[Dixielandjazz] RE: Sibellious, Encore or Finale or ???

Elazar Brandt jazzmin at actcom.net.il
Sat Oct 15 13:19:10 PDT 2005


I think this is my last word on the subject ... for now ... until I make my
purchase and either have raves or regrets.

I tried the demo versions of Sibellius and of listmate Norman James' Personal
Composer. I was actually impressed with Personal Composer and almost went for
it, for half the cost of Sibellius. But when I tried the Sibellius demo I
stumbled on what will most likely be the deal breaker. Sibellius supports chord
symbols not only for guitar, but for all kinds of banjos and other stringed
instruments, and you can define your own chord symbols too. Since I play and
teach and write music for tenor banjo, this feature will come in quite handy on
a regular basis. Personal Composer, I must say, is more intuitive than
Sibellius, and I otherwise might have chosen it. It seems to be able to do
pretty much anything us jazz musicians would want, and I didn't notice any
glaring deficiencies for other applications.

Ah, yes, I thought I noted in the discussion that someone said the new Encore
does not support old Encore files. I did not have the patience to search all the
posts to confirm that, but I'm pretty sure that's what someone said. And other
than avoiding the learning curve for new software, the ability to not lose all
my existing Encore files would have been the main reason to upgrade to the
current Encore version.

Once again, thanks to all for your sage advice and information, especially to
many who wrote me lengthy emails off list.

Elazar
Doctor Jazz Dixieland Band
Tekiya Trumpet/Brass Ensemble
Jerusalem, Israel
<www.israel.net/ministry-of-jazz>
Tel: +972-2-679-2537






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