Sibelius 7 first impressions

A look at the new Sibelius 7. Keep an eye out on my YouTube page in the near future for some screen shots and more detailed looks.

Highlights

• For someone upgrading from older versions, plan to spend time learning the changes
• Gone are the menus, welcome the ‘ribbon’
• Text handling changed (typography & frames)
• New text font
• Gone is the user menu structure (location of user house styles, manuscripts, etc)
• Improved status bar at bottom
• New quick-start
• Improvements to dialogs (resizeable, find functions)
• New, improved mixer window
• Printing setup improved
• Music XML support
• Note input changes (sticky tuplet & lines, a Finale-like speedy entry option)
• Shift existing notes up/down chromatically
• Graphics export changed (PDF output built in, even in Windows)
• New plug-ins

Upgraders & Finale converts

As someone who upgraded from Sibelius 6, this version is taking me a bit of time to get use to the new layout. Some items are harder to find at first. Once you know where they are, it is arguably easier to find the next time you need them. There were few changes of key commands.

I’m not sure if convert is the right word, but for those coming from Finale (as I did with version 6), one word: patience. Sibelius approaches tasks from a completely different way than Finale. It is not a task based/tool based approach. It is more what I would call a ‘selection’ based method. Select an item, do something with it, whether it be selecting a staff, typing the N key and entering notes or highlighting a region and pressing CTRL-arrow up to move the notes up an octave. Once you figure out how Sibelius does thing and start thinking that way, you’ll have no problem. The way Sibelius does text I think is more powerful than Finale, but so different that it may create the biggest challenges.

Ribbon

Gone are the menus and in is the ‘ribbon.’ If you’ve used Office products from version 2003 on, you’ve used the ribbon at the top. This will cause the biggest dislike among users of previous versions, but if you are new to Sibelius, embrace the ribbon and use it to your advantage. Similar to the menus, there are different tabs that specify different tasks. Organized to help the workflow in a natural way, each tab contains tasks related to that tab. The View tab, for example, gives many options for indicating what items you want to display (eg. handles, hidden items, etc). While the ribbon does take up quite a bit of vertical space, you can minimize the ribbon so that it looks more like menus. My tests with Sibelius 6 & 7 suggest that when the ribbon is minimized, you have just as much vertical space as in Sibelius 6.

Text

The text section has had a major re-write. There are now advanced typography functions available. These include line spacing, tracking, angle and text color. You can directly access an individual text item’s property on the text tab of the ribbon. The need for using the properties window (in Sib 6) is not needed. You can also specify that text fit into a fixed size frame. In newly created scores, it now uses a hierarchical system for text. (If you are opening a file from previous version, you’ll have to modify your text styles to take advantage of this). This means that you can specify that a particular text item will be based on another. Lyrics are the obvious example. Set Lyrics verse 1 as you want your lyrics to look. Then set lyrics verses 2 through 4 to be based on verse 1 lyrics. If you change the settings to verse 1, all the other verses will also change.

A new text font is included and is treated as the default. It is the Plantin font. If you are familiar with Oxford University Press, this is the font they use.

User files and program files location change

The location of the files related to Sibelius 7 have changed. Since the program is both 32 & 64 bit compatible, some aspects of the program data have changed. The what’s new file explains the changes. Since Sibelius is owned by Avid, it is stored in an Avid folder. A link to the user files location is included in the installation. On windows, it is in the start menu under the Avid folder, Sibelius part. This is where you put things like downloaded plugins and where the program stores manuscripts and house styles you create.

Improved status bar

The status bar at the bottom is improved. It shows more details about what you have selected. Also on the status bar are options for showing how the music is displayed (spreads) and the panorama option. A zoom fader with + and – buttons is also now available.

Quick start change

The quick-start has changed considerably. The new score and recent tabs give thumbnail views of the items to select. Manuscripts are organized by topics. There is a learn tab that gives links to various sorts of help. There is a latest news link that displays items from the Sibelius Blog.  (One of my YouTube tutorial videos is even on there as of this date).

Dialogs

Some dialogs can now be resized. There is some uniformity on where the ‘ok’ and cancel buttons show. Some dialogs, like the instrument selector have find boxes to help you find what you are after. (I wish they had done a find button with the keyboard shortcuts).

Mixer window

The mixer gets a new look. It looks more like a DAW mixer than it did before. There are three different sizes available, each size shows more. It is docked by default to the bottom of the screen. You can also undock the mixer.

Printing dialog changes

Press CTRL-P (or use the file tab) to get to the printer options. I find the new look to be easier to work with than the older system. There is also a print preview that is nice.

Music XML

I know many people complained that there was no XML output in Sibelius 6. Well, 7 introduces the ability to export XML.

Note input changes

Some note input changes were made. I suspect they were inspired by Finale. Most notable, ‘sticky’ tuplets. Once you start entering a tuplet, you can tell it that everything from that point on is a tuplet until you turn the sticky option off. Similarly, you can add slurs and lines during note input. If you were use to Finale, you can now specify that you pick the pitch prior to picking the duration. Personally, it never made much sense to pick a note value first before picking a pitch. Whatever your opinion, you can choose between the two. I’ve gotten so use to the default Sibelius 6 method that I haven’t even tried the pitch before value option. I eventually will.

Chromatic shifting of notes

This is something I find to be handy. If you already have some notes entered, you can select them, press the up and down arrows and they will go up and down in pitch. Diatonically. If you want to go up chromatically, use SHIFT-Page Up or to go down, SHIFT-Page down. (On Macs it is a different default key command).

Exporting

Exporting has an easier look to it. Graphics exporting has some improvements. The big thing for me is that you can now export your music directly to PDF format. Before I had to use either the full version of Acrobat (which I quit updating a few versions back because it is just too expensive) or an alternative. Now it is built in.

Plug-ins

Plug-ins are now listed by category. That is, depending on which tab you have selected will determine which plug-ins show up. Any plug-ins you might download will be listed in the home tab.

Tips

A big tip for anyone using the program is to learn the key commands. For example, instead of going to the file menu, then open to open an existing file, use the keystroke combination CTRL-O (letter O). The nice thing with Sibelius is that you can add your own key commands and even change existing ones. They are in the preferences.

If you import a keyboard shortcut set from a previous version, any shortcuts unique to version 7 will not be there. (Like the Shift-Page up/down mentioned above). I would suggest starting from the default 7 menu set and adding your own or changing the existing items. Alternatively, you could go through the what’s new and reference help to see what new keyboard commands have been added or changed and go from there.

Use CTRL-+ and CTRL– (minus key) to zoom in/out without having to use the slider at the bottom.

Use the inspector to see some of the finer detail about items. This replaces the properties window.

If using the new Organ sounds in 7, explore the playback dictionary to find out how to access the various stops included. The dictionary is also useful to look at for other playback features as well.

If you have a lot of customized items, create your own house style and/or manuscript papers. Use them when starting new documents.

If you can’t stand the purple background, no sweat, go to preference and change the texture to whatever you want. You want change all of that purple, but it does seem to tame down the purple.

 

New text font