Overall
Sibelius is a giant in the music notation world, being one of the industry standards for decades. A very powerful program, Sibelius offers composers and engravers countless options while making beautiful and easy to read scores. However, Sibelius suffers from a bloat problem, with a complicated and confusing UI, as well as some inefficiencies in design which can cause frustration. These issues are compounded by a steep learning curve. Nevertheless, once one has spent time learning the shortcuts and understanding the program, working in Sibelius can be extremely quick and efficient, saving time in the long run.
A Short Note
I have to point out two important factors that apply for the review. Firstly, it is important to know that Sibelius is the notation software I use for my own compositions, so I have plenty of experience using it. I have spent the time getting to know the program and as such, the speed measured for this test is for someone more experienced with the program. Be aware that a person new to Sibelius will not be anywhere near as quick.
The other note I must make is that this test was undertaken in Sibelius 7.5. The latest version of Sibelius is Sibelius Ultimate, which followed Sibelius 8. As such, this is not the newest version. However, I feel this test is still a good indicator of the product as changes have been very minor since version 7, with most changes not being noticed by many who use the software. Nevertheless, keep this in mind during the review.
UI
It is really unfortunate for Sibelius I begin with UI in these reviews. Issues around Sibelius' UI are quite well known these days. I could go into detail, but Tantacrul already made a 22 minute video that does that. See it below.
Let me provide a quick summary. Sibelius is a strong program that suffers greatly from its inability to manage bloat. There are ways that Avid (the creators of the later versions of Sibelius) could have managed this bloat well, making Sibelius easy to navigate and allowing all the provided options to be put to their fullest use. However, the implementation of the UI makes trying to find what you are looking for extremely difficult, even for people experienced in using the software. As an example, I still have no idea how to keep the timeline closed as a default (watch the video to find out about the timeline!), and I have been using this software for several years. This encapsulates the main issue with Sibelius: it has many options that are really hard to find.
Having said that, there are still some really cool and awesome parts of the Sibelius UI. Rather than cover already covered ground, I would like to point out the diamonds in the rough of the Sibelius UI. My two favourite features by far are the Keypad and the Transport.
Why do I love these two panels so much?
Let's begin with the keypad. In case it wasn't clear from the design, the keypad is matched with the numpad on the standard desktop keyboard. Using these shortcuts makes inputting notes extremely quick and easy, while also providing a visual of what you have selected. You can also click the numpad using the mouse, however this is a lot slower. If you are going to use Sibelius, it is vital that you learn to use the numpad and know what functions are available within it. Unfortunately, many modern laptops do not come with a numpad, and with many more users moving to laptop, this efficiency is being lost. To avoid this problem, it can be worth purchasing a larger laptop that includes a numpad in the keyboard, or it is possible to purchase an external numpad that can be connected to your laptop. Of course, if you are having to purchase new equipment to make the most of a piece of software, it would be fair to consider the cost of this equipment a hidden cost involved in using the software.
Moving onto the transport. It is nothing particularly special, but it provides a lot of useful information all in the one place. More importantly, these are options and information you want to all be in the same place! The transport allows you to play, stop, fast-forward and rewind, and record with the playback. It also allows one to add a metronome to playback, as well as change the speed. The tempo in BMP, current bar and beat, and length of piece are all displayed in the transport also. There is also a slider, which allows the user to quickly move the playback line around the score. Perhaps my favourite thing about the transport though is that it is not part of the usual navigation panel, meaning it is not taking up valuable space. Simple, yet effective.
Two last features to point out in the Sibelius UI are the Keyboard and Fretboard panels. These display a keyboard and fretboard respectively, which allow for the input of notes from different instrumental graphics. These can be really useful for students beginning to learn notation and how it relates to the instruments they play. It means students that are not as strong readers are not as limited in their ability to notate, and can ease students in to this way of recording music.
Options
From one extreme to another. The opposite side of the coin of the bloat Sibelius experiences is the shear amount of options available to users. It is in this category that Sibelius really shines.
Sibelius makes scores highly customisable. You are able to move and resize all of the elements no the screen, from the text to note stems, from the bar lines to staves sizes and note names. You can also add graphics into scores through the graphics function, and create your own noteheads. This can be really useful if you are trying to create graphic scores digitally, or if you use a very specific extended technique throughout a piece of music.
Sibelius is also useful for more than just basic notation. You can also write music to video in Sibelius, which is extremely useful for film projects. These may be few and far between, but for students interested in pursuing this style of writing, it is something definitely worth looking at and encouraging them to experiment with.
Sibelius also provides gives users the ability so assign hotkeys. This is extremely useful if you are writing a piece of music that, for example, uses a lot of bowings. Rather than have to input one manually through all of Sibelius' messy and inefficient menus, you can simply hit the hotkey. This is another case of the potential of Sibelius to be very efficient once you have got a handle on it.
Export and playback options are also aplenty. You can export the audio as a .wav file, which can be really useful for creating aural tasks for students, or letting performers have a basic listen to the general sound of the piece. This option becomes even better if you use a downloaded sound library such as NotePerformer or the library that comes with Sibelius. You can also download as a video, for those who are working in film. PDF export is available for when you want to create a digital score to distribute or use yourself on a device, and graphic export means you do not need to take screenshots of your score in order to show part of it through images. There are also the options to export as MusicXML and Midi, which allows the content to be transferred to other programs (notation and DAWs respectively). There is also finally the manuscript paper option, which allows you to create a template from the current score.
Accuracy
Sibelius accurately follows all of the standards for music notation. Any time the composer feels like something may not be quite right, they also have the ability to manually change the look of the music.
Speed
To notate G-I of Elements took me 25 minutes and 30 seconds. This included all of the stemming, which I could have Sibelius do automatically when I created the time signature. Like I said at the start, please remember that I am a rather experienced Sibelius user and it is the notation software I use when notating my own music, so this is not an accurate representation of an inexperienced student using this program for the first time. An inexperienced user would no doubt take a lot longer than I did, and potentially over an hour.
Cost
Sibelius ties with Finale for being the most expensive notation software to purchase in full without an education discount, and the second most expensive with the education discount. It is also possible to purchase a cut down version of Sibelius for about $220, but this is still more expensive than Dorico Elements, as well as Flat.io premium. As such, Sibelius is definitely on the expensive side of the group.
NOTE: THIS POST IS PART OF AN ASSESSMENT AND IS NOT QUITE FINISHED. IT HAS BEEN PUBLISHED SO IT CAN BE MARKED. DO NOT WORRY, A COMPLETE VERSION WILL BE PUBLISHED SOON.