What Magazines and Newspapers Say

“The options available are staggering, but the simplicity at your fingertips is amazing.”

“Packed with loads of great-sounding samples, new fonts, and creative composer's tools, Sibelius 5 is a composition powerhouse ideal for anyone working with standard notation.”

“We’ve heard music professionals call Sibelius 5 ‘the perfect notation program,’ and we’d be hard-pressed to find fault with that statement.”

"Sibelius 5 is the first Intel version of the software and it feels like it's been turbocharged. If you have a previous version, upgrade now."

"Full marks to Sibelius...Ideas Hub is an indispensably brilliant tool... Panorama is a truly beautiful way of working on a score... An essential upgrade."

"If you’re not already using Sibelius... Well, you’ve only yourself to blame!"

"Sibelius 5 is a first class piece of software... an outstanding program"

"The Ideas Hub is fantastic! I've been wanting this feature in every piece of music software I've ever used." Ronan Macdonald (Editor)

Verdict: 10/10

“[Sibelius 5 is] an essential upgrade packed with innovation and improvement.”

“Look out for Ideas Hub, a collection of "oven ready" musical ideas which can be augmented by users' own material and tagged for instant retrieval, and Sibelius Sounds Essentials, a premium selection of sound samples.”

"Sibelius 5.0 is simply staggering in its capabilities. It will do almost anything you can think of and a lot of things that never entered your head before. If you’re serious about musical notation, this is the package to choose."

Overall rating: 4.5/5

"If you need to produce musical scores and you care about their presentation, Sibelius is the software to use. [Sibelius 5's] improved playback quality means there's little reason to consider using anything else."

"Sibelius has found even more ways to give musicians the freedom to write music without technical worries. These fantastic new features make Sibelius 5 well worth the investment for composers, teachers and musicians alike."

"Writing music – and hearing it played back – in what is generally considered to be the best score-writing software on the market is, without question, an absolute pleasure"

"Sibelius 5 has raised the stakes...The audio engine and playback enhancements are well worth the upgrade price alone"

"It never ceases to amaze us how the company manages to cram so many new features into the program and yet still retain the overall sense of elegance and simplicity to use."

Overall rating: 9/10 

"Sibelius eclipses just about every other application - musical or otherwise."

"Sibelius remains by far the more accessible program to newcomers, and it still boasts an extensive list of elegantly implemented features."

Finale 2004 and Sibelius 3.1: Rival Music-Notation Packages Go Head-to-Head

"The program is as elegantly designed as it is powerful."

"The manual is one of the best I've ever seen: it's well written, well organized, comprehensive, and thoroughly indexed."

"Make no mistake: Sibelius's feature set is fully professional."

The magazine for the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters

"If you haven't seen Sibelius yet, then you should - it is likely to change your musical life."

"If you're buying a notation package for the first time, you'll not find anything better than Sibelius."

"Sibelius is the Rolls Royce of music notation: fast, smooth, easy to use, and prints beautiful sheet music. Buy with confidence and enjoy."

"Sibelius is beautifully put together. Everything about it exudes class... it is very user-friendly and produces excellent results... the ultimate professional scoring package and first choice for composers and notators alike"

"Sibelius's automatic Arrange and Espressivo features, coupled with its chord charts, will prove a boon for music students... The guitar notation, chord symbols, and tablature features are the best you'll find... Highly recommended."

"Composers have spent enormous amounts of their time over the centuries simply inking out their music… [Sibelius] saves so much time, they could use it to write from scratch or produce a final copy or extract orchestral parts… saving maybe 50% of their time"

"Most composers find they are writing twice as much music as in their pre-Sibelius days… The only pity is that Sibelius wasn't around to benefit the great composers. Mozart would surely have completed his Requiem before pegging out, Puccini likewise with Turandot, and Schubert's Eighth would not now be called the Unfinished."

The UK's best-selling music technology magazine Computer Music has twice awarded Sibelius a 10 out of 10 rating and its Ultimate Buy Award

"The king of professional scoring packages"

"Sibelius swept the board in our scoring software group test"

"If Mozart had something like this, we would have 10 times the symphonies we have"

"The industry standard for professional sheet music production"

"I can't help being very impressed… an extremely sophisticated and powerful notation program, but in spite of this it was child's play to learn and use"

"It is rare to encounter any piece of software which is this much of a pleasure to work with, and I would thoroughly recommend Sibelius… If you don't try it before choosing a notation package, I reckon you'll end up kicking yourself"

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"I could eulogise for hours about just how fulfilling Sibelius is to use. Watching the excitement of my pupils when they use it for the first time is proof enough"

"Thanks to Sibelius, the world of composing and publishing has changed for ever"

The professional composer/arranger's favourite. Speed of use coupled with the sophistication of its features has won it admirers in all fields of musical endeavour"

"The guitar notation, chord symbols and tablature features are the best you will find anywhere, and the new automatic Arrange features make it possible for anyone to get started with ease"