Avid Sibelius Comparison Guide

This table identifies differences in features and functionality between the three tiers of Sibelius on macOS and
Windows: Sibelius First, Sibelius Artist, and Sibelius Ultimate.

Features that are not currently available on iPad are called out in bold.

Sibelius First A great introduction to working with the Sibelius software line. It supports up to four staves in a score
and provides sufficient capabilities for most of your basic music notation needs. If you need more fully featured
functionality, you can upgrade to Sibelius Artist or Sibelius Ultimate anytime through your Avid Master Account.

Sibelius Artist Great for students and skilled amateurs. It supports up to 16 staves and provides all the tools you
need to create professional looking scores for music of moderate complexity.

Sibelius Ultimate A must for professionals and educators. It lets you create as many staves as the music de-
mands, and it is extensively customizable, so you can make even the most complex music look perfect.

General Sibelius First Sibelius Artist Sibelius Ultimate

Lets you... Create simple scores with up to Create professional-quality Compose, arrange, and publish
4 staves—can open scores with scores and compose simple to professional-quality scores and
more than 4 staves for review, moderate music—up to 16 parts of any size and complexity
but are read only staves; and can open scores with as many staves as you
with more than 16 staves for need; create notation work-
review, but they are read only sheets and exercises for educa-
tion; and more

Availability Register for free download Subscribe monthly or annually, Subscribe monthly or annually,
or purchase and own a perpet- purchase and own a perpetual
ual license license (educational discount
available), trade-up from other
notation software, or get net-
work licensing

Number of computers a N/A 2, but for use by one person only (so you can run a copy on your
single copy can be desktop and another on your laptop or surface).
installed on The iPad app can be run in addition to this.

Software updates and Download the latest update as it Access all new releases and Standard support through a subscription
support becomes available or renewable 1-Year Software Updates + Support Plan (included with
a new perpetual license)
Your Avid Master Account also unlocks features on iPad.

AudioScore and Includes Audio Score First and Includes AudioScore Lite and PhotoScore Lite
PhotoScore PhotoScore First
(not available on iPad)

Avid Sibelius Comparison Guide — 5/18/22 9329-66391-00 REV A 1

Notation Sibelius First Sibelius Artist Sibelius Ultimate

Accidentals Normal and double only Normal and double only brack- Normal, double, quarter-tones,
eted bracketed

Metadata Common ones only Full set

(not available on iPad)

Bar numbers Limited Full range of formats

Barline types Single, double, repeat only Single, double, repeat, dotted,
early music

Bars, irregular No No, except pick-up bars Yes

Cross-staff beams No Yes

(keyboard music) (not available on iPad)

Beam/rest groupings Fixed Customizable

Brackets and braces Fixed Customizable

Change transposition of trans- No Yes

posing instruments

Chord symbols appearance Limited preset options Fully customizable

and MIDI/text input

Cues No Yes

Dotted notes: single, double, Single dotted Yes

triple

Guitar chord diagrams Limited Yes

Guitar scale diagrams No Yes

Guitar tab Basic only Full

Instruments Common only Common, jazz, and world Full customizable range
(Common only on iPad for instruments only, with fixed
all tiers) number of staves

Jazz articulations: falls, No Yes

scoops, doits, and plops

Custom lines No Yes

Rhythmic note values: 32nd note to breve (twice All

512th note (7 beams) to duration of whole note)
double breve (4 times duration
of whole note)

Custom Noteheads No Yes

Ossia staves No Yes

Page numbers Automatic Customizable

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Notation Sibelius First Sibelius Artist Sibelius Ultimate

Special symbols No Yes

Split multirests in parts No Yes

Staves Up to 4 Up to 16 per system Unlimited

Stemlets (half-stems) No Yes

and feathered beams

Tuplets Duplets (2:3) to Duplets (2:3) to Any (such as 2, 7, 44:31, and

sextuplets (6:4) nonuplets (9:8) even nested tuplets)

Playback Sibelius First Sibelius Artist Sibelius Ultimate

Advanced notation interpreta- No Yes

tion

Edit MIDI data No Yes

(not on iPad)

Includes Sibelius Sound No Sibelius Sounds Sibelius Ultimate Sounds

Libraries (10 GB library) provides (36 GB library) provides a full
(single 900 mb sound library high-quality samples for most range of professional-quality
for all tiers on iPad) common instruments orchestral, jazz, pop, marching
band, and percussion

Loop playback No Yes

(not on iPad)

Half-speed playback No Yes

(not on iPad)

Espressivo 2.0 No Presets only Customizable rhythmic feel

(not on iPad)

Live Tempo (tap tempo) Limited—playback only Record, edit, clear, and play
(not on iPad) back Live Tempo

Playback markings on No Yes

specified repeats
(not on iPad)

Playback of hairpins Fixed Adjustable

(Fixed on iPad)

Playback of ritardandi and Fixed Adjustable

accelerandid) (Fixed on iPad)

Playback fermatas Fixed Adjustable

(Fixed on iPad)

Words that affect playback Fixed Editable

(such as legato) (Fixed on iPad)

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Utilities Sibelius First Sibelius Artist Sibelius Ultimate

Annotate Yes
(not on iPad)

Arrange: automatic arranging No Yes

and orchestration
(not on iPad)

Comments (sticky notes) Yes

Compare different scores or No Yes

versions
(not on iPad)

Copy and paste to Word and No Low resolution (96 dpi) only Yes
other programs (text only on iPad) (text only not on iPad)

Display timecode No Single format Customizable format

(not on iPad)

Edit Dynamic Parts No Limited Full

Edit word menus No Yes

(not on iPad)

Export a log of changes to a No Yes

score
(not on iPad)

Export lyrics as text file No Yes

(not on iPad)

Filters for editing similar No Quick filters only Yes

objects
(not on iPad)

Find No Yes
(not on iPad)

Focus on staves No Yes

Graphics export (for creating No Yes

worksheets and other content)
(not on iPad)

Highlight music Yes

(not on iPad)

Ideas Hub No 300 library ideas included 2,000+ library ideas included,
(not on iPad) and lets you capture your own and lets you capture and edit
ideas (editing not supported) your own ideas and add to a
score and/or the library

Import MusicXML files Yes

(not on iPad)

Instrument changes No Yes

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Utilities Sibelius First Sibelius Artist Sibelius Ultimate

Join scores together No Yes

(not on iPad)

Keyboard shortcuts Fixed Customizable

(Fixed on iPad)

Lyric verses allowed 2 5 Unlimited

Lyrics from text file No Yes

(not on iPad)

Note input options Fixed Limited Full

(not on iPad)

Panorama scroll view Yes

(not on iPad)

Paper and desk textures 40 Over 60

(not on iPad)

Part extraction No Yes

(not on iPad)

Paste as Cue No Yes

Plug-ins None 38 included Over 140 included

(not on iPad)

Inspector window to edit indi- No Full

vidual objects
(not on iPad)

Rehearsal marks No Default only Fully customizable

Repeat structures Fixed Customizable Fully customizable

Rulers No Yes
(not on iPad)

Score Starter: (40 genre-spe- Yes No

cific templates)
(not on iPad)

Slide notes and rests No Yes

Special page breaks No Yes

(not on iPad)

Timeline window No Yes

(not on iPad)

Swap voice No Yes

(not on iPad)

Versions Latest (head) version only Save, view, and print only Yes
(not on iPad)

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Utilities Sibelius First Sibelius Artist Sibelius Ultimate

Video, including timecode and No Add video, add/edit hit points Yes
hit points
(not on iPad)

Viewing options for Magnetic No Yes

Layout, page margins, note
colors, full screen, and more
(not on iPad)

Worksheet Creator No Yes

(not on iPad)

Publishing Sibelius First Sibelius Artist Sibelius Ultimate

Advanced layout features No Yes

(not on iPad)

Auto Layout options No Yes

(not on iPad)

Edit fonts No Limited Full

(not on iPad)

Edit staff types No Yes

(not on iPad)

Edit text styles No Yes

(not on iPad)

Engraving rules No Yes

(hundreds to edit)
(not on iPad)

Headers/footers No Yes

House Style import/export No Import only Yes

(not on iPad)

Intelligent Rests No Yes

Magnetic Layout Fixed Fully customizable

(Fixed on iPad)

Manage Dynamic Parts No Yes

(not on iPad)

Manuscript papers Includes a few, but you cannot create your own Includes many, and you can
(preset score layouts) create your own
(Fixed on iPad)

Multiple staff size Fixed Fully customizable

(not on iPad)

Note spacing rules Fixed Fully customizable

(Fixed on iPad)

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Publishing Sibelius First Sibelius Artist Sibelius Ultimate

Reset position/design of Limited Yes

objects

Set default object positions No Yes

(not on iPad)

Staff spacing Fixed Manual adjustment only Yes

Export and Share Sibelius First Sibelius Artist Sibelius Ultimate

Audio recording export N/A WAV, AIFF, and MP3

(not available on iPad)

Email score as .sib or .pdf No Yes

Graphics file export No PDF export only Standard bitmap and vector
(not available on iPad) formats (SVG, PNG, JPG,
BMP, TIFF, GIF, and PDF)

MIDI file export—Type 0 and No Yes

Type 1 any device
(not available on iPad)

MusicXML file export (com- No Yes

pressed or uncompressed)
(not available on iPad)

Previous version export No Yes

(not available on iPad)

Publish directly to No Yes

ScoreExchange.com
(not available on iPad)

Share to YouTube, Facebook, No Yes

SoundCloud
(not available on iPad)

Sibelius | Cloud Sharing 10 scores 20 scores Unlimited (up to 1 GB storage)

(not available on iPad)

Video file (Export score as) No Yes

(not available on iPad)

7
Keypad in Sibelius First, Sibelius Artist, and Sibelius Ultimate
Sibelius First, Sibelius Artist, and Sibelius Ultimate each provide six Keypad layouts: Common notes (F7), More
notes (F8), Beams/Tremolos (F9), Articulation (F10), Jazz articulations (F11), and Accidentals (F12). However, not all
options available with Sibelius Ultimate are available with Sibelius Artist and Sibelius First.

The Keypad also lets you select which voice in a staff you want to add or edit notes. While Sibelius Artist and
Sibelius Ultimate let you work with up to four voices on a staff, you are limited to two voices with Sibelius First.

Sibelius First, Sibelius Artist, and Sibelius Ultimate and the Ribbon
The contents of the Ribbon differ between Sibelius First, Sibelius Artist, and Sibelius Ultimate. For instance, the
Parts tab is only available in Sibelius Ultimate. Similarly, Sibelius First and Sibelius Artist provide fewer options in
each tab than Sibelius Ultimate.

On iPad, supported Ribbon commands are accessible using Command Search.