Sibelius 2 Music Notation Software Now Available

Jan 08, 2002

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The Sibelius Group announced that Sibelius 2 for Windows is now available in the United States. Sibelius 2 retails for $599.

"Sibelius 2 integrates more than 200 new features and robust feature enhancements, making it one of the significant upgrades of any software ever," said Ben Finn, CEO of The Sibelius Group. "Because Sibelius is used by everyone from professional composers and publishers to students, improvements have been made to every aspect of the program, from notation and playback to Internet publishing. During the past year, we have work closely with Sibelius users to ensure that the new program meets the demands of musicians of all kinds."

Faster and easier to create music using Arrange

Among its new product features are the use of artificial intelligence to arrange and orchestrate music automatically, the first-ever commercial program capable of this function. Arrange was partly designed by Sibelius user Michael Price, whose orchestration credits include the recent Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks HBO special, "Band of Brothers."

Sibelius 2's Arrange feature dramatically reduces the time it takes to produce arrangements and orchestrations for any ensemble. For example, using Arrange, users can rapidly orchestrate a complete piano piece for concert band. This feature saves hours of time for composers, arrangers and educators, and is ideal for students learning instrumental writing.

Much improved look and feel

Sibelius is more elegant and beautiful than ever, with a new look which complements the interfaces of Mac OS X and Windows XP.

Faster Music Input

Note input has been reengineered and is now significantly faster. Users can now use almost every feature of Sibelius - including copying and pasting, and moving lines and staves - without ever touching the mouse.

Improved Playback

Playback is even more natural and realistic with enhanced Rubato and Rhythmic Feel, which adds human-sounding playback to your music.

Powerful advanced tools and plug-ins

Sibelius 2 offers a myriad of advanced features for publishers and power users and 11 new plug-ins are provided including one that instantly adds string & brass fingerings.

Sibelius 2 calculates and displays precise timecode (time position from the start of the score) above barlines - invaluable for film/TV scoring and drum corps, or for any work requiring timings. Graphics and Color

With Sibelius 2, it is easier than ever to import color graphics into your music. Create professional looking covers or add color graphics to your worksheets. It is easy to color notes according to their pitch, which is great for teaching note names to beginners or color according to voice to make your music easier to read. You can also highlight areas of your score, e.g. for marking up sketches, marking coursework, highlighting tricky passages to practice.

Print & save from Scorch

Sibelius 2 users can now let visitors to their own Web site print and save scores using Sibelius' Scorch Internet technology. This is particularly useful for giving students coursework via the Internet or e-mail.

Groovemusic.com

Sibelius has signed an agreement with Macmillan's Reference and Grove's Dictionaries Inc. to give Sibelius 2 users a free period of access to the new 2001 online edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the world's leading music encyclopedia.

Macintosh OS X

The Macintosh OS X version is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2002, making Sibelius 2 one of the first music programs to be take full advantage of the robust OS X platform.

PhotoScore Professional 2 Now Available

The Sibelius Group also announced the availability of PhotoScore Professional 2, an improved version of the optical music recognition software developed by Neuratron that allows users to scan printed music into Sibelius 2 music notation software.

Neuratron PhotoScore Professional 2 is the advanced version of the PhotoScore Lite scanning program that is the free version included with Sibelius 2. PhotoScore Professional 2 scans and reads music faster and with more accuracy than PhotoScore Lite. Once music is scanned, read and sent to Sibelius, it becomes a fully editable Sibelius file that can be transposed, re-arranged, played back and printed.

For more information, visit their web site at www.sibelius.com.