How many people here use Sibelius for the ACTUAL COMPOSITION PROCESS?
Now, the reason I say this, is because way too many people have said to me they no longer work with manuscript and pencil, but instead use Sibelius - Instantly, my brain cells (or the ones I have left at least) start to go crazy.
It really amazes me at how gullable people can be about Sibelius. Sibelius is a notaional package, and yes, while there are many cool things you can accomplish compositionally with sibelius, it really cannot do the job the same as the brain can by looking at a blank sheet of manuscript!
There is a major problem here - the reviews (along with the advanved features of Sibelius) advise that Sibelius can be a great compositional tool, people read the reviews, play with the features and walla, they call themelves composers (or arrangers)
Sibelius is a machine, the problem is it's just to perfect, low tubas can play fast awkward semiquavers that would sound muddy in real life, but the 'virtual' composer is oblivous because of the sound that's comeing from the soundcard, which, let's face it, sounds *beep*.
When your COMPOSING ON SIBELIUS, you'll find you need to 'add more stuff' to make it sound full - opps, no, no - take it to your Band and you'll soon see how very little playing can sound full! - Good quality sound comes from the brain, not the soundcard or sibelius.
Also accent, dynamics and general humanity is lost, the ear hears and is driven by what Sibelius plays back, and what it plays back is wrong.
Contrary to popular (and misguided) belief, Sibelius is rubbish and playing back scores!!!!!!! For anyone who regards themselves a professional, I'm sure you'll agree with me. With the advent of Sibelius 3, some aspects of crapy playback can be tweeked (ie altering the volume for individual notes - a much needed facility of you ask me!)
My advice is this: Forget about Sibelius - don't use the gimmicks, get manuscript paper and use Sibelius what it does best - MUSIC NOTATION. If you want to hear it back properly (ie outwith Sibelius) either take it to your Band (or local band) and have them play it or export it as MIDI File, import it into Cubase and mess about and tweek it for the best performance (without altering any of the notes, etc)
Now, no doubt you fling back at me the ADVANTAGES of composing on Sibelius - which, as a competent Sibelius user, I know practically all of them, and they don't hold enough ground in my book.
But anyway, I just thought it would be interesting to see who is using Sibelius to compose music instead of doing some hard work for a change!
