London, England-based Sibelius Software Ltd. has announced that it’s shipping Sibelius 3, the latest major release of its music notation software for Mac and Windows. The new version includes more than 170 new features, and sports integration with Kontakt Player software developed by Native Instruments.
Sibelius 3 sports interface enhancements, a new “smoothness” setting for display clarity, as well as enhanced zooming and navigation. 30 new plug-ins are included. The software also adds improvements for teachers who use Sibelius to train students.
Sibelius 3 also adds features like “Focus on Staves,” to help aid navigation and score editing when writing for large ensembles; “Shadow Notes,” which simplifies mouse-driven note input; a “Save as Audio Track” feature to create audio CDs or MP3s; “Live Playback,” which recreates the nuances of original performances; “Engraving,” which improves the spacing of notes, and much more.
Sibelius 3 includes Kontakt Player Silver, developed by Berlin, Germany music software developer Native Instruments. Kontakt Player Silver provides Sibelius 3 users with 20 instrument sounds — a collection of brass, woodwind, strings, percussion, voices and a Bösendorfer piano. Native Instruments also makes available a separate version for purchase — Kontakt Player Gold — which includes 64 instrumental and 100 percussion sounds.
Sibelius 3 requires Mac OS X v10.1.5 or later or Mac OS 9.1 or later. The software costs US$599; upgrades from previous versions and educational discounts are available.