Sibelius 7 - Music Notation Software

New in Sibelius 7

Task-Oriented User Interface

• User interface provides task-focused tabs that lead you through the process of creating a score from start to finish
• Every feature has both an icon and a text description which you can access via a button or a keyboard shortcut with full contextual help available when you need it

Professional Sound Library

• More than 38GB of professional content, including a specially recorded symphony orchestra, rock and pop instruments, and much more

Native 64-bit Support

• 64-bit capable hardware and operating systems provide big speed and memory advantages.
• Sibelius 7 enables you to unlock the full power of your 64-bit system and work more quickly, with more virtual instruments and effects

Text and Typography Enhancements

• Take advantage of the latest OpenType fonts, including advanced features like ligatures, and employ them in text frames with full DTP-level capabilities
• There's no need to export projects to a separate DTP application - now you can complete many of them within Sibelius 7

Graphics Import and Export

• Easy to import graphics in all major formats, then manipulate them to build complex layouts for publishing, creating teaching materials, instructional books, and more.
• You can export the full score as publication-quality graphics in PDF format, plus individual pages or smaller sections in EPS, PNG, and SVG formats

Compose and Edit

Magnetic Layout

• Takes care of almost every detail of score layout for you
• As you write, it gives everything just the right amount of space and avoids collisions, producing beautiful results.
• Saves you up to half your writing time

Dynamic Parts

• Unlike other programs that require you to extract instrumental parts from the full score, Sibelius provides Dynamic Parts
• Feature automatically creates separate instrumental parts and instantly updates them as you make changes to the score

Panorama

• For easy reading and navigation, the Panorama feature lets you see your music as a single, infinitely wide strip
• Focus on the notes and forget about page layout until you're ready to print

Creating Music

• Powerful music creation toolset - from the Flexi-time MIDI input system and Keyboard and Fretboard windows, to the ability to input music via a microphone

The Ideas Hub

• Lets you capture, use, and reuse snippets of music
• Save your own ideas, or take advantage of the over 2,000 included samples, which are ideal for teaching

Track Changes and Compare Versions

• Versions feature keeps track of revisions to your score, lets you look back at earlier versions, and see what changes were made since
• Collaboration becomes a joy, and you can even use sticky Comments to leave notes for yourself, or others

M-Audio HyperControl Support

• M-Audio Axiom Pro keyboard controllers feature HyperControl technology, which automatically maps the keyboard's controls to commonly accessed parameters in select music software, such as Sibelius
• HyperControl creates a constant two-way link between hardware and software so the keyboard's controls are always in sync with active parameters in Sibelius

Play, Perform and Share

VST and Audio Units

• Sibelius can play back your score using the huge variety of VST and Audio Unit instruments available from numerous manufacturers
• You can use world-famous sounds such as the EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra, Vienna Symphonic Library, Synful Orchestra, and many others
• Works with KONTAKT Player and KONTAKT-format sounds as well
• You can also use a wide variety of effects to enhance your sound (such as advanced reverb, EQ, and filters, which you can chain and mix together)
• Combine a variety of different VST or Audio Unit instruments and effects simultaneously to customize your sound

Integrated Playback

• Delivers high-quality, integrated playback - just hit the space bar and Sibelius will play your score back to you
• The SoundWorld system automatically chooses the best available sounds to make your score sound as realistic as possible
• It's easy to fine-tune your playback using the Mixer, which features high-quality effects including convolution reverb and chorus on each staff, plus up to six faders for other effects (EQ, distortion, timbre, etc.)
• All fader positions and settings are saved in the score, so you won't have to adjust them next time you open it

ReWire

• ReWire is a standard that lets you record audio from Sibelius on a digital audio workstation (DAW), such as Pro Tools
• Also synchronizes Sibelius with your DAW so they can play back at the same time, starting playback in one program initiates it simultaneously in the other

Conduct Your Scores

• Live Tempo lets you conduct the playback of your score to produce a nuanced, musical performance
• Simply tap a key on your computer keyboard, MIDI keyboard, or foot pedal, and Sibelius follows your beat

Espressivo and Rubato

• Espressivo and Rubato are unique features that add elegant expression as Sibelius plays
• Espressivo makes subtle adjustments to the dynamics to produce musical phrasing, and Rubato varies the tempo, just like a human performer

Special Notations

Slurs

• Features beautiful and controllable slurs
• You can also adjust their shape using no fewer than six handles, and alter their thickness individually
• Various Engraving Rules options let you control the default height and shoulder for different slur lengths

Cautionary Accidentals

• Sibelius automatically adds cautionary accidentals wherever they're needed, so you'll get fewer wrong notes in performance
• The default setting should do just what you want, but the included various options allow you to tweak where to use cautionary accidentals (e.g. up to the end of the next bar, between different octaves or voices, or when tying notes between systems), and whether to draw them in parentheses

Repeat Bars

• You can add 1-, 2-, and 4-bar repeats from the Keypad, which play back just like anything else
• Multiple repeat bars can also be automatically numbered (without using a plug-in), so performers won't lose their place

Jazz Articulations and Slashes

• You can quickly add scoops, falls, doits, and plops to notes from the Keypad - no need to use symbols
• Like other articulations, they position automatically and transpose with the notes, but you can also move them individually
• Jazz articulations even play back on suitable MIDI devices (e.g. Garritan Jazz and Big Band)
• Slashes also stay put when the rest of the music transposes, making rhythm charts quicker to produce
• Other jazz improvements include enhanced chord symbols, which you can input faster than ever from your computer or MIDI keyboard

Modern Notations

• Includes optional stemlets ('half-stems') for rests in beamed groups
• You can either use stemlets throughout the score, or add them to individual rests from the Keypad
• There are various other options for beamed rests too, even without stemlets
• Sibelius also has automatic "feathered" beams, for showing brief accels/rits
• Choose them from the Keypad, and they even work on two-note tremolos

Other Notations

• You can add wiggly arpeggio lines to spread chords instantly, straight from the Keypad and as they're attached to notes, the software automatically allows room for them, and they transpose with the notes too
• Use a normal wiggly line, or one with an up- or down-pointing arrow
• You can also make ties break across time signatures, by being drawn behind them
• You can make any object go in front of or behind any other, like in many drawing programs, particularly useful for putting imported graphics in front of or behind staves
• Articulations are automatically drawn inside or outside slurs or tuplets depending on the situation, with a host of subtle options
• You can also reposition multiple articulations on the same note individually rather than all at once