Customer Rating: 
Summary: Sibelius 5.0 - Largely Non-Functional
Comment: I bought this product as Sibelius 5.0 approximately one year ago. Despite many attempts to fix it, it continues to crash approximately one time each 30 minutes. Each time it crashes,I loose much of the previous 30-minutes of work. The technical advice in the websites does not seem to work. The instructions are gibberish to non-technical people such as most musicians. It has been impossible to download the version 5.25 upgrade. On the plus side, between each crash Sibelius seems to function well, but this is little consolation, because the frequent crashes make it impractical to use this product for composition. I have not tried Finale yet so I cannot compare the programs.
Customer Rating: Summary: Learning Curve
Comment: It's a great product, to be sure. It just takes a little getting used to. There will probably be plenty of roadblocks and a handful of bugs, as well as a lot of time spent on the help forums. It may prove to be especially frustrating for people coming over from Myriad Software's Melody Assistant program. But don't panic! All the abilities and bells and whistles are there; they just take a little tracking down to get to.
The sounds are also far superior to Melody's sounds. But the one drawback I found particularly annoying was that you couldn't preview the sounds before you assign them to a staff. You have to build the staff and write the music first, *before* you get to hear what it sounds like.
Customer Rating: Summary: Sibelius 5 is Great
Comment: I have wanted Sibleius since I used version 2 for my music theory classes in college. I took advantage of there $[...] and purchased Sibelius 5. I love it. The basic functionality of the software is easy to learn. It is loaded with features that may take a little bit to master, but it is amazing what you can make this program do. Also, you do not NEED an ASIO compatible soundcard. I am able to use my motherboard integrated card and still use the playbak feature. I am sure the sound may be better with the proper card though. Also, you will need a newer DVD-ROM. The older DVD-ROMs will not read the DVD's formatting.
Customer Rating: Summary: A powerful, versatile program
Comment: It is easy enough to use if you just jump right in, yet at the same time the wealth of keyboard shortcuts for just about everything allows power users to perform tasks quickly and efficiently.
The handbook is well written and organized and provides most of the basics for a new user. I highly recommend reading the Quick Tour, as it provides some very useful keyboard and mouse commands for navigating and editing that I never discovered while using the demo version.
The best way to evaluate Sibelius is to try out the free demo from the official website. The demo is fully functional with just two main restrictions: it cannot save files and it can only print the first page of a score. No review can substitute for trying it out yourself.
Customer Rating: Summary: Sibelius
Comment: The product is amazing, my eleven year old took to it immediately and we now have compositions in proper sheet form. We enjoy playing them back on the computer and will be getting a lead to feed his playing directly into the program.
