Back from the land of Sibelius 5 and Finale 2009
Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 6:05 pm
So I got it into my head that Sibelius 5 and Finale 2009 offered more features to better composer orchestral music. What I found was the following:
1. Both ARE very deep programs with lots of fantastic scoring features
2. Both have varying levels of learning curves. Each interface has its own pros and cons
3. Both are able to use VSTs like EWQLSO and VSL whose libraries are stunningly real for playback
4. Both are further ahead of NOTION when it comes to printing options and general score parameters
5. Both left me dazed, confused, frustrated and not having written much of anything of worth!!!!
I do hope NOTION 3 closes the gap especially when it comes to printing out one's score and moving things around for aesthetics purposes but as a compositional device, it still allows me to write music faster and more clearly than those other two. I desperately tried to get both Sibelius and Finale to worth with my bigger libraries in the hope to get a realistic sound but I found that there was no easy way to set things up and worse, the memory demands of those libraries was so taxing a large orchestral section brought my Mac Pro to its knees. A BLOODY MAC PRO for crying out loud!!!! What the heck???? (FYI- it's because both program is very limited as a VST host).
If I wanted to resort to the built in sounds from either, I had to live with Garritan's sounds which IMO sound AWFUL. I'm sorry, really but I will take NOTION's built-in sounds ANY DAY over Garritan, especially the brass which at least DO react to dynamics changes and gets brassier and louder! So, like the prodigal son (not the Prokofiev piece although that is lovely), I have returned to NOTION in the hope that I can actually compose rather than futz around with settings, sounds and all that nonsense all day long.....
p.s. I hope NOTION 3 is not going to be a huge expense to us NOTION 2.2 owners. Free would be even better. I'm sickened by the rates that Sibelius and Finale charge their users for upgrades. $170 for Sibelius 5 to 6. $99 for Finale 2009 to 2010 (those guys have quite the racket- having a chargeable upgrade every bloody year?? Who do they think they are, Cakewalk?
Sorry for the rant. I love NOTION..
1. Both ARE very deep programs with lots of fantastic scoring features
2. Both have varying levels of learning curves. Each interface has its own pros and cons
3. Both are able to use VSTs like EWQLSO and VSL whose libraries are stunningly real for playback
4. Both are further ahead of NOTION when it comes to printing options and general score parameters
5. Both left me dazed, confused, frustrated and not having written much of anything of worth!!!!
I do hope NOTION 3 closes the gap especially when it comes to printing out one's score and moving things around for aesthetics purposes but as a compositional device, it still allows me to write music faster and more clearly than those other two. I desperately tried to get both Sibelius and Finale to worth with my bigger libraries in the hope to get a realistic sound but I found that there was no easy way to set things up and worse, the memory demands of those libraries was so taxing a large orchestral section brought my Mac Pro to its knees. A BLOODY MAC PRO for crying out loud!!!! What the heck???? (FYI- it's because both program is very limited as a VST host).
If I wanted to resort to the built in sounds from either, I had to live with Garritan's sounds which IMO sound AWFUL. I'm sorry, really but I will take NOTION's built-in sounds ANY DAY over Garritan, especially the brass which at least DO react to dynamics changes and gets brassier and louder! So, like the prodigal son (not the Prokofiev piece although that is lovely), I have returned to NOTION in the hope that I can actually compose rather than futz around with settings, sounds and all that nonsense all day long.....
p.s. I hope NOTION 3 is not going to be a huge expense to us NOTION 2.2 owners. Free would be even better. I'm sickened by the rates that Sibelius and Finale charge their users for upgrades. $170 for Sibelius 5 to 6. $99 for Finale 2009 to 2010 (those guys have quite the racket- having a chargeable upgrade every bloody year?? Who do they think they are, Cakewalk?
Sorry for the rant. I love NOTION..