Sibelius in trouble!

[MarkSealey]

The notation/composing software Sibelius is in trouble.

At the start of July Sibelius' current parent company, Avid, announced that it was closing its London office and disbanding the team (technical and support) responsible for the software.

Because of the implications for music-making worldwide, a campaign was launched to lobby for the continued development of Sibelius. A key plank is that Avid should sell the product to an entity more likely to foster such development.

Please support this campaign, sign the petition and otherwise take action.

And spread the word. Thanks!

[heliocentric]

Avid won't sell it because it will make money for them for a few years yet even without their paying the development team. No doubt they have some kind of version 8 ready for release when they think the time is right. It isn't in their interests to sell Sibelius and they will ignore "pressure" from disgruntled musicians. Something like this was bound to happen from the moment the Finn brothers sold Sibelius to Avid. This is how all big companies behave, you can read about it in the news every day - the people at the top care about the shareholders, not the customers, and nothing short of a revolution against global capitalism is going to change that fact.

Secondly: somehow it seems that Sibelius has suddenly become a wonderful and irreplaceable thing now everyone's realised it was owned by asset-strippers. It isn't that good. I can imagine something much better, especially if it's open source and thus motivated by something other than profit. I've been using Sibelius (version 5) for just over two years, it took me a couple of weeks to learn it and though it does everything I need it to do this involves some annoying workarounds which with more "open-minded" software wouldn't be necessary. So my feeling is: let it go. There are already two quite highly-developed open-source notation programs around (Musescore and Lilypond) and surely this is the kind of thing that's going to have a future, rather than relying on the nonexistent goodwill of corporations like Avid. I'm prepared to be surprised but I don't think this petitioning is going to have any effect at all.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I first bought Sibelius 7 in 1995, when it was only available for Acorn Computers. I was a "demonstrator" for the company at the time, and it was considered by some to be the best software of any kind available to the general public. I can vouch for its brilliance, as I still use it, in preference to the much later Sibelius 5, which I also have. Once it was decided to transfer to the PC and Apple/Mac platforms, consideration for its users gradually began to slide, with a bad acceleration when the Ginn brothers sold to Avid. My pet hate was the sucking-up to the Americans by using their language, both on-screen and in the manual.

The worst thing about the change of formats was not that I needed to buy a new computer. It was the design of the program(me) which meant that note input was less intuitive. When you write a quaver, or a crotchet on a manuscript score, you start by writing the notehead on the line or space; only then do you turn it into a specific time value. The original Sibelius 7 did that. The PC/Mac version was not an update of the earlier Sibelius software. It was more like an improved version of the American notation software "Encore". In fact it was extremely like Encore. However, Sibelius Software continued to use the testimonials from the likes of Paul Patterson and John Rutter, even though their praise was about the earlier Sibelius 7, which was better and faster. By the time of Sibelius 4, the newer version had finally caught up - but I still don't like it.

I won't be signing any petitions. I don't like the way the company has operated since 1997.

[MarkSealey]

heliocentric

I share your views on the corporatocracy in which we live. I am also sceptical about petitions. More certain than either of those changing within the next six months to a year is that if we do nothing - as you propose to do (with respect) - Avid will have no motivation to change either. What harm can it do to register a protest? King Lear had it right there :-)

I'm not so sure that refusing to support the efforts of others (to save Sibelius) so as to prove how evil corporations are isn't putting the cart before the horse.

…It isn't in their interests to sell Sibelius and they will ignore "pressure" from disgruntled musicians…I'm prepared to be surprised but I don't think this petitioning is going to have any effect at all.

[MarkSealey]

Eine Alpensinfonie,

I too go back to the Finns, those BETTs in the Horticultural Halls and Acorn. Avid is not a good steward of Sibelius.

That has already been proved. To withhold support, may I suggest with respect, does not in any way underline how bad Avid is. It simply lessens the chance of saving the software. Please reconsider!

…I won't be signing any petitions…

[vinteuil]

I first bought Sibelius 7 in 1995, when it was only available for Acorn Computers. I was a "demonstrator" for the company at the time, and it was considered by some to be the best software of any kind available to the general public. I can vouch for its brilliance, as I still use it, in preference to the much later Sibelius 5, which I also have. .

... good to see Alpie coming round to a HIPP take on things. Even if only as regards software...

[Pabmusic]

... good to see Alpie coming round to a HIPP take on things. Even if only as regards software...

Yes. But it's not so much about software (though the Acorn Sibelius was great) as about the demise of Acorn computers. I have still my Acorn Risc computer I bought in 1995 to run Sibelius, which still impresses people with its speed now (particularly the speed of booting up). I use an Imac now, but I haven't the heart to throw the old Acorn away. And, yes, he's right - the early Sibelius 7 was better in many respects than later versions for modern platforms.

I have signed the petition, though I'm not optimistic.

[heliocentric]

Mark, Avid will have "no motivation to change" whatever happens; and of course my attitude is by no means intended "to prove how evil corporations are", they do that themselves without any outside help. My point is closer to Eine Alpeninfonie's: I don't much see the point in going cap in hand to try and save something that is already heavily compromised and probably not actually worth saving.

[BBMmk2]

Hope I will be able to op-erate it though. I suppose there wont do any updates thats all?

[Pabmusic]

Hope I will be able to op-erate it though. I suppose there wont do any updates thats all?

That's my understanding - which is not going to cause me any problems for the rest of my life. I suppose it's the (not very surprising) ruthlessness of it all that galls.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

... good to see Alpie coming round to a HIPP take on things. Even if only as regards software...

No; the HIPP version would be "Atari Notator".

[MarkSealey]

Understood. To do nothing almost guarantees nothing.

When you looked at what we propose at Take Action, you'll have seen we threw our caps away a month ago :-)

Many enthusiastic Sibelius users would, I fear, feel hurt and insulted by your saying that the software they use to create and make a living with is… not worth saving.

I don't much see the point in going cap in hand to try and save something that is already heavily compromised and probably not actually worth saving.

Thanks to those who have taken action :-)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Many enthusiastic Sibelius users would, I fear, feel hurt and insulted by your saying that the software they use to create and make a living with is… not worth saving.

I felt very much the same when the Finn brothers made a pledge that they would not desert the Acorn platform for the PC. Six months later, they did just that.
And although Acorn pulled out of computers to concentrate of set-top boxes (Pace), the operating system - RISCOS - is still with us and has moved from RISCOS 3 to RISCOS 6 in that time. Unfortunately Sibelius 7 requires a computer with an internal floppy disc drive, which the newest RISCOS computers do not have.