i've been trying to find a good writing software for a while. i've tried out the demo from finale and i kinda like but i've heard that other people like one called Sibelius better(i don't know mush about that one). dose anyone use somthing other than finale? i'd like to hear about if you do.

I use Sibelius. In my opinion, it's the best software out there. Like Finale though, it's on the expensive side.

http://www.sibelius.com/home/index_flash.html

Yep Sibelius is great, but very expensive, about 600$ for the professional version if you buy it directly from the company. Look for better offers on shopping websites. I know Amazon.com sold Sibelius 5 Educational for like 250$.

I know many people who use it, and others that would use it if all their sheet music was not on another software.

I think most good software are somewhat expensive so...But if you really can't afford that, I know one that was free (not sure it's still the case though), a bit restrictive and surely not as performant as Sibelius or Finale, but that still does the job. It's called Lime, search ''Lime music notation software'' in Google, you should be able to find it.

I have tried and like sebilius. Most of my friends will only use FInale because that is what everyone else is using. I think more people are apt to use Sebilius in the UK than in the USA, it is a great program.

I have a real simple easy to use program for simple stuff like doing exercises and small group stuff for students. It is $40 and called noteworthycomposer. It does almost anything you want for just getting things done. But it does notdo what the big boys can do.

ok, thanks alot

I use Noteworthy Composer, too.

It's a good software, but definitely is lacking in a few areas. For your basic stuff, though, it works.

Oh, and I got mine for $25, not $40.

I'm a Finale guy all the way, but let me qualify that by saying that I haven't really used Sibelius very much. Haven't needed to, because Finale does everything I need (and then a whole ton more). There are several versions of Finale. The full-blown version is pretty expensive unless you can get the school or church musician discount, but there are versions that will do almost as much:
- Finale Allegro ($199 retail) can do everything except stuff like design your own musical symbols.
- Finale Printmusic ($99) allows up to 24 staves
- Finale Songwriter ($49)gives you up to 8 staves
- Finale Notepad (free) quick and easy, but not so full featured.
Go look at http://www.finalemusic.com/Finale/W-ProductComparison.aspx for a comparison chart.

--Steve