Sibelius 5 vs. Finale 08, part 2

A few posts ago, I began to compare the two most recent iterations of the popular music notation packages, Sibelius and Finale. I got sidetracked by nostalgia and memories of the good old days of handwritten music and the copyist's art. As much as I enjoyed the act of hand copying music, it was also slow, frequently frustrating and inhibiting, and I would not want to return to those pre-digital days.

I don't wish to bore anyone with the easily researched history of notation software. Suffice it to say that at one time, Finale was the only game in town, the choice of composers and publishers everywhere, no matter how arcane or counterintuitive some of the aspects of it were. With a manual the size of a phone book (and equally engaging) and a learning curve as tall as K-2, to master Finale was a technological badge of honor. Then came Sibelius from the UK, with the premise that notation software should be intuitive, elegant, and simple. The war was on.

The end user has been both the winner and victim in this ongoing skirmish. Of course, the head-to-head competition has forced both companies to add features, tweak the interface, and refine their products. As a result, both Sibelius 5 and Finale 08 contain virtually the identical feature set, use the same sounds (Garritan Personal Orchestra) for playback, and while the chassis might be different, under the hood the engines both deliver roughly the same amount of power. Both applications do an admirable job of creating professional-looking notation, and both apps have nearly the identical ability to record and playback notated music. Both Sibelius and Finale offer supplemental programs aimed at educators and students.

So, what's the downside for consumers?

In an attempt to keep up in the notation arms race, both companies feel it necessary to release annual (in the case of Finale) or bi-annual (Sibelius) versions of their product. At an educator discount price of $100 or so, these upgrades are far too expensive and offer far too few new features to justify such a price. For example, the addition of a scroll view in Sibelius (which Finale always had) or dynamic parts (which came to Sibelius first) are really just interface tweaks. In the world of computer games, for example, these features would be added in the form of a free patch, or, if there was really a lot of new content, through an add-on pack (which often doubles the size and features of a game). Why not sell the core application and then offer yearly updates at $20, or allow the user to select which add-ons he or she needs? How many users really need the suite of classroom applications?

This neck-and-neck battle hurts the consumer in a couple of other ways. There is little cross-software compatibility. Finale has always had a playground bully-like attitude towards Sibelius and won't read Sibelius files; Sibelius will read (inconsistently, especially when there are version incompatibilities) Finale files. Finally, this feature-for-feature-matching contest prevents either company from truly innovating. Garritan sounds, while certainly better than general MIDI synth patches, are light-years away from the samples used by professional composers and producers.

In the end, both Sibelius 5 and Finale 08 are good products--not perfect ones--and choice will come down to aesthetic preference, brand loyalty, and perhaps the one or two features that make the software unique.