Upgrading to Sibelius 8

[allanh]

Hi Folks

Having put off upgrading to Windows 10 until I hear from Avid regarding Sibelius 7 compatibility, I find myself saying, "oh! what the hell, just upgrade to Sibelius 8 and to Windows 10 and be done with it".
After all, there is only a few months left to get your free upgrade to Windows 10 and the Sibelius 8 upgrade is fairly cheap. I could wait to see what Mr. Spreadbury comes out with, if it comes out this year and before the free Windows 10 option is gone. But what if I don't like Mr. Spreadbury's new software!

Is there anyone else with a similar thought or are people just waiting to see what happens with Steinberg. I am seriously thinking of sticking with Sibelius and upgrading to 8, as that is what all my publishers use.

Allan

[Joseph]

Herbie, I am not in any hurry to leave Windows 7 since it is quite stable (hell I had to be dragged kicking and screaming to upgrade from XP!). So Windows 10 is not something under consideration. I did take the Sibelius 8 offer but truth be told I still use my trusty ol' version 6. As far as Steinberg's potential software? Once again it's not on my radar. I am not an engraver nor do I want to be one. So there would have to be something extraordinary about the proposed software to even give a thought to moving from Sibelius. All of my 'contemporary" work has been done in Sibelius (even some of my older Encore and PC Composer scores have been re-written in Sibelius). I cannot think of a single reason that, as a composer, I would consider changing platforms. Now, if the proposed new software directly read Sib files I might be persuaded to give it a second look. Joe

[Deleted]

I must agree with Zepposnonno. Electronic music creation is hard enough without having to re-tool every year/month just because some entity needs to put out a new version to boost sales. As for Windows 10, if your machine is on the Internet long enough Microsoft will "push" Windows 10 on to your computer. That's right. You may not realize it, but behind the scene your machine will be using the Windows 10 kernel anyway. (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/08/windows_10_upgrade_blocker)

I don't keep my DAWs on the Internet, so I know what version of Windows is on mine. And Sibelius 8's main come-on is that it is portable and will work on a tablet. Not a big concern for me because: 1) most of my composing is done in my head prior to writing it down, 2) the screen of a "personal device assistant" is far too small to accommodate my ideas, and 3) I like to use Sibelius playback to enhance the composing experience but a PDA cannot give me that (at least, not without being on-line). A PDA simply cannot handle the processing required.

[Deleted]

allanh has little choice, if he works with publishers who use Sibelius. He has to stay on board.

Not quite sure what almound means about "using the Windows 10 kernel"? You'll certainly be nagged about installing Windows 10, but it doesn't get installed, "kernel" or otherwise, until it IS installed.

Anyone who writes piano parts should find the new Magnetic Rests useful. And Mac owners seem to be suffering another round of slow response when scores get large, and that isn't going to get addressed in anything except the current Sibelius version.

[dko22]

at the moment there's nothing to tempt me away from Sibelius 7. Of course the new Spreadbury software will be of interest but if it's main focus is on engraving then it probably won't be for me which is a crying shame when they have a ready-made sequencer in Cubase they could simply integrate a proper scoring facility into. Possibly more interesting is actually Overture 5. Currently in beta, I fear it will stay that way for a long time to come as a one man team really isn't enough, however talented, to sort out all the bugs. The lack of stability of Overture 4 was one reason why I moved to Sibelius in the first place when it started to grow up with v5 and introduced VST support.

As for Win 10, no doubt it will come with my next PC. After over 6 years on the clock, I'll probably have to finally replace the current one within the next year.

[Deleted]

"Simply integrating..." is not that easy! There was great talk of such between Sibelius and ProTools when Avid acquired Sibelius.

[Kevin]

Well I have taken bitten the bullet and upgraded to 8 along with a new iMac ( best thing I have ever bought!). I am also going to try and get to grips with pro tools. They have a free entry one to play with.