2024.6 Avid Sibelius for Education

Features

Compose and Edit

Effortlessly glide through music with Magnetic Glissando

Create beautiful glissando and portamento lines easily with new Magnetic Glissando automatically attaching and optimally positioning lines between the start and end notes. Should you need to move a note, the glissandi or portamento line will automatically follow the notehead it’s attached to as you move it. This saves you tons of time from manually positioning lines when you create a slide or edit notes.

Work faster with the updated Inspector

With the new, improved, and enhanced Inspector window, accessing, editing, and controlling elements in your score is easier than ever. You can now dock the Inspector window to the left of your score, or have it float freely, for always-available access. Plus, you can now style and align text right from the Inspector’s Text pane.

Build up your score

Sibelius does more than just notes. You can add chord symbols and guitar chord diagrams by simply playing a chord on a MIDI device or typing suffix elements, thanks to automatic chord symbol recognition. Turn guitar tab into notation and back again. And easily add lyrics, titles, text, and graphics to round out your score.

Give it a rest

Inserting rests is easy. Any time you add one, the Magnetic Layout tool automatically repositions the rest to align optimally with the phrasing of your preceding notes. Rests in multi-voice staves also automatically reposition to avoid collisions. Not only does this eliminate having to manually fix note and rest bump-ups, it makes your score much easier to read. You can also move rests and notes horizontally with new keyboard shortcuts, eliminating cutting and pasting music.

Create with unrivaled compositional tools

Whether you’re well versed in writing music notation or prefer to use a keyboard, guitar, or your voice to enter notes, creating scores has never been easier. Save tons of time with unique tools such as Magnetic Layout, which takes care of almost every layout detail, and Dynamic Parts, which automatically creates and updates separate instrumental parts.

Get more expressive playback

Add more expressive and realistic “feel” to any individual part in your score and customize your own rhythmic feels for swing with the completely revamped Espressivo feature. With its exquisite interpretation of notation distinctions, you can hear every nuance of your score play back the way you intended it to be heard.

Make music easier to learn

Music doesn’t have to be so black and white. You can color individual notes and/or chords, giving students a more enhanced and visual way of learning to read and write music notation.

Compose quickly with an advanced user interface

We built Sibelius from the ground up for accelerated navigation and performance, so you can create scores more quickly than ever before. A task-based front-end leads you through the entire score creation workflow, and the Timeline window displays the entire structure of even the largest, most complex scores—at a glance.

Get more ways to create

Sibelius comes with two companion applications that give you more ways to input notes for composition, editing, or rearranging. With AudioScore Lite, you can input notes by singing or playing a monophonic instrument through a microphone, or turn recorded CD tracks into notation. And with PhotoScore & NotateMe Lite, you can turn printed, PDF, and JPEG sheet music into editable scores—and even handwrite music.

Need more comprehensive features? Get (or upgrade to) the Sibelius + Ultimate Bundle, which features PhotoScore & NotateMe Ultimate and AudioScore Ultimate.

Get All Access with Sibelius

Whether you choose to own, upgrade, or subscribe to Sibelius, your purchase comes with an All Access plan, giving you access to all future releases and expert help for the duration of your plan or subscription. Write at the speed of your creativity with the tools used most in live performance, music publishing, and film composition.

Play, perform, and share

Share your music in the cloud

Sibelius | Cloud Sharing opens up a whole new way of working. This groundbreaking technology enables you to share scores from Sibelius to your own personal cloud space (included free), or embed scores in a webpage, and invite anyone to flip through pages and play your compositions using any computer, laptop, or mobile device. It’s ideal for previewing and reviewing musical works in the studio, in the classroom, or on a sound stage.

Collaborate more easily with MusicXML

Working with other composers who use different notation software? Or maybe you prefer to start composing in a different app before moving your score to Sibelius for arranging, orchestrating, and engraving. With improvements to MusicXML import and export that preserve the integrity and layout of the original notation, it’s easier than ever to work on music coming from or going to other programs.

Integrate with Pro Tools

Integrate Pro Tools into your workflow and take your compositions even further. Using ReWire, included in Sibelius and Pro Tools, you can record instrument parts from Sibelius scores to the DAW for further recording, editing, and mixing. And you can directly send Pro Tools tracks from its Score Editor to Sibelius for further notation refinement.

Compose with every instrument

Play back and hear every nuance of your composition in stunningly realistic detail with Sibelius Sounds. You get 36 GB of professional content, including a specially recorded symphony orchestra, rock, pop, and jazz instrumentation, world-class licensed sounds, and much more.

Collaborate and share your music

Sibelius makes it easy to work on scores with other composers, regardless of the music notation software they use. Just use MusicXML to import or export scores to or from Sibelius, Sibelius | First, Finale, Encore, Forte, and more. You can also share scores in the cloud, through email, or upload and publish them as sheet music on ScoreExchange.com.

Share music as an MP3

Want to let your client, colleague, or friends hear your latest composition? Export your score as an MP3 audio file, making it faster and easier to send your music through email or over Skype, or even posting it across all of your social network channels. Not only do you have control over the bit depth and sample rate, Sibelius will automatically generate ID3 tags from your Score Info dialog.

Practice and perform with your iPad

Got an iPad? Transform it into an interactive music stand and score library for practice and performance. Simply download the Avid Scorch app for iPad from the iTunes App Store and then export any Sibelius score as an Avid Scorch file. With Avid Scorch on your iPad, you can view scores and adapt them to your instrument by transposing the music, changing instruments, or even converting to and from guitar tab.

Layout, export, and print

Create custom staff sizes in your score

Thanks to a popular suggestion from our Sibelius users, you can now change the individual staff sizes of independent instruments and groups of instruments. This gives you more flexible composition possibilities to get the best layout for your score. You’ll also find new Engraving Rules options, providing you with fine precision control over the layout.

Change staff sizes by system

Need more flexible and precise control when engraving your score? You can now set the staff size of individual instruments, a set of staves, or an entire page to be any of the four sizes available in Sibelius. You can change the size of a staff throughout your score, or resize smaller portions. Plus, with new features in the Inspector, you can take full control of the layout of your score.

Design with full desktop publishing tools

Create beautiful, professional-looking scores using a full set of typography and layout tools. Polish text with tracking, leading, scaling, text frame, and alignment tools. Change fonts and add emphasis using hierarchical styles. Drag and drop graphics in any major format. And export publisher-quality scores as PDFs with just one click.

Make comments directly on the score

With the Annotate feature, you can create reminders for yourself about music changes as you’re composing, or communicate edits and feedback to collaborators. Draw directly on the score using a mouse, trackpad, USB tablet, or Surface Pro 3 Pen. Circle items and write or type feedback or instructions to arrangers, players, or students.

Enhance online score purchasing

For professional engravers and publishers, publish your work for sale online thanks to groundbreaking Sibelius | Cloud Publishing technology. Customers can view, play, change instruments, and transpose your music on any device before buying—and then print a high-quality version of your score once they do.

Import and export graphics

Import graphics in all major formats, then manipulate them to build complex layouts for publishing, creating teaching materials, instructional books, and more. It’s never been faster or easier to export your full scores with publication-quality graphics.

Retrieving your Activation ID or System ID

Avid products that utilize the Avid Unified Licensing Platform will present the user with an Activation ID and System ID (for products that utilize a System ID) in the INFO tab within the Avid License Control activation application. Note that the complete Activation ID may not be displayed as a security measure. You may also obtain your Activation ID or System ID using the following methods:

• Avid Customer Support has access to all Activation IDs and can utilize customer information, device information, or System ID (if used) in order to look up the Activation ID for a specific product.
• For products that utilize a System ID, the Avid software registration process requires that the customer provide their System ID in order to complete registration. If your System ID has been lost, and the product has been registered, Avid Customer support can look up your System ID (and associated Activation ID) within the registration database.
• For products that have been associated to a customer’s Avid Web Account, the customer can log into their account and review entitlement information for all products under their account ownership (Note: Avid products that utilize the new Unified Licensing scheme and our updated registration process can also be associated to a customer’s Web Account. Information regarding previously purchased products that were obtained outside of the Avid web store may not be able to be accessed.)

How to return software

Customers may return products under the following conditions; as part of our 90-day Warranty program, if they do not agree with the conditions of the Avid End User Licensing Agreement (EULA), or for a purchase refund if the product is unused (subject to the specific return policies of the point of purchase). Avid will require specific product and customer information as part of the returns process.

• Unopened: Unopened software can be returned to the original point of purchase or the customer can contact Avid Customer Support, open the software package, provide the CS representative with the software Activation ID contained inside and then dispose of the software package.
• Opened: (Only applies to products using the Avid Unified Licensing system.) If the software package has been opened prior to the return request, the customer must provide Avid Customer Support with the product’s Activation ID so that they can confirm that the software is not active. If the product was previously activated the customer must de-activate (see note below) any software prior to submitting a return request. Any return requests will be denied if the CS representative cannot validate that the software is inactive at the time of the request or if the return request was not submitted within a reasonable time after product activation.

Downloaded Software / Web Purchases: 

• For products using the Avid Unified Licensing system: The customer must provide Avid Customer Support with the product’s Activation ID so that they can confirm that the software is not active. If the product was previously activated the customer must de-activate (see note below) any software prior to submitting a return request. Any return requests will be denied if the Avid Customer Support representative cannot validate that the software is inactive at the time of the request or if the return request was not submitted within a reasonable time after product activation.
• For all other Avid products: It is only possible to return a download/digital product by sending a Letter of Destruction. You may also scan and email the document to shop.avid@arvatosystems.com. You will be refunded within 10 working days. Should you have any questions regarding the procedure, you may contact Avid Customer Support.

In-App purchases: In-App purchases are returned using the same method as downloaded software / web purchases (see above). Please note that Studio In-App purchases, such as Concert, are non-refundable. If you are having technical issues, please refer to our online forums for assistance or contact Avid Customer Support.

Rental Downloads: Please note that Activated Rental Downloads are not refundable once they have been activated.. Packaged Systems (Hardware and Software): If the software portion of a packaged system has been unopened, the system can be returned to the point of sale. If the software has been opened it must first be deactivated prior to the return request (see Packaged Software > Opened above).
Note: You can deactivate your software using either the Avid License Control activation application or the help menu. Deactivation requires that the product is connected to the internet.  If no internet connect is available for your system, you will need to complete a Letter of Destruction form.

Switching from one license type to another
Certain products allow you to switch from one license type to another as part of the product upgrade process. For example, Media Composer allows users to switch from a Hardware Key licensing method to a Software node locked license as part of the upgrade process (but not the other way around). Refer to specific upgrade information within each product web page for more details. Switching license types outside of the upgrade process for products that offer various licensing schemes may only be available on an exception basis and requires the involvement of an Avid Sales representative.

Moving a license within a legal entity
Transferring software rights within the legal entity that activated the software is authorized by the Avid EULA. If your license is limited to one hardware device, you may transfer your licensed copy of the software to a different device for your internal business use or your own personal enjoyment provided that you completely deactivate the software from the former device.

Changing ownership of an Avid software product
Avid allows for the one time permanent transfer of software licenses to another end user or legal entity. Academic and evaluation licenses are prohibited from any transfer of ownership (refer to the Avid EULA for more information).

Sibelius Comparison Chart

Sibelius Ultimate Minimum System Requirements

Sibelius

Avid-qualified Mac or Windows-based computer (get the details); the 10 GB Sibelius Sounds library is an optional installation

Sibelius Ultimate

Avid-qualified Mac or Windows-based computer (get the details); the 36 GB Sibelius | Ultimate Sounds library is an optional installation

Avid Installation Notes/Videos

https://www.youtube.com/playlist

What’s new in v2024.6?

Native support for Apple silicon

Sibelius 2024.6 now includes support for Apple silicon chips. At the time of writing, this covers Macs with the M1 to M3 range of processors. If you have a Mac with one of these chips, you’ll now find Sibelius will run natively. If you have an Intel-based Mac, you won’t see any change. The installers for Sibelius 2024.6 will include a universal binary, allowing your computer to run the appropriate binary for the computer’s architecture.

Sibelius, when run natively on Macs with Apple silicon processors, will show some marginal performance improvements. Before this, Sibelius would run with the help of Rosetta 2, that would translate the Intel binary so it could run on Apple silicon. Rosetta 2 was pretty efficient so Sibelius ran really well under it. When running Sibelius natively now, you’ll see improvements on startup time up to 30%, and when processing large-scale score changes on huge scores you should see improvements up to 50%. For smaller scores running the majority of commands in Sibelius, it’s likely you’ll find it just as fast as before.

Virtual Instruments and Effects

Now Sibelius is running natively on macOS, you will need to make sure your plugins are up to date and are built to run natively too. Audio plugins that aren’t updated won’t appear in Sibelius, which will result in your scores not playing back properly or at all.

To know whether your plugins support Apple silicon too, you’ll see them appear in Sibelius’s Play > Setup > Playback Devices dialog. If they aren’t there, then check the manufacturer’s website to see if there’s an update.

If you still rely on the older plugins, you can run Sibelius using Rosetta.

Copying MIDI between Sibelius and Pro Tools

In this release, we’ve also included a number of smaller improvements to the way Sibelius copies and pastes MIDI.

• When pasting Time and Key Signatures from Pro Tools, the initial time and key signatures are now included.
• Pasting MIDI from the clipboard now ignores muted notes
• The “Round metronome marks” option in MIDI Import Options is now persistent
• When pasting MIDI from the clipboard or when importing a MIDI file, system text is no longer duplicated
• Key signatures are now positioned correctly after pasting MIDI
• Tempo changes aren’t included at every time signature change, unless needed
• Options to filter key switches in MIDI Import Options now no longer allow the values to cross

In Pro Tools:

• Select key, meter, ruler data individually or all at once to selectively paste
• You can now paste with or without notes, bringing across song structure independently from the music

ManuScript

• We’ve added full support for the various ways of respacing within Sibelius via ManuScript plugins:
  • 2 new Bar instructions, that explicitly choose the behavior:
  • bar.RespaceIncludeHiddenNotes
  • bar.RespaceIgnoreHiddenNotes

Note: bar.Respace remains unchanged. It’s behavior is determined by the user preference.

• 3 new selection object instructions that respace the music on a given selection:
  • selection.Respace
  • selection.RespaceIncludeHiddenNotes
  • selection.RespaceIgnoreHiddenNotes
• The Split Bar & Combine Tied Notes plugins have been updated
• Sibelius no longer crashes with running a plugin that uses the CloseWindow command
• We’ve corrected a few ManuScript Commands in the documentation and no longer refer to the “short name” twice where we actually meant the file name instead

Smaller improvements and bug fixes

• Blank clefs now appear when hidden objects are shown in the score.
• Unison ties are now correctly positioned
• Subsets
  • Page numbers are now retained in a Score Subset after relaunching Sibelius
  • Copying music within a Score Subset now works correctly after adding a new instrument
  • Muting instruments in the mixer within a Score Subset now works as expected
• House Styles and editing instruments
  • Importing House Style no longer corrupts instrument ensemble definitions. We’ve also unlocked Import House Style in Sibelius Artist.
  • The Edit Instruments dialog now correctly pre-selects the instrument you have selected in the score once more.
• General improvements
  • The preference to Respace multi-voice passages during note input and editing now works as it should when Auto-Optimize is on.
  • Sibelius no longer crashes after adding clef changes while re-inputting pitches.
  • Hidden accidentals no longer show when they shouldn’t
  • We’ve fixed a few translation errors on the Film Orchestra Manuscript Paper.
  • The About box credits now scrolls the list of names once more on desktop
  • Following on from the fix we made in 2024.3.1 where tied-to notes are updated when changing enharmonic spelling of the first note in a tie chain, we’ve tweaked this so you can’t apply it to more than one note at a time. This avoids problems when respelling a range and multi-item selections.

What’s new in v2024.5?

Availability of Sibelius on Android phones, tablets and Chromebooks

• Work from anywhere- create new music, edit existing scores and review on the go
• Unlock features using your existing Avid Account
• Use innovative multi-touch and stylus features to enter and edit music
• Feel right at home with same shortcuts found on Sibelius on desktop
• Streamlined interface provides intuitive yet familiar workflows

What’s new in v2024.3?

Copy & Paste Midi Between Sibelius And Pro Tools

The first of the three headlining features of this release is the new ability to freely copy and paste music between Sibelius and Pro Tools. This feature is available to all tiers of Sibelius and Pro Tools, so if you’re interested to try it but don’t have either Sibelius or Pro Tools, you can download Sibelius First or Pro Tools Intro using the links below.

Get Pro Tools Intro for free

Get Sibelius First for free

Resizeable Keypad

It’s resizable! This has long been a request of yours, so we’re pleased to introduce it. Now you can click and drag any of the four corners to resize the Keypad. Whether you choose to enlarge the Keypad to fill your whole screen or shrink it smaller than the default size, we hope that our composers using smaller screens (those that support high-DPI scaling) find this particularly useful.

As before, you can drag the Keypad off onto another screen to free-up space on your main monitor. If you have a touch-enabled screen, you’ll find it easy to tap on a larger Keypad and make use of the touch gestures we’ve put into the Keypad over the recent years.

Custom Articulations Make An Appearance On The Keypad

Another often-requested feature is for the Keypad to display the custom articulations on the fourth Keypad layout “Articulations.” Finally, in 2024.3, the wait is now over.  Now you can simply define your custom articulations in the Edit Symbols dialog (as before), and they will appear in the Keypad.

Introducing “Sibelius Connect” – Remote Control For Sibelius

Using Sibelius Connect, you’ll now be able to remotely control Sibelius by using apps running locally or from a mobile device or tablet.

Other Smaller Improvements

• Key Signature changes are now imported when opening a MIDI file
• Sibelius no longer adds an extra blank bar when importing a MIDI file
• In addition to the ability to resize the Keypad, we’ve tweaked the colors, allowing the buttons to stand out more prominently.
• The changes to the Keypad continue to support our accessibility improvements. As you’ve come to expect, the tooltips of the custom articulations match the symbols’ name and will read it out when using a screen reader.
• The Keypad also now shows the correct accidental for notes that are on transposed instruments.
• The Keypad could, in rare cases, disappear. But now it should no longer wonder off.
• Tremolo marking is now retained when using the Chord tool on the Keypad, then undoing.
• Japanese translations have been improved in a number of places in the app.
• Adding Special Page Breaks at the beginning of a score is now consistent when selecting the initial barline or the page break layout mark.
• Doing “Reset all note spacing” now accounts for accidentals.
• We’ve updated to the latest version of Qt5, so the engine continues to purr along.

Learn more about this update