I often receive inquiries wondering if 9” x 12” paper was acceptable for orchestral use, or if 10” x 13” is necessary. Here are my thoughts based on experience preparing music for hundreds of orchestral projects.
parts
Don’t extract parts
Ever since Sibelius 4 introduced Dynamic Parts feature in 2005, and Finale 2007 followed in due course with Linked Parts a year later, I’ve hardly ever needed to extract parts from a Finale or Sibelius file — and you shouldn’t have to, either.
Bug with rests in multiple voices in parts affects earlier files opened in Sibelius 8.5
If you work in Sibelius 8.5.1 and open files created in earlier Sibelius versions in which rests were manually moved to avoid notes, be aware that the position of those rests has shifted in the parts for your file, with no warning.
How to tape and fold pages for parts: a video tutorial
The question often gets asked: How does one print and tape music accordion-style? In this blog post and accompanying video, learn the technique and tools you need to accomplish that very task.
Using the Open Selected Parts plug-in in Sibelius
Bob Zawalich’s Open Selected Parts plug-in for Sibelius not only makes it faster to open just the parts you want, but it also quickly closes unwanted parts at the same time.
Sibelius 8.3 released with individual note colors, other fixes
Sibelius 8.3 is available. It introduces the ability to individually color notes, improves upon 8.2’s sliding feature by more intelligently grouping rests, and improves the independent enharmonic spelling feature introduced in 8.2.
Sibelius 8.2 released with new “sliding” feature and enharmonic differences in parts
Sibelius 8.2 introduces the ability to enharmonically spell notes differently in a part and the score, a new sliding feature which moves notes and rests horizontally, and better placement of repeat barlines in relation to time signatures.
Sibelius 8.2 features start appearing on web sites
Sibelius 8.2 has not officially been made available, but details about its new features have already appeared on Avid’s web site as well as that of a Japanese distributor.
A solution to the problem of instrument changes, key signatures, and multirests (finally)
A video tutorial that describes a multi-step solution to a persistent problem in Sibelius: instrument changes with key signatures that break multirests and don’t display correctly in the score or part.
Open a new window
If you’ve never tried opening a new window in the same document before, you’ll be whistling a new song once you learn how and why to do it, in Sibelius, Finale and MuseScore.