[Dixielandjazz] Sibellius or Finale or Encore?

[Robert Reck]

Sibelius will not directly import Encore files.  
 
I had an ancient DOS program called Music Printer Plus.  I have gotten it to run (somewhat) in a DOS window on my XP machine.  I saved all the files as MIDI files and opened the midi files in Sibelius.  There was still some work to do, but not nearly so much as starting all over.
 
Sibelius and Finale both have a "scanner" feature, but I am not sure how well it works.  I have never tried it and I have not heard good things about it.
 
I have a good friend who paid for his house renovation and his new car by writing music for marching bands.  He switched from Encore to Sibelius about 18 mo. ago and is very happy.  Note entry is a snap in Sibelius.  My favorite is step time.  One hand on the midi keyboard and one hand on the number pad switching note/rest values.
 
Sibelius recently added a feature whereby the parts are a part of the score.  Edit the score and the parts change, edit the part and the score changes.  OTOH, things can be added to the score that do not appear on the parts and vice-versa.  You do not have to extract parts or keep track of which set of parts go with the current version of the score.  This is a wonderful idea, but I have not tried the upgrade yet.  I was working on an original composition for jazz band last summer and the parts/score thing about drove me nuts.  (If you are curious about the final result you can see it at my Sibeliusmusic page.  The link is below my signature. The chart is called "Almost Summer".  The changes should give away the title.  The lead sheet is free, BTW).
 
I have never used Finale and cannot contrast the two programs.

Rob Reck
Tulsa Klezmer Band

Ministry of Jazz <jazzmin at actcom.net.il> wrote:
Shalom Jazz fans,

I still need a bit of help on the question of which direction to go in my
next music composition software upgrade. Encore 4.2 indeed does not work on
my new rig with Win XP. If I buy the new Encore for $400, I basically get
the same capabilities I already had, but it works in XP. I have tried Finale
before, but only a scaled down trial version, and I didn't like it. That was
about 4 years ago. Never tried Sibellius.

Questions:

1. I have my entire Dr Jazz Band repertoire in Encore files as well as
other material I use to teach. Do either of the other two read Encore files?

2. What significant improvements might there be in Sibellius or Finale over
Encore?

3. Can any of them save files to PDF or a graphics format that can be
emailed to players?

4. Is there any place to buy any of these programs at a significant savings
off the retail price?

Thank you for any help anyone can offer from this great list.

Elazar
Dr. Jazz Dixieland Band
Tekiya Trumpet Ensemble
Jerusalem, Israel
www.israel.net/ministry-of-jazz
+972-2-679-2537
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Rob Reck
reckeuph at sbcglobal.net
http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/robreck