Today Avid released Sibelius 7.5.1, the first maintenance update to Sibelius 7.5 since it was officially released on February 28 of this year. The update addresses a number of notable issues with Sibelius 7.5, and users should notice solid improvements across most aspects of the software.
Read on for more information about the Sibelius 7.5.1 update, but if you want to get straight down to business, here are the links you need:
Alternatively, you can simply open any score in your copy of Sibelius 7.5, then click Check For Updates on the Help page of the File tab.
While nothing in the Sibelius 7.5.1 update can reasonably be called a new feature compared to Sibelius 7.5, there are many important bug fixes and improvements — more than 160 in all, according to Avid. In working with 7.5.1 I found it to be appreciably more stable and responsive than 7.5.0.
Here is a partial list of the most noticeable changes:
- Most obvious was the regression in 7.5 that broke offline audio export, leaving users who wished to make audio files of their scores to patiently wait the entire duration of the piece. That issue is resolved in 7.5.1, and exporting audio works as well as it did in 7.1.3.
- Exporting video also happens offline now, and a curious bug where the audio was a beat behind the video in these files has been fixed. This works properly whether you are saving the video file to your computer or sharing it to Facebook or YouTube.
- The Timeline, new in 7.5, had its share of debut bugs. Fixed in 7.5.1 are problems with zooming, scrolling, show/hide settings, the Focus on Staves state of the score, displaying certain tempo markings, and a few other problems. It’s also now possible to drag around the Timeline to navigate the score in a Navigator-like way.
- A problem has been corrected in which the Swing and other new rhythmic feels would not play back correctly or load properly upon creating a new document in 7.5.
- Support for Brazilian Portuguese and Russian was new in 7.5, but many localization problems across all languages were introduced in the initial release as well. 7.5.1 includes many fixes in this area.
- Mordent behavior on playback has been corrected in 7.5.1. Playback of mordent and trill symbols was new in 7.5, but the was a bug where the mordent and inverted mordents played back the opposite of what was expected.
- A regression in 7.5 involving ties not playing back in bars using the 1-, 2-, and 4-bar repeat symbol has been corrected.
- Just as you were congratulating yourself for memorizing what “qaa z=[qp ]e” meant, Sibelius 7.5.1 now accurately displays music fonts in the Performance and Dictionary menus. (There is, a however, a minor cosmetic problem in later versions of Mac OS X that has been newly introduced in Sibelius 7.5.1, in which Sibelius displays a grey background on certain items in a pop-up menu once they have been hovered over with the mouse.)
- A problem with Sibelius 7.5 plug-ins inadvertently reading and writing from the Sibelius 7 plug-in preference file has been corrected.
- The sources of many problems that could crash Sibelius 7.5 have been identified and corrected, including some that have been present for many years, according to Avid.
- The activation process should now allow a user to run both Sibelius 7 and 7.5 on the same computer, within the terms of the software license.
In addition, Sibelius 7.5.1 improves usability for sight-impaired users (specifically when using NVDA on Windows), fixes the GUI for many plug-ins, and includes under-the-hood work on the playback sample engine.
Finally, the official Sibelius Reference is updated for 7.5.1 and has been fully translated into the nine languages that Sibelius supports. (the old 7.1.3 Reference had shipped with 7.5). The PDF is found within Sibelius itself, or if you prefer a printed copy, you can purchase one. (Also refer to a post from this blog which describes how to save the Reference and use it, say, on your tablet.) The tome weighs in at 802 pages, and its most notable updates from the 7.1.3 version are unsurprisingly in the areas of playback, performance, sharing, and Timeline navigation. The Sibelius 7.5 Reference guides are also available on the official Sibelius documentation page.
Updated July 5, 2014 to note that the Sibelius 7.5 documentation is now available from the Sibelius web site.
Derek Williams
Great news!
Andrei
I’m cautiously enthused and optimistic, yet busy future-proofing my investment of 10 years and thousands of Sibelius files approaching 5GB…
Go Sibelius, and thank you, Philip!
Janet
Question: I “had” to upgrade to Sibelius 7 when I replaced my old Mac with a new one running Mavericks. I really dislike Sibelius 7 for oh, so many reasons. But the biggest is that I often use Sibelius to create an accompaniment that I perform with. (I play flute.) Here’s my problem: It sounds terrible! I often write a harp accompaniment which is arpeggiated chords, and the highest note pings very loud and harsh. The same thing happens if you have an accent over the note. If you put a staccato mark it is ridiculously short. The flute sounds more like an oboe. I have tried all the different sound sets and they are all terrible. I finally resolved my most recent effort by adding pedal marks and slurs to every arpeggio, (tedious), and changed the harp to “hawaiian steel guitar” – which, by the way, sounds more like a harp than a guitar!
Here’s my question..is it worth the cost to upgrade to 7.5 to improve the audio that I export? I am so unhappy with Sibelius that I hate to spend more money on it. Unfortunately, I missed the free upgrade because I bought Sibelius 7 one week too soon…before they announced the free upgrade program.
Derek Williams
Dear Janet
Have you considered Note Performer? The sound library is cheap, occupies minimal disk space, loads in a snap and many regard its playback as more realistic overall that Sibelius Sounds. You can find it here: http://www.noteperformer.com
I’m not sure what your other issues are with the rewrite of Sibelius that created 7, but you can get help pretty fast from other users in the Sibelius support forum here: http://www.sibelius.com/cgi-bin/helpcenter/chat/chat.pl?groupid=3
Speaking for myself as an immediate enthusiast for the upgrade from 6 to 7, I felt that the effort relearning the application was worth it, since the placement of resources is far more rational and intuitive by and large, especially the grouping of all the text features on to the same palette of the Ribbon. To me, the structural layout of 7 is more like how the application should have been designed from the beginning, had the resources been available at the time. Had that been the case, and we have been offered 6, the uproar would have been far worse, and justifiably so, since it would scatter functions back down into labyrinthine menus that we had merely gotten used to before.
Philip Rothman
Great suggestions, Derek!
Janet: You could also download the Sibelius 7.5 free trial to see if it has any noticeable effect on your scores, before you buy: http://apps.avid.com/SibeliusTrial/
Janet
Thanks, both of you! I will definitely check out Note Performer. I didn’t know Avid offers a trial option for 7.5 so I will check that out too.
Derek, I am glad you like 7.5. It’s nice to know that it works for others. But for me it had been a huge headache, and one that was forced on me because (as I was given to understand) Avid isn’t going to support fixing Sibelius 6 to function with Mavericks operating system.
I don’t really understand what anyone means when they say it is “intuitive.” I have spent many hours trying to figure out where the functions I use all the time have gone. I waste an awful lot of time having to search the ribbon to find which tab they are filed under. The organization that you find so wonderful is a major nightmare to me.
I do know that part of my problems are that I can’t remember what certain items are called, for instance “transport” for the dialog box which shows tempo during playback — why not call it “metronome?” Or “playback tempo?” And why would I instinctively know that the place to find the tempo playback dialog box is hidden under “panels”?
But I rant and rave..so sorry. I have had Sibelius 7 for 7 months, and it still takes me 2 to 3 times as longer to input a simple one-page, one instrument piece of music than before. I am not a professional user, so it’s not my daily work, which definitely slows down the learning curve. Most of my frustration comes from the fact that I really didn’t want to upgrade, and so far there has been no benefit from doing so. I have considered trashing it all, but as far as I can see, it’s still the best music notation program around. So I struggle along.
Sam
hello,
how to use the sounds in sibelius 6 sibelius 7.5 ??
Mindaugas
still no yosemite support?? how long will avid hold all mac users from this upgrade? sibelius updates were never paid till 7th version, am i wrong? and with the latest 7.5.1 still no support for the newest operating system?
because of changes in icloud behavior, i would like to upgrade, but since i need sibelius for my work…very stupid situation..actually the same story as with mavericks. one year ago sibelius was officially “incompatible” with maverick, but it was still working.
does somebody has some personal experiences with the last yosemite gold master? does some functions are not working or sibelius doesn’t work in general? experiences with 7.5.1 ? or with 7.1.3?
Suds
I’ve got 7.5.1 – Why is the Optimize button grey? I went to Preferences/Keyboard Shortcuts/Layout/Optimize Staff Settings, but there’s no way to enable Optimize. What’s up?
Derek Williams
@Suds – have you selected something Optimizable before choosing the option?
mike brimson
I have 7.5 version which currently has stopped opening (gets to the initialisation window then screen goes blank) my 7.5 has a jonathan loving soundset integrating east west orchestra and choirs. If I up date my copy of 7.5 to 7.5.1 to try to solve the problem will I lose the integration of my sound libraries ?
Owen Middleton
Have a problem entering notes with my Yamaha P85. Ive trie changing the midi interface, checking connections, restarting. Is it possible there is a problem with Sibelius 7.5.1? Im using a mac mini (late 2009) with a fairly recent SSD upgrade. OS El Capitan. Can you help?
omidd@aol.com