Avid

Overview

Write music quickly and easily

Sibelius (formerly Sibelius | First—learn more) features an intuitive task-based interface that leads you through the entire score creation process, so you can jump right in and start composing music immediately. Enter notes from the onscreen notation, keyboard, or fretboard windows, or from your MIDI or computer keyboard. Sibelius takes care of all note layout, orientation, and rest details for you.

Build up your composition

With support for up to 16 instrument parts (staves), you can create rich, multilayered compositions. But it’s not just about notes. Add chord symbols and guitar chord diagrams by simply playing a chord on a MIDI device or typing suffix elements. Turn guitar tab into notation and back again. And easily add lyrics, titles, text, and graphics to round out your score.

Create beautiful scores fast

Spend more time writing music instead of fixing it. As you write, Magnetic Layout automatically gives everything just the right amount of space and avoids collisions to produce beautiful results, cutting writing time in half. And Dynamic Parts can automatically create and update separate instrumental parts whenever you change your score.

Turn music into scores

Sibelius comes with two companion applications that enable you to turn recorded, performed, printed, and handwritten music into notation. With AudioScore Lite, you can input notes by singing or playing a monophonic instrument through a microphone. With PhotoScore & NotateMe Lite, you can turn printed, PDF, and JPEG sheet music into editable scores—and even handwrite music.

Hear your music in stunning detail

With the included 10 GB sound library of high-quality sampled instruments, you can play back compositions to hear how it would sound with full instrumentation. The Espressivo feature adds a more humanistic feel, so your score sounds the way you intended it to be heard. You can also use VST and AU virtual instruments and effects.

Get inspired

Got writer’s block? No need to fret. Check out the Score Starter and Ideas Hub to kick-start your creativity. Get started fast with 40 genre-specific Score Starter templates. And gain further inspiration with the Ideas Hub, featuring 300 library ideas at your disposal to rev up your creative flow. You can even capture your own ideas for future use.

Share your work

Easily share up to 20 scores online using Sibelius | Cloud Sharing and invite others to view and play your music. Want to share more scores? Expand your storage with an Avid Cloud Premium Plan. You can also collaborate through MusicXML, print scores, and export your music as MIDI or PDF files.