finale v. sibelius

MarathonMan88
Sat, 14 Jul 2007 22:50:51 +0000

I’ve used both programs to do fairly complex tasks; both are very powerful, sophisticated notation programs that can do virtually anything musicians normally need to do–including near (but not quite) professional-level music engraving. Both programs also have their quirks, even at doing basic things. Finale has real problems with hyphens in vocal music, and strange looking slurs, for example; and Sibelius files tend to get corrputed when sent as e-mail attachments with some clients. Finale probably has a steeper learning curve initially, but (probably because I used it first) seems easier to “fool” into doing nonstandard things.

Both are probably more powerful than anything most people will ever really need, so I would look at factors like cost, what program is used at your school, etc.