Sibelius 3 Slated for Release Next Month
 September 25, 2003
Sibelius Software Ltd. announced the next version of their music notation software, Sibelius 3.0. The software, which contains more than 170 new features and over 30 additional plug-ins, will be available in October.
One of the enhancements to 3.0 is the inclusion of the Kontakt Player Silver, a joint effort between Sibelius Software London and software synthesis company Native Instruments. The Kontakt Player Silver enables users to play back music using high-quality instrumental samples, burn compositions to CD, and create audio files for posting on the Internet. It contains 20 instrumental sounds -- a selection of brass, woodwind, strings, percussion, voices and a Bosendorfer piano. Kontakt Player Gold, which may be purchased separately, has 64 instrumental and 100 percussion sounds, including a wide range of orchestral and band instruments.
The look and feel of Sibelius 3 has been further improved with a fresh interface and a new smoothness setting for extra display clarity and enhanced zooming and navigation. Focus on Staves aids navigation and editing of scores when writing for large ensembles, enabling specified staves to be viewed or hidden. Shadow Notes makes input of notes with a mouse easy and hassle-free, as it displays exactly where a note will appear before it is input. With Sibelius 3.0, the user can also create audio CDs and MP3s from a score using the powerful Save-as-Audio Track feature.
Live Playback, for scores created with Flexi-Time, recreates the nuances of an original performance, and allows for fine-tuning. Playback now incorporates every kind of repeat structure imaginable, as well as allowing individual notes and dynamics, for instance, to apply only to certain repeats.
Additional enhancements to the software program include the entirely new Optical spacing algorithm, which allows Sibelius 3 to space notes perfectly in the most complex situations. Beaming has also been extensively improved. The Auto Page Break feature places page turns in extracted parts in convenient locations and updates them whenever a score is modified. Sibelius 3 includes no fewer than 30 new plug-ins including Scales and Arpeggios. With this plug-in, any conceivable set of scales and arpeggios can be created, allowing educators to craft exercises for their students in an instant. Also, music teachers can now switch off advanced features individually or en masse and create various sets suitable for different classes.
For more information, visit their web site at www.sibelius.com. |
