OT: Sibelius First- help!

[LeesKeys]

So I purchased Sibelius First with the idea of using it to transcribe piano leads and accompaniments to a more permanent "paper" format. I'm a rock bottom beginner with this software. I've tried using it a couple of times and always end up getting frustrated and stopping. Can anyone suggest any particular youtube videos or web tutorials which might be helpful for my particular needs? There are so many youtube videos, yet none of them seem geared down enough for my newby needs.

[Cygnus64]

I'd head to the Sibelius site and register. All kinds of info there.

 

If you have a specific question I'm sure I can help, or plenty of other users on KC.

[MonksDream]

Sibelius First's manual has a great getting started tutorial. Take the time to go through it and you'll be well prepared. At the very least you'll be able to ask good questions here. Stick with it. Sibelius rocks!

 

Added: I just found this tutorial on the Sibelius site: Learn Sibelius 6 in 1 hour. Really the best place to start is with Sibelius itself.

[Cygnus64]

MonksDream (or anybody): Do you have photoscore Ultimate? Is it worth the upgrade from the lite? Is audioscore totally worthless?

 

I'm on 6, I'm thinking of doing the whole 7/photoscore upgrade. I'm not sure why, although today photoscore lite came in really handy.

[mcgoo]

I'd like to know about Photoscore & Audioscore also- I've got 7 but haven't installed the lite versions (of Photoscore & Audioscore) yet (waiting for the dust to settle on looming deadlines). I have a hard time blieving that Audioscore could work well, but if it does, I'd love it.

 

To the OP- the Sibelius tutorials are very good- go get 'em!

[Cygnus64]

I have a hard time blieving that Audioscore could work well,

Maybe if someone played a monophonic instrument into it, it might be able to do a reasonably good job with that (which is of course little use for anybody). The way they advertise audioscore, it's like you can put on a Coltrane disc and it will write out all the parts. I haven't tried it, I think I will later for the hell of it.

[mcgoo]

Maybe if someone played a monophonic instrument into it, it might be able to do a reasonably good job with that (which is of course little use for anybody).

 

Actually, even that much would've been helpful. I blew a lot of time transcibing all of Jennie's melodies for that ICO project (of course, part of the reason is because I'm slow!). I think even the lite version is supposed to handle monophonic input. It's the polyphonic stuff that I'm kinda skeptical about.

[Analogaddict]

I learned Sibelius 6 in about a week. I had to transcribe a lot of stuff for a tour, and since I wasn't sure we'd end up using the original keys, I wanted to be able to transpose as quickly as possible. I just jumped in there, I recorded the melodies and entered the chords (cmd-K). I did hit a few walls here and there, but if you do like me and save on a regular basis you'll never be back on page 1. I actually installed Sibelius 7 just an hour ago, and it seems to be even easier as soon as you start getting your head around the menus. Once you get a hang of it, you'll wish you'd done it sooner, it's an amazing tool. Right now, I'm opening .sib files our band leader emailed me. He sends me full scores (piano, key, sax, bass, drums) and I just edit out the parts I don't need...

[LeesKeys]

I think I what really need to do is set aside several hours to work with the program, rather than trying to get what I need on the spur of the moment.

[Cygnus64]

Learning shortcuts is the shiznit.

 

There are 3 keys that are essential: N, R, and "Escape":

 

N: Note on/off. It toggles the cursor between "loaded" (blue) and inactive (white).

 

R: Repeat. Click on anything then press R, it will repeat it. Click a quarter note, it will add another quarter note. Select a measure, it will add an identical measure. Select 4 measures etc you'll get 4 measures. HUGE time-saver.

 

Escape: it will "clear" anything selected. This is an important one. Press it often (or press N to disarm the cursor). You'll find out why soon. When in doubt, hit Escape. You'll thank me later.

 

The up and down buttons are your friend. Select a note then click up-down to move it. Hold Shift while pressing up or down and everything selected will go up or down an octave.

 

At top under "Window" is a list of all the stuff, like keypad and mixer. The keypad responds to ...the keypad. It's much quicker that way.

 

Click on a note (making it blue). Press "P". It will start playing from that note.

 

Selecting measures: click an empty spot in the measure, the measure will now have a blue box. If you want to put a dot on every note, hit the dot on the keypad and every note will get one. This is a big concept to grasp, because it works for everything.

 

Put in a note. To add a fifth above it, press 5 (on the keyboard). To add a 3rd press 3. To add a 3rd below, press Shift-3. Shift often works for "backwards" things. H is a Hairpin, Shift H is a backwards hairpin. S is a slur. Press S then the space bar to extend the slur. Press H then the spacebar to extend a Hairpin.

 

Ctrl-E= expressions. Right-click and you'll see them all (mainly dynamics.)

 

Ctrl-T= Technique. Right-click to see them (things like arco and pizz.

 

Z=symbols. Click on a note, click Z, click a symbol (trills and stuff.

 

L- lines. Select a measure, click L. Then click on a line (ritards, 8va etc).

 

T-Time sig

 

K- Key Sig

 

 

I-Instruments. Click I to add (or delete) instruments.

[MonksDream]

MonksDream (or anybody): Do you have photoscore Ultimate? Is it worth the upgrade from the lite? Is audioscore totally worthless?

 

I'm on 6, I'm thinking of doing the whole 7/photoscore upgrade. I'm not sure why, although today photoscore lite came in really handy.

Cyggy - ! have only played around with Photoscore Lite in Sibelius 5. I found that I spent so much time cleaning up the results that it was faster for me to just input from scratch. I should take another crack at it with 6. I'm tempted to do the 7 upgrade too and am interested in anyone's experience with the new version.

 

BTW - your cheat sheet is excellent!

[Cygnus64]

MonksDream (or anybody): Do you have photoscore Ultimate? Is it worth the upgrade from the lite? Is audioscore totally worthless?

 

I'm on 6, I'm thinking of doing the whole 7/photoscore upgrade. I'm not sure why, although today photoscore lite came in really handy.

Cyggy - ! have only played around with Photoscore Lite in Sibelius 5. I found that I spent so much time cleaning up the results that it was faster for me to just input from scratch. I should take another crack at it with 6. I'm tempted to do the 7 upgrade too and am interested in anyone's experience with the new version.

 

BTW - your cheat sheet is excellent!

 

Thanks. I played with Photoscore Lite 6 quite a bit today. Overall it's really cool. It depends on the piece somewhat. Classical like Mozart would work very well because of the symmetry. I'm doing a big Gospel show and everything is syncopated, it doesn't like ties and syncopations over barlines that well.

[LeesKeys]

Great suggestions. Thanks!

[mcgoo]

Cygnus- where the heck was that fricking cheat sheet when I was trying to arrange for chamber orchestra?

 

I knew a bunch of them, but there were a handful that made me go "really? OMG, I'm such a dork, loser, idiot."

 

Monksdream- I'm on 7 now & like it a lot. I jumped from 5, so I can't say how much better it is (or isn't) than 6. I still get tripped up sometimes with the "MS Word 2007 like" toolbars, but overall, the workflow seems like a big improvement over 5.

[Cygnus64]

Cygnus- where the heck was that fricking cheat sheet when I was trying to arrange for chamber orchestra?

 

If I gave you that, you wouldn't have needed me.

 

I can fly on Sibelius. The sheer number of hours I've put in on it is insane. I just finished another symphony chart: I started it yesterday at 5pm. Sleeping is for SISSIES!

[Analogaddict]

I can fly on Sibelius. The sheer number of hours I've put in on it is insane.

 

Your tips were really good, I learned some new stuff there! The sentence above really sums it all up; put in the hours and fly like the wind!

 

Sleeping is for SISSIES!

 

...and there's the attitude/insanity needed..!

[mcgoo]

Cygnus- where the heck was that fricking cheat sheet when I was trying to arrange for chamber orchestra?

 

If I gave you that, you wouldn't have needed me.

 

I can fly on Sibelius. The sheer number of hours I've put in on it is insane. I just finished another symphony chart: I started it yesterday at 5pm. Sleeping is for SISSIES!

 

yeah, I can fly on Sonar, but Sibelius is gonna take a few more major projects before I start flying on it. And yep, sleep has been an afterthought lately. Come January, everything comes to a screeching halt, and then I may actually see what it's like to go home & watch tv for an evening... or sit & have a conversation with the wife... until then... back to work!

[reidmc]

I'm debating buying Sibelius First vs Sibelius 7. No experience with similar software (though in my mind, I have already arranged dozens of pieces for full orchestra ;-) I can get educational pricing for 7, which makes the dollars $130 (First) vs $260 (7).

 

For the money, it would seem the 7 purchase is a no-brainer, though I have done that in the past with computer programs and bought way more functionality and complexity that I really needed. Right now, it would seem the value of Audioscore Lite is my decision maker. I'm lazy, and it would seem to give learning and notating song basics pretty easy.

 

Thoughts?

 

Reid

[Cygnus64]

I'm debating buying Sibelius First vs Sibelius 7. No experience with similar software (though in my mind, I have already arranged dozens of pieces for full orchestra ;-) I can get educational pricing for 7, which makes the dollars $130 (First) vs $260 (7).

 

For the money, it would seem the 7 purchase is a no-brainer, though I have done that in the past with computer programs and bought way more functionality and complexity that I really needed. Right now, it would seem the value of Audioscore Lite is my decision maker. I'm lazy, and it would seem to give learning and notating song basics pretty easy.

 

Thoughts?

 

Reid

 

7 has XML import and export, it's the first version to have export. This means you can trade with people using Finale and other programs. That's a big plus.

 

There are quite a few things with First that are "crippled". Here's a real nice comparision chart between the two:

 

clonkety

[MonksDream]

If you can get Sibelius 7 for $260, do it! I started with Sibelius First and then upgraded to the full version. For doing lead sheets, etc., First may be all you need. However I found that the extra functionality and lack of limitations was worth the upgrade price.

 

BTW - When I upgraded from First they upgraded me to the full version at the educational price even though I had bought First retail! You can read more here in this prior Sibelius thread. Even so, your price is less than I paid so, why not?

[mcgoo]

I mostly do chord charts & vocal arrangements, but due to an odd opportunity (that I wrote about in a thread a few weeks ago) I suddenly found myself doing a few orchestral scores. I quickly realized that by mostly doing only chord charts & SAT writing, I was scratching the surface of the program's potential. The good news is that most of what I needed to be able to do for the scores that I didn't know how to do, was fairly easy to figure out. I'm still just scratching the surface, but that scrath is starting to get a little deeper.

 

Anyway, point being, it's a wonderful, inspiring program. For the little difference in $$$s, go for the gusto!

[Cygnus64]

The plug-ins have the cool stuff:

 

1. You have 4-note block chords. Click "explode". The top note will be sent to flute, the next oboe, the 3rd clarinet, bottom to bassoon (or any combo of instruments you want). Instant orchestration.

 

2. You have a Beatles chart for string quartet. Click "reduce". You now have a chart for piano solo.

 

3. You wrote a chart in 4/4. The client wants it in 2 (so 8ths would be quarters or vice-versa). Simply double (or halve) the value. That one has saved my ass many times.

 

Add harp pedaling, put fingerings in for kids in band and orch, check for parallel fifths, the sky's the limit. My favorite is batch processing, it tells me how many notes I write each day.