 |
Sibelius 5 has just been released and is now better than ever. Easily the most popular notation program used in Australia, Sibelius makes tasks such composing and arranging music for all kinds of ensembles a fun thing to do. But, as many of you who already use this program will know, Sibelius offers much more. It can be used in many ways to enhance your teaching program, and even help you create teaching aids specifically tailored to your classes.
One of the key features of Sibelius has always been its user friendly layout. While this has not changed, the creators have used feedback from customers around the globe to make the new Sibelius 5 even faster and easier to use.
- World's Top Notation Program |
One of the most important innovations included in Sibelius 5 is the new professional quality sounds. Some years ago, Sibelius creators realised that many users of their product never heard their projects played by real musicians; they were designed only to be played back by a computer. Therefore, including better quality software sounds became a priority. To address this, Sibelius 5 now includes over 150 high-quality, professional sampled sounds from the well-known Garritan range. These include orchestral sounds, jazz and big band, concert and marching band, rock and pop sounds as well as selections from their world music collection. This means that your compositions can now have the same realistic sounds that many professional composers use. With Sibelius 5 you can also mix-and-match sounds from different sources, such as Garritan Personal Orchestra, Kontakt Gold and General MIDI, within the one composition. The number of sounds you can use within a single composition is now only limited by the capabilities of your computer.
 |
Another major new innovation for Sibelius 5 is the Ideas Hub. This is like having a list of all the thematic ideas for your composition on hand at all times. You can either choose to use some of the 2000 ideas that are already loaded into Sibelius 5 or create you own. Ideas can range from thematic melodies and chord progressions, to bass lines and drum beats. These are easily cut-and-pasted into your work at any point, with Sibelius 5 automatically transposing your idea during the cut-and-paste operation. You can even take an idea in blocked chord harmony or counterpoint and explode it into your string parts.
Another great innovation is the Panorama view. This allows you to view your score as one complete scroll, with no page breaks. At all points in your score the “Magic Margin” (down the left hand side of the page) shows you exactly which staves you are viewing. Then, with the click of a button, you can view your score in pages, to make any layout changes before printing.
One nice new feature is the easy instrument change. This is an essential for anyone wishing to create an instrumental part for a doubling player. You can now incorporate both instruments on a single stave with an instrument change in the middle. During playback, the instrument sound will even change where indicated.
Sibelius 5 also has many other new nifty features that users familiar with Sibelius 4 will welcome. Most are designed to make working with Sibelius 5 much faster and easier. These include delete bars, create cues, undo-able plug-ins, insert blank pages, different margins for different pages, fit lyrics to music, opus note names plus many more.
To check out these innovations for yourself, a free demo copy of Sibelius 5 is available from www.sibelius.com.au or speak to Amanda at Ellaways Underwood or Rick at the Kedron store.
