelius Cloud Sharing updates

Avid has rewritten the viewing component of its Sibelius Cloud platform to enable some new features and provide a better experience. Scores shared via Sibelius Cloud Sharing can be viewed, played, and modified on any device with a standard web browser.

In addition to being able to drag the score around like you’d expect, you can tap directly anywhere in the music to move the playback line to that location.

Transposition to any key, with a full octave in both directions, is now possible, including enharmonics; see the ability to transpose, e.g. from G♯ minor to A♭ minor in the above example. Use with care!

Printing and downloading are enabled, but are off by default. You can set your desired options in the Sibelius Cloud Sharing dashboard, found in Sibelius on desktop. This makes it possible to both share a cloud version of the score with anyone, even if they don’t have the Sibelius application, and also permit them to download a copy of the Sibelius file for later use, if you wish to allow it.

Fullscreen and page layout viewing options are present, along with an About button that displays the score metadata. Keyboard shortcuts are given if Show commands info is clicked.

Finally, if you publish a change to the Sibelius Cloud file from Sibelius on your desktop, the score will automatically update without the need for the viewer to be refreshed.

If you’ve previously shared scores via Sibelius Cloud, they will automatically update to the new viewer, requiring no work on the user’s side. Those who have educational worksheets or have shared music with others will now find they get the new experience.

Here is the new viewer in action:

General improvements

Rounding out Sibelius 2024.8 on mobile are the following improvements:

• Sibelius on iOS no longer always saves your newly created score in the “On My iPad/Sibelius” folder
• Sibelius will now show graphics that are included in Sibelius files brought over from desktop
• The built-in convolution reverb can now be heard on both iOS and Android
• Choosing “Select System Passage” from Command Search now works correctly to convert a passage selection to a system selection
• When Sibelius encounters a problem opening and saving files on mobile, a new 5-digit error code will appear

Compatibility and availability

The Sibelius 2024.8 iOS/iPadOS update and the corresponding 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.

Sibelius 2024.6 remains the current desktop version of Sibelius. Files can be shared freely between Sibelius 2024.6 on desktop and 2024.8 on mobile.

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 Finale, 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.