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Topic: NWC vs. Sibelius (Read 4345 times) previous topic - next topic

NWC vs. Sibelius

I am a musician, just leaving pen and ink behind. I have been told about NWC, and adviced to get it. However, another friend of mine suggests Sibelius instead. I really don't care about the price, or the cost benefit relation. I just want to get the best. Which advantages would you say NWC has over Sibelius or any other.
Thank you

Re: NWC vs. Sibelius

Reply #1 –
First and foremost - ease of use. Do you just want to compose / score / sequence music, or spend a good portion of your time setting things up so you can get started? Is the "learning curve" important to you? If you don't mind doing a considerable amount of preliminary study, Sibelius or Finale might be useful for you.

I'd suggest spending some time with *any* software before committing to it. NoteWorthy Composer lets you try before you buy, to find out whether it will do the job for you. The time spent properly evaluating NWC will be a small fraction of the time it takes to learn the larger programs.

Re: NWC vs. Sibelius

Reply #2 –
I now use nothing but Noteworthy. A friend of mine (a professional composer for Hollywood fils) uses Sibelius, but spends an inordinate time setting up. With Noteworthy, I can be up and running doing compositions & arrangements from solo piano to full brass band & symphony orchestra in minutes!. Yes, there are limitations, but most of these can be got over with various extra fonts available. The biggest drawback I find is the lack of ntuplets (This is a hint for the Wish List!). Try it, you'll like it!

Re: NWC vs. Sibelius

Reply #3 –
Good point. Also, I believe that many users of music publishing programs (myself included) have more than one of them.

It may help to take a look at the kinds of things that users of the programs have posted as examples. The most convenient way to compose voice/piano may be very different from the most convenient way to compose techno-punk, even though the programs are capable of both syles.

Re: NWC vs. Sibelius

Reply #4 –
Giussepe:

I am also musician from 52 years ago behind. (I now am 59 years old). I utilize NWC from 4 years ago. I have proven many programs, but I believe that NWC is the easiest of using. The cost of the program is aprox. u$s 39 (that is the one which cost me). I have classical and popular written works for choir, complete orchestra, fantasy for piano and orchestra, etc. I up to now have not had no inconvenient in order to export the works to MIDI 1 or in order to print.

Re: NWC vs. Sibelius

Reply #5 –
If you are going to produce scores for wide-scale publication, you may need to go to Finale or Sibelius just for the "tweakability".

Currently NWC doesn't support
1) alternate noteheads
2) cue size notes (except as grace notes)
3) crossing between staves on a grand staff

If these are common events on your composition, you may need to spend the extra several hundred dollars US and go to Finale or Sibelius. However, if you are mainly producing in-house scores, and not needing the above, give NWC a try. In fact give it a try anyway, 'cos once you've breasted the concept of their infinitely wide score paper (1 minute), and how to move notes up and down on a stave (5 seconds), and how to enter notes in a chord (5 more seconds), you'll be flying! It is truly a joy to use!

HTH,
Andrew

Re: NWC vs. Sibelius

Reply #6 –
If you only work in jazz/sing idioms, then you will need Barry Graham's fonts (available free on this site) for rests, lips, rips, falls, etc.
There is no swing feel for playback, a serious limitation for us jazzers.
Noteworthy also does not have transposing chords for lead sheets. If you enter chord symbols, it's just text and nothing happens to it.
Noteworthy will not play those chords, or add rhythm to it for playback. If you need that, go to Allegro (the slightly chopped version of Finale) or Band In A Box. You can also go to Silelius, but the cost is considerably higher.

There are other limitations. You can only group notes in groups of 2, 3 (triplets), or 4. There are no extended n-tuplets, and no combinations of these. I should say that you can have these things in a single part, but scores are not aware, and bar lines won't line up.
Exploding parts from a single staff would be nice, too.

If you import from Midi files, Noteworthy's limitation is that it can't 'guess' the chords from the score, and that it can't correctly interpret triplets. If these features are 'must have', then you may need another program to supplement NoteWorthy.
That much said, there's no better value for your money for everything else that it DOES do, which is nearly anything you need.
Lyrics are especially easy to handle.

You can spend months on any other program just trying to memorize commands and settings. With Noteworthy, it's just a couple of days and you're home free.

And the forum will give you answers faster than anyone else's tech support could imagine. We're rabid, but you've gotta love this little program!

There are lots of other programs, but none much worth looking at.
For doing legitimate composition quickly, NoteWorthy has the most logical commands, and the most flexibility.

Re: NWC vs. Sibelius

Reply #7 –
Just a remark on "There is no swing feel for playback, a serious limitation for us jazzers" on the reply above.
YES, there is a way, which I find better than in other programs. Go and see my hint about it: https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=2363, How to Make NWC Play Jazz. Moreover, you can use this for other purposes (such a unequal waltzes, and so on).
If you find this not simple enough, just tell me, I'll give you a javascript page to make it (I already have an XL 4 form, without macros).

About "can't correctly interpret triplets", go and see the macros Andrew has set up on the NWC Scriptorium!

All of this is free, of course.

Otherwise, in any case, if you're concerned about composition, I recommend the use of NWC for its efficiency. If the score is to be engraved by someone else, you can give him the NWC format (and MIDI also) if you really want some special features. A friend of mine did that (he needed to include pictures between some staves) and didn't regret it :)

NWCly yours,
Marsu

Re: NWC vs. Sibelius

Reply #9 –
i own copies of both programs, and find they have different uses. I use NWC for quick work, but often use Sibeleus' superior printing & formatting for final work presentaion.