I did not say I'm going to decide for you. (It's obvious that NO seller/evaluator can DECIDE for a potential byer so your point does not really make any sense. Like I said, though, I understand why you said it. (Shame on you ).  Also, I can't recall ANY country (maybe the Muslims), where individualism is still the order of the day.) I said I will present my recommendation to my email newsletter members (to which you are not enlisted, you get your info here on the forum; as many of them as well, I'm sure). Then they can decide for yourself.

 

Like I said, many of my Studio contacts already decided, for themselves, to move to Sib7 as it integrates with Pro Tools 9. My high school students at S. University call me regulary for Finale help and notation software advice. The same is with most of the military and pipe bands in ALL of South Africa. I even get calls from Natal for Finale and Sibelius support. Like I said, they call me Mr. Finale. Guys in the Eastern Cape is tired of using Encore (there is a guy there that pushes Encore), and will move to either Finale or Sibelius.

 

Fritz, my friend, if you are happy with Finale, that's cool. But people are not stupid because like you so rightly said, they WILL compare these products and decide for themselves and believe me, nearly ALL of these newcommers do NOT have loyalties yet. They will step into the better market because everybody wants value for money. They are NOT going to buy Finale if they know they are going to have to wait YEARS for improvement. All a potential buyer have to do is to scan through this forum upon which they'll soon discover people's unhappiness throughout the years.

 

The stats reflect that Europe, Brittain, a great part of the US and other contries are Sibelius users. South Africa has more Sibelius users than Finale users. I'm talking 'registered' users. I've heard somewhere that over 2000 Finale users went over to Sibelius. I suppose that they know that by Avid's 'Finale Crossgrade' offer of which I also took the liberty. As far I can tell is that MM only have ONE Finale re-seller here. There are MANY music stores in SA that sells Sibelius as they keep it in stock for Pro Tools as well. Avid did a clever one here. I'm also considering becoming a re-seller for one or both products in SA.

 

The point is, Sibelius is grabbing the market slowly but surely and these observations is what I'll tell my peers and contacts in order to keep my reputation as someone they can trust to present the facts.

 

Finally, my brother, do correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I know, you use Finale in a non-professional manner writing music for your choir and maybe the church. If this is true, as is the case with maybe most Finale and Sib users, you don't experience the pressure of many clients nagging constantly for their stuff. So, Finale, with all it's many clicks and editing, will be fine for you. As for me and others who are required to publish on a never-ending assembly beld, we'll be wise to scrutinize every notation product on the market to ease our job. Notwithstanding the risk of appearing loyaless, I do believe I speak for most of us regarding these matters.

 

For this season, this really is my FINALe word on this topic. May God bless ALL my musical brothers and sisters all over the world!

 

Peace...

 

PS. Fritz, please forgive me for what I said. It is not directed at you or your opinion personally. I also wonder what the stats are between Finale & Sibelius on the piracy circuit of which I made it my mission to combat here in SA.

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SING PRAISES UNTO HIS NAME!

"Until the New Theology can produce the sinless character of the Old Theology,it (the New Theology) stands challenged." -Henry Fosdick

Intel Core i3, 3.07 GHZ, 8 Gig Ram, Win 7 64bit
Sahara Laptop, 3 Gig memory, 1.7Ghz Intel Centrino CPU, Realteck Sound Device

Sibelius 7, Finale 2011, Sonar X1

Post Edited (Hans Nel) : 8/12/2011 4:12:24 PM (GMT-5)