I’m delighted to be able to announce that Avid has today released Sibelius 7, a major new version of our flagship music notation software, and a labour of love for me and the incredibly talented people I work with for the past two years. There’s plenty of information about the new version on both the Avid web site and the Sibelius web site, but hit the jump for my own edited highlights.
These are the major new features in Sibelius 7:
- Completely redesigned and revamped user interface: We looked long and hard at Sibelius and its growing sophistication (and, yes, complexity) and tried to design an approach that would allow new users to get started with the program as quickly as possible, without driving existing users to distraction. At the same time, we have adopted a more modern approach to window management, using an SDI model rather than the old MDI model, adding document tabs, and making it possible to dock various windows around the edge of the screen to use screen real estate more efficiently. Not to mention the ribbon, the status bar, the Inspector, the redesigned Mixer, and on and on.
- Fully native 64-bit application. Sibelius 7 is the world’s first fully 64-bit notation software, which means that it’s future proof and ready for today and tomorrow’s most demanding applications. Sibelius can now access more than 4GB RAM directly, so you can run as many virtual instruments as your system can handle within Sibelius. Sibelius also includes a new multi-core-aware playback engine, so it can automatically balance the load of multiple virtual instruments between the available CPU cores.
- Exclusive, professional-quality 35GB sound library. We’ve been very fortunate over the years to have partnerships with great companies like Native Instruments, Garritan and Tapspace to provide sounds for Sibelius’s included sample libraries, but with this version we wanted something really special, and really unique, that you can’t get anywhere else. So we went out and, with the help of a top Hollywood sound designer, recorded a whole symphony orchestra, and the result – called Avid Orchestra – forms the basis of the new Sibelius 7 Sounds library, but there’s a heck of a lot more besides: great sounding jazz instruments; fantastic drums and percussion; a 20-stop pipe organ from Hauptwerk; and a selection of sounds from Sample Logic’s new marching brass and percussion libraries, Fanfare and Rumble. The result is something on a par with libraries that retail separately for hundreds of dollars, and it’s all included with Sibelius 7, seamlessly integrated with the built-in Sibelius Player.
- Full MusicXML interchange. Sibelius has had MusicXML import since version 4, but if you wanted to export a MusicXML file, you previously required the separate Dolet plug-in from Recordare, which carries a price tag of $200. With Sibelius 7, we’ve built MusicXML export directly into the program, so you can easily export files to send to colleagues running Finale or another music program. The export is faster than Dolet and includes features that Dolet can’t include, because Dolet can only access the information made available by Sibelius’s plug-in language, ManuScript, including detailed score formatting information such as bar widths and note spacing, improving the fidelity of the transfer between Sibelius and other programs.
- Text and typography improvements. Text has been given a complete overhaul in Sibelius 7. There’s far too much to go into here, but here’s a quick checklist: hierarchical text styles; character styles; DTP-style text frames with automatic word wrap and full justification; leading; tracking; character scaling; per-object rotation; OpenType font support on Windows; improved font substitution, including warnings about missing fonts when opening existing scores; and much more besides.
- Graphics import improvements. Previous versions of Sibelius allowed you to import TIFF files, but they were awkward to work with. Sibelius 7 allows you to import graphics in all standard formats (apart from EPS, though you can instead import SVG, which most programs that can save EPS files can also save), and manipulate them with a dramatically improved graphics frame. You can crop, scale (proportionally or not), rotate, flip and adjust the colour of any imported graphic with ease. You can link a graphic to an external file so that the graphic in the score updates automatically when the file changes. You can even use any graphic as a symbol, opening up all sorts of possibilities for special notations.
- Graphics export improvements. Sibelius 7 includes one-click PDF export, a particular boon on Windows, which previously required the installation of a separate PDF driver. Even on Mac, which has always included built-in PDF export provided by the operating system, there are benefits to Sibelius’s built-in export, as you can export the score and parts together in a single PDF, or just the parts in a single PDF, or batch export all the parts to separate PDFs, all with a single click. EPS export has also been improved, with better, more comprehensive font embedding, and you can also export graphics in SVG format if you like.
- Note input improvements. Sibelius 7 includes a whole new kind of step-time note input, similar to Finale’s popular Speedy Entry input method, in which you specify the pitch on your MIDI keyboard before you specify the duration, rather than the usual Sibelius approach where you specify the duration before the pitch. We’ve also added my own personal favourite new feature, sticky lines (which automatically extend during note input), and there are sticky tuplets too.
There’s so much more besides: print preview; a revamped dialog for adding instruments with a built-in find feature; the Quick Start window; updated PhotoScore and AudioScore; new plug-ins, including the fabulous Add Fingering to Notes, Rehearsal Recordings and a brand-new version of Renotate Performance; a feature to automate creating multiple parts for instruments in different transpositions; a super-fast way of creating time signatures; options to remember your working environment between sessions; full screen mode on Mac; the “find in Ribbon” feature… I could go on and on.
But all of that will have to wait for another day. In the meantime, check out the What’s New video, read the What’s New PDF (or even the full 780-page Sibelius 7 Reference Guide PDF), and visit the Sibelius web site for lots more information.
A free, no-obligation 30-day trial of Sibelius 7 is also available, containing every one of the features above apart from the Sibelius 7 Sounds library, and you can download and install it right now. If you already have an earlier version of Sibelius on your computer, it won’t interfere with it at all. So what are you waiting for?
Andrei
Loving the new UI: sleek and effective. Yet another time-saver from Sibelius, along with the text and typography enhancements…
Some questions:
1. Fully compatible with Lion?
2. Is there a new Reference available yet?
3. What’s the oldest Sibelius version it can open files from?
Thanks, Daniel, for all your hard work on a another stellar version!
Andrei
Daniel Spreadbury
1. Yes, fully compatible with Lion. It doesn’t take advantage of the new Lion features like resume, versions, or full screen (though it does have its own full screen mode; it just doesn’t integrate with Lion’s other full screen apps), but it works great on Lion.
2. Yes, the PDF is included in the program as usual, and you can also buy it as a printed book from the Avid online store, and shortly from all good booksellers.
3. As always, Sibelius 7 can open files created in any previous version of Sibelius for Windows or Mac.
Wheat Williams
Can you provide a list of the “early music” instruments in the new sound library? My friends in the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra have already inquired about this to me. The Avid web site mentions Baroque trumpet and oboe d’amore, but those are the only ones named.
Wheat Williams
Major props to you for making the user interface in the Mac version available in multiple languages. Now it’s no longer necessary to order a dedicated version in Spanish, French or what have you.
Peter Roos, San Francisco
Fantastic Daniel! Many congratulations once again. Can’t wait to try it out.
Christoph Spengler
That’s great news! I already love the new interface.
Important question for me: will there be a seperate German version, or can I already buy the upgrade at Avid and it switches to German automatically?
Best wishes, Christoph
Daniel Spreadbury
All supported languages are included within the same package, so if you’re running a German-language operating system, Sibelius 7 will automatically start in German, and you can change the language any time you like via the Preferences dialog.
Paul Shimmons
Yikes! This is pretty different. I’m not so sure that is good! Is there a list of which keyboard short cuts/commands have been deleted from V6?
Paul Shimmons
Sorry – I see a list at the end of the what’s new in Sibelius PDF – Is this really all? Maybe it is just that I had a bunch of my own set up? Is there a way to import my shortcuts from V6?
Maybe it’s just that everything is in such a different spot.
Daniel Spreadbury
You can move your existing keyboard shortcut set to Sibelius 7 by copying the Menus and Shortcuts folder from ~/Library/Application Support/Sibelius Software/Sibelius 6 to ~/Library/Application Support/Avid/Sibelius 7, and renaming the folder to Keyboard Shortcuts, which is what Sibelius 7 expects it to be called. We’ve changed hardly any keyboard shortcuts in Sibelius 7, and the list in the What’s New PDF is complete.
Toby
I’ve found the PDF of the “what’s new” leaflet which lists the headline changes, and it looks great. Good job!
For previous versions of Sibelius, you guys also published a very detailed multi-page list of every single feature change and fixed bug. I always used to read that before deciding whether to upgrade, because often it was some relatively minor bug fix or improvement (i.e. not a headline change) that most appealed to me. Do you know if there’s an equivalent detailed list of changes for Sibelius 7?
Also — and I think I know what your answer will be — do you know whether there are plans to issue a point upgrade to make Sibelius 7 fully native to Lion (nativising full screen, version control, process/window separation etc), or will we have to wait for Sibelius 8 for this?
Daniel Spreadbury
That PDF lists everything that’s changed in Sibelius 7. There are a smaller number of bigger changes than in previous versions of Sibelius, if you see what I mean.
I can’t provide any specific information about if/when we’ll be able to take advantage of the new features in Lion, but it’s certainly something we’ll look at.
Falk
? I try to download the sibelius 7 demo, but i cant find it, because there is only a link from “try it” to sibelius 6 demo. perhaps there is a problem because i startet here from germany?
Daniel Spreadbury
Download the “English” trial, rather than clicking the link to download the German demo. For various boring technical reasons, the marketing folks haven’t yet updated the non-English parts of the site, so the German-language pages still talk about Sibelius 6 and still have the Sibelius 6 demo available.
Derek Williams
Can we now paste inside tuplets, merge into tuplets etc with this upgrade? I don’t see this listed in the pdf.
Daniel Spreadbury
There are no major changes to the handling of tuplets in this version, other than “sticky” tuplets. In general, if it’s not listed in the PDF, it’s not in the program. All changes in Sibelius 7 are listed in the PDF.
Vincent
Hi Daniel,
Just watched the videos, major changes, I need to try it to see if it improves the workflow.
2 questions :
– on a laptop, I always find frustrating to change the note durations in the keypad (on the screen, since there’s no numeric pad on a laptop). I wish there’d been a key command to focus on the keypad area. Is there a way to do this now or differently?
– The new sound library is quite large. Is there a way to use the old sounds or to have a light version like GPO (again on a laptop situation where disc space is limited)?
Thanks for the good news!
– Vincent
Daniel Spreadbury
On a laptop, I recommend you use the ‘Notebook (laptop) features’ feature set, which you can choose on the Keyboard Shortcuts page of Preferences.
You don’t have to use the new sound library if you don’t want to, or if your machine isn’t up to it: you can instead use the Sibelius 6 sounds (if you have them installed) or the standard built-in sounds on your computer, or GPO, or anything you like!
Derek Williams
While it’s obviously very nice to have new features, especially if you’re planning to use them, I would have gladly bought the 7 upgrade just for a fix of the tuplets issue alone. Workarounds abound in the form of Filter>Notes for Deletion/Copying, and plug-ins that allow conversion of ordinary notes into tuplets, but they remain just that – time consuming workarounds for something that I believe should be (and in lesser programs like the defunct Composers’ Mosaic actually was) completely straightforward in any notation software.
I hope this is ‘well high’ on the Sibelius to-do list, specifically:
1. allow paste/merge of any compatible event into any viable part of a tuplet, e.g. notes and text
2. allow paste into viable part of a compatible voice without erasing all other voices in the process
3. allow conversion in situ of any viable contiguous notes into tuplets
4. allow deletion of a tuplet without also deleting the notes in it, such that they respace automatically into non-tuplet time locations
I don’t mean to sound disparaging about the new features, but I do think that anything that’s functionally broken in terms of ease of use should always be higher priority.
Ole Visby
Hi Daniel!
Congrats with the new version. Looking forward to explore.
I just leafed through the “What’s New”-pdf. You might want to make the paragraph on page 13 about Specifying pitch before or after duration a bit clearer… :)
Best regards, Ole
Mike Davis
This looks great! Congratulations.
Dana Haynes
On the step-time input, do you have a preference that lets you decide whether to use the old way or the new way? I can see how the new way is useful for composing (and for enticing more users to switch), but as a copyist (as opposed to composer/arranger) I personally really like the old method of duration then note.
Daniel Spreadbury
Yes, absolutely! You can freely swap between the Sibelius-style “duration before pitch” and Finale-style “pitch before duration” options any time you like.
Derek Williams
Full marks on the fantastic interface redesign. Much better having it all out in the open instead of hidden in drilldown submenus.
One point – in my dual monitor setup (2×30″ Apple Cinema Displays) the default shortcut +F1 intended to show/hide the ribbon has a different than expected behaviour:
1st press – turns both screens blue and makes monitor 2 a replica of monitor 1
2nd press – moves every open window (including all other open applications) from monitor 2 to monitor 1, leaving monitor 1 with just the desktop wallpaper
After moving all the windows back to where I previously had them, I reassigned show/hide ribbon to F6, and this now works to spec, showing ‘F6’ correctly on mouseover.
Daniel Spreadbury
Glad you like the new user interface, Derek. It sounds like Command-F1 is being intercepted by another application or system preference on your Mac. I suggest you check in the Keyboard & Mouse pane of System Preferences.
Derek Williams
Ribbon>File>Inspector has screen geometry and focus amnesia. If click on a note, then click Inspector, the Inspector appears for that note, and I then drag the Inspector over to the right hand screen. However the Inspector vanishes if I click anywhere back on the score page. If I reopen the Inspector, it has forgotten where I just moved it. In earlier implementations, the Inspector used to stay open until closed, and remembered where it had been dragged to. It would also update when a sequence of notes was being arrowed through. The new Inspector does not dynamically update and has to be reopened for each note event.
Daniel Spreadbury
You’re using the Inspector in the wrong way. Read the topic in the Reference Guide about the Inspector, and it should all make sense. Essentially, if you want it to remember where you put it, pin it; but I recommend you leave it to its own devices and only summon it when you actually need it.
Derek Williams
Thank you Daniel, that’s working as I want now, defintely better overall. I notice pitch, an erstwhile Properties value, has been transferred to the score page footer, which now allows individual notes to be picked out of a chord. This is very useful, because it allows one to work out the pitch of very thick chords with a large number of leger lines. One slight inconvenience is the pitch can no longer be manually edited as it used to be able to be directly in Properties field, however I have found the up/down arrow keys + Ctrl (Mac) take the pitch to the desired destination in semitone increments.
Jürgen Simpson
Very exciting to see this!
My biggest hope for Sibelius 7 was to solve the optimization of playback routing problems when using large manual sound sets in Sib6. When I started using larger manual sound sets I gradually got slower playback reactions until the point was reached where the apple beachball would spend many seconds spinning as it rebuilt the cache for the entire score.
I currently cut my larger scores into relatively small sections. It would be great not to have to do this and use the large soundsets and not have the long playback start delays. Will this be solved through the 64 bit support?
Thanks!
Daniel Spreadbury
The way that sound ID routing works in Sibelius 7 is not substantially different to how it was in Sibelius 6, so we haven’t specifically profiled it in Sibelius 7. I’d be interested to hear your feedback on whether you find it any faster.
Derek Williams
Note Input>Reduce is about 1000 times slower than Sibelius 6. Unusably slow. So I very much regret this is “goodbye version 7” until it is fixed.
Derek Williams
This is a nightmare. Export from Sibelius 7 score to Sibelius 6 has stripped out ALL of the dynamics from an entire scene from my opera! So now I am either stuck with this one (and only) scene in version 7 waiting *literally* hours to Reduce staves, or I have to re-enter hundreds of dynamics.
Derek Williams
Here is some more feedback before I have to revert to Sibelius 6:
Some old frustrations of Sibelius 6 and earlier, still present in Sibelius 7:
1. Newly built-in functions like halve and double values are essentially still the originating plug-ins and open a complete blank copy of the original score, painfully slow if it’s for full symphony orchestra, 22 soloists and double choir for example. This new 1 bar score then becomes the default “last opened” score. Who is ever going to want to open as default an edit score consisting of just one empty bar for full orchestra with one doubled rhythm in it next time Sibelius is relaunched? This is completely unnecessary, time wasting and annoying. Such simple edits should be performed in situ, instantaneously and be undoable/redoable. Moreover the temporary score opened should never become the “Open Recent” default document.
2. Slurs over notes that are beamed across staves do not stick to the cross-beamed notes (such as for harp), requiring constant readjustment after every Optimize or other staff spacing changes. This problem has been in existence ever since cross beaming was introduced. Anything attached to a note should stick to it, no matter where it is moved to.
3. When pasting text such as a dynamic across a range of staves, between which are hidden empty staves, the hidden staves receive the pasted data too, thereby become no longer ’empty staves’, and thus thereafter failing eligibility for ’empty staff’ status. This causes them to become visible again next time Hide Empty Staves is reinvoked Only staves that are visible should receive pasted data.
4. If the Inspector is in focus, then the shortcut for hide/show ribbon is disabled. Hide/Show Ribbon should always be able to invoked with its assigned shortcut, no matter which window is to the front.
5. Finally, I am finding that if I drag a staff down to force its upper neighbour upwards, as I drag down, the upper staff keeps dropping back. I tried to make a Screen Recording of this behaviour using Quicktime player, but this quirk stops happening as soon as I start recording the movie. I am guessing there is a timing issue in there somewhere.
I have a lot more to add, but the above became apparent within a short period of using Sibelius 7.
These problems amplify my earlier post above regarding tuplets, namely that while the redesign is great, and the new features to be applauded, nuisance behaviours such as those above should be cleared away first. They’re all the more frustrating in light of the fact that I have presented these in support emails over the years. It should be a matter for embarrassment to Sibelius that the long-orphaned Composers’ Mosaic by Mark of the Unicorn was already able to do all these things with no fuss more than 15 years ago.
I can only hope these defects will be dealt with between versions, without another two year wait for Version 8.
Paul Harrison
I’ve been testing this new version for a couple of days, and found it very buggy indeed. In fact after several days of testing, it’s stopped working entirely – I have a week old new installation of OSX 10.7. On the first attempt to run the application, I’m presented with “Sibelius quit while trying to restore its windows, do you want to try to restore windows again?”. Neither response results in the app opening successfully. I have seen this error message with other apps which have not yet been updated to work with Lion’s resume feature, so seemingly Sib 7 is not fully compatible either. I was generally satisfied with the UI changes and new features, but I’ll be waiting until a 7.1 or 7.2 release until I buy this.
Daniel Spreadbury
Paul, would you mind emailing me your crash logs? We’ve been testing Sibelius 7 under Lion for months and we haven’t experienced that problem. I’m sorry you’ve run into problems so quickly, and I’d like to look into this issue further.
DANIEL CARNO
Hello Daniel,
I am a long time user of Sibelius, ever since the Windows version first appeared, using it mainly for engraving and copy work.
There are some excellent new features in Sibelius 7: the sticky tuplets are welcome, as well as the text enhancements. The streamlining of the Properties (Inspector Panel) & the ability to access same via the keyboard are valuable time and energy savers.
The biggest changes have come with the new interface, and, while it is certainly attractive and logical, it demands (in my view) far more activity with the mouse while reducing the ability to access & automate key features via third-party macro programs. My experience has been that in order for macro programs to run items contained in the ribbon, they must be run painfully slow, if they work at all.
While I have no problem using the Sibelius in-program shortcuts feature, it does not allow assignment of shortcuts to most of the filters, for example.
Am I missing some easy work-around here?
Thanks,
Dan Carno
Daniel Spreadbury
Glad you like Sibelius 7 overall so far, Dan. You should be able to create shortcuts to filters via the ‘Home tab’ category in Keyboard Shortcuts in Preferences. Let me know if you can’t find a specific filter you’re looking for.
Regarding macro programs and the ribbon, you should find that provided you have a 200ms delay after hitting Alt (or Control on Mac) to trigger key tips, you don’t then need to put in any further artificial delays.
Anders
Hi!
I’m waiting for schoolstart to recieve my SN, so I can’t post at the forum yet.
Congratulations (and thank you) with a new version. The new UI is very exciting, and I think that when we all get used to it, it will have a great potential.
I run Sibelius 7 on a norwegian version of Lion. I have a brand new MBP and a one year old 27″ iMac with the best specs available at the time of purchase. Both computers formatted last Thursday with few other apps installed. All problems occur similar on both machines.
I’ve discovered a few bugs that I want to share:
1. There is a problem with the default keypad shortcut for adding dots. In the shortcut set, “dots” is set to recieve “.”, while my keypad transmits a “,”. I use a original wired Apple keyboard. I just changed the shortcut, and it’s working fine now.
2. When I try to open more than files simultaneously, Sibelius crashes. It looks like it loop the opening command, and tries to open more instances of the same file. For example: If i have Score 1.sib open alone, it works fine. If I then open Score 2.sib whitout closing Score 1.sib, the result is “Score 1.sib, Score 2.sib, Score 2.sib, Score 2.sib, Score 2.sib …….” – it never ends. The only way to stop it is to force exit.
3. The Quick Start menu won’t work as smoothly as it should. It is generally laggy and sometimes it’s a complete mess (with the search bar suddenly at the middel of the screen, etc.).
I’ll post more if I hit them. To be clear – this is not meant to be critism, but rather a little help.
Best regards, Anders
Daniel Spreadbury
1. Thanks for your comment. Regarding the keypad issue, I think we need to define , as well as . as a shortcut for ‘. on Keypad’, which we have done in the non-English shortcut sets, but not in the one for English-language keyboards.
2. If you could email me your crash logs, I’d be interested to see them.
Anders
By the way:
I would love to create a keyboard shortcut for exporting PDF, but can’t find it. I find “Export MIDI file”, “Export Graphics”, “Export Audio” and etc., but no PDF. Is this something you’ve missed, or will we never have it?
Anders
Daniel Spreadbury
This is on our wish list, Anders.
ollier vincent
cmd+A don’t work?!!!
Daniel Spreadbury
It certainly should do. You’re on Mac, I assume, but what keyboard language are you using, and in what language are you running Sibelius?
ollier vincent
tuplet (alt+shift+K)chorcut don’t work. Is it my computer?
Daniel Spreadbury
This is a little bug in the non-English keyboard shortcut sets. You can define it for yourself in Keyboard Shortcuts in Preferences, by going to ‘Tuplets’ and then setting the shortcut for ‘Toggle sticky tuplets’.
Paul Harrison
Hi Daniel, yes, I can send you the crash logs, though the app sent some automatically following each crash.
Ian Partridge
The typography improvements look great – and I like the change to Plantin as the default font. It has that “professional music” look. One quick question: if I have Sibelius 6 scores which have used the default styles (Times New Roman etc.) will they automatically be converted to Plantin when I open them in Sibelius 7, or is there a conversion process to follow?
It’s interesting to learn that Plantin is what OUP use. I’m wondering what other major publishers such an Barenreiter use – does anyone know?
Daniel Spreadbury
You can import one of the default Sibelius 7 house styles into an existing score to make it use Plantin.
ollier vincent
Hello, I’m on french keyboard (on mac). ‘W’ the shortcut did not work, but by editing again, it works. I wanted to repeat the operation with ‘cmd + A’ but it does not work.
thanks
Derek Williams
I relaunched Sibelius 7 so as to use the Check For Updatesin order to find out whether there anything new was up. I found that for some reason, this is no longer in the Help menu, so I clicked Online Support. This link appears to be broken, as nothing happened when I tried it several times.
Is the Check For Updates option going to be reinstated, or is the Online Support link (when connected) going to be where to find updates in future?
Daniel Spreadbury
Perhaps you didn’t spot the Check For Updates button directly above the Online Support button in the File > Help page?
Derek Williams
Aha, so that’s where they’ve put it. I’d like to suggest that it be also restored where it was, because in this new place, it means you have to open a score first, then check for updates. If there is an update, then there is no point in having already opened the score.
Help Menu>Online Support is still dead however. The one on the page you’ve mentioned goes to http://www.sibelius.com/helpcenter/index.html, so I suggest this should be the same in the Help menu, which is globally selectable prior to as well as after opening a score, no matter which TAB in the ribbon one happens to be on at the time.
Arthur Schroeck
Sounds great, I’d like to down load it as soon as possible.
Cesare Valentini
Dear Daniel I downloaded the new sib 7 version and I cannot open with my mac dual core duo Leopard. Ok no problem, I deleted the software and then…… All my scores opened with the version have strange fonts!
I tried to change fonts but it’s impossible to read correctly, what can I do?
It’s a great problem for my job…. please suggest to me a solution
Thanks!
Daniel Spreadbury
See http://www.sibelius.com/helpcenter/en/a552 and that should take care of your font problems.
Hernan Cruz Soto
Can Sibelius 7 write 3, 4, 5 voices chords like in J.S. Bach works in which stems or notes are not align to the upper or down notes but a little aside?
And is possible with Sibelius 7 to write several texts with different fonts and justify text like a Microsoft word?
Daniel Spreadbury
Yes, Hernan, Sibelius can support up to four simultaneous voices, and you can adjust the horizontal alignment of notes within voices freely. You can also use quite advanced text features in Sibelius, and it does indeed include DTP-style text frames, lots of control over fonts, and much more besides.
David Isaac
I agree with Derek about the Note Input>Reduce. I tried it for a 7 staff 4 measure passage and it took about 15 seconds. When I tried to undo it, Sibelius crashed. I just tried it again. Sibelius crashed again. I sent AVID my crash log so maybe that will help. :)
I don’t think I like the new menus. I always hated Word 2011 menus. I did like how Sibelius ran before. So…Why reinvent the wheel?
Teodor
Dear developers of Sibelius software, will you be in the future to add support for Russian language? We are interested in your wonderful program and we can offer you our help to translate into Russian. Grateful Russian users.
Daniel Spreadbury
We don’t have any current plans to support Russian, but we never say never!
Koshiro Nishida
Which software of Sib7 can I buy?
My Sib6 S/N starts SCJX.
And I am a teacher of a university.
Please suggest.
Daniel Spreadbury
Koshiro, you can buy a standard Sibelius 7 upgrade. Please contact your local reseller or Avid Japan for purchasing information.
Claude
Sibelius 7 Demo crashes all the time… Basically every time I try to select a few notes using the SHIFT key. I’m also using the video tool and connected to Vienna ensemble Pro server.
Besides this it’s a nice update, but dissapointing not to see the addition of MIDI Ports.
Windows 7 (64 bit), Intel i7, 24GB Ram, Vienna Ensemble Pro.
Daniel Spreadbury
Claude, please send me your crash logs (in Windows Explorer, type %TEMP% into the address bar, then look for files whose names match Sibelius*.dmp) and we’ll look into this.
Derek Williams
@David I believe this has now been identifed as a bug.
Re your comment about the ribbon, I have to say I find this new structure in Sibelius to be more integrated, because every function is now no more than two clicks, and usually just one click away if you happen to be already on the right tab. With the old menu driven approach, I found they would often keep dropping back up and down during selection, and you sometimes have to drill down very deep even for functions that you use frequently. For example:
Create>Text>Other Staff Text>Plain Text
Create>Other>Instrument Change>Instrument dialog
The new Text tab for example, displays absolutely everything to do with text in a single easily accessed ribbon, whereas menus are in effect nooks and crannies in a maze that you have to hold down a mouse button to navigate. In the old Sibelius, text was all over the place.
The keybinding shortcuts that you’re used to for the older menu system in Sibelius 6 work just the same in Sibelius 7, and you can still Add/Edit these in Preferences from the File menu. Also, the ribbon palettes bring up the same dialog sub-options as before. Some of the more frequently used plug-ins have been moved from the Plug-ins menu to the sections they’re more properly related to, and Text is no exception. All the plug-ins on the Text page relate only to Text.
While I still wish they’d fix up all those old bugbears I’ve whinged about, personally I’m very impressed by this new approach. Sibelius is now a far more unified application.
Derek Williams
Is there some way one can assign a shortcut to Tab selection? I can see sub-options for each Tab in File>Preferences>Shortcuts, but nothing for the selection of the actual Tabs themselves. I would probably want to assign Tab key to go rightwards (File, Home, Note Input, Notations etc) and Shift+Tab to go leftwards, but that’s already taken for “next object”. If not, can this be added to the presumably now much shorter wish list?
I’d also like to suggest that a Tab should change colour more dramatically when it’s selected; currently only File is a dramatic purple, and that stays purple no matter what else is selected. Same goes for ‘Find in Ribbon’ – that yellow-for-selected is way too anaemic for my 58 year old eyes!
Derek Williams
More for wish list:
After Undo operation, please do not scroll the score *anywhere*. I am in the process of Doing and Undoing Reduce to see the effects, however after each Undo, the score scrolls hundreds of bars back to the start for some reason. I then have to page forward over and over to the bar I was on to see the effect of the Do or Undo, each and every time.
Derek Williams
While we’re on the subject, this website scrolls back to Page 1 of the Comments after a new comment has been posted. I would like to suggest the same, leave the page where it is and simply append the new comment.
Derek Williams
I would like to suggest that +Shift+I should toggle the Inspector closed if it is open regardless of whether or not an event is selected, then re-open if it is shut and an event is selected (as at present). Currently only the mouse will close it, and of course W closes the entire score window, as expected.
This would be consistent with other toggling behaviours such as W that switches between Score and Part view for selected stave(s).
Derek Williams
There are issues with the Export feature. Export>Sibelius 6 ‘edited’ my chosen target filename by removing the internal suffix ‘.red’ from it. I’ll be sending a screenshot to you of this behaviour.
Source filename of open score:
“4. Wilde Act I Scene 3 Wildes at Home.red.sib”
Target filename that Export>Sibelius 6 changed it to:
“4. Wilde Act I Scene 3 Wildes at Home.sib”
I find it is not possible to copy from or paste into the filename text field of the file browser window, producing only a beep if this is attempted. It is however still possible by clicking on a visible file in the browser window, to change the saved-to name to that of the clicked on file.
Also, Export has become a very much slower function, taking over a minute for each attempt.