Sibelius playback
Hearing is believing
Just click the play button to hear your music performed with surprising realism. Sibelius reads, understands and plays back all standard markings – including trills, repeats, cresc./dim. hairpins, 8vas, glissandos, percussion and drum sets, guitar tab, and even quarter-tones.
Sibelius understands musical words and phrases such as: rit., pizz., Allegro, mute, swing, and change to Piccolo. Musical terms in various languages are already defined in a built-in dictionary – and you can add new words to it, too.
Sibelius lets you select specific instruments and sections of music to listen to, automatically playing the correct instrumental sounds through your soundcard or MIDI equipment.
Watch movie: Playback »
150+ high-quality built-in sounds
Example Scores
Hear Sibelius Sounds Essentials in action. Listen to the scores below.
Orchestral 1 »
Orchestral 2 »
Jazz »
Choir 1 »
Choir 2 »
Marching Band »
Pop »
Sibelius 5 comes with Sibelius Sounds Essentials as standard – a collection of over 150 pitched and hundreds of percussion sounds, covering a wide range of orchestral, rock & pop, jazz and marching band instruments, plus the full General MIDI set. We’ve selected the sounds from top-name libraries such as Garritan Personal Orchestra, SONiVOX, Garritan Jazz & Big Band, Garritan Concert & Marching Band, M-Audio Session, and Tapspace Virtual Drumline – everything you need to start producing high-quality playback, audio files and CDs.
Sibelius Sounds Essentials plays back using Kontakt Player 2, the very latest version with much improved performance. It can play any number of sounds simultaneously (limited only by your computer), loads them almost instantly, and has extra built-in effects. Any other Sibelius Sounds you have (e.g. Kontakt Gold, GPO Sibelius Edition) will work better than ever, too.
Watch movie: Sibelius Sounds Essentials »
Enhanced realism
You can now specify exactly how articulations, lines, tremolos and symbols play back – for example, to change the length and loudness of accents and staccatos, the speed of tremolos, or how fast chords with wiggly arpeggio lines are spread. Hairpins automatically read dynamics to work out how loud or soft they should end up, and sustained notes get continuously louder or softer along the hairpin.
Always chooses the best sounds
Our revolutionary new way of categorising sounds, called SoundWorld™, ensures that Sibelius always chooses the most suitable sound available on any device – with no need to reset them if you switch equipment. And if you want to tell Sibelius which device you prefer for particular sounds, e.g. GPO for strings and Synthogy Ivory for piano, you only need do so once – just “set and forget.
Flawless recordings, every time
Even if your computer isn’t powerful enough to play a score back in all its glory, Sibelius can create a perfect, glitch-free audio file, by processing it at a speed that suits your computer. And if you have a fast computer, Sibelius creates the audio file faster than real time!
Extra Sound Libraries
World Music New!
HIgh-quality samples of indigenous instruments from around the world, including Cuban percussion and a Taiko drum ensemble.
Choral New!
Solo and ensemble samples for soprano, alto, tenor and bass, plus high-quality organ and piano sounds.
Rock & Pop
All the sounds you’ll need to write rock, pop and jazz music, including a wide range of guitars, keyboards and drums.
Other Sound Libraries Available
VST and Audio Units
VST (on Windows and Mac) and Audio Units (on Mac only) are state-of-the-art standards for high-quality instrumental sounds. A huge variety of VST and Audio Unit instruments are available from numerous manufacturers – and now Sibelius 5 can play back using any of them! So you’re no longer limited to our sounds – you can now use world-famous ones such as EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra, Vienna Symphonic Library, Synful Orchestra, and many others. Plus you can use any Kontakt Player 2 or Kontakt 2-format sounds, too.
Many effects to enhance the results (such as advanced reverb, EQ, filters) are also available, which you can chain and mix together. Plus you can use as many different VST or Audio Unit instruments and effects simultaneously as your computer can handle.
Kontakt Player 2
Experience breathtaking sounds and effects with Kontakt Player 2.
Espressivo™ & Rubato™
Espressivo and Rubato are unique features which add elegant expression as Sibelius plays. Espressivo makes subtle adjustments to the dynamics to produce musical phrasing, and Rubato varies the tempo, just like a human performer.
Rhythmic feel™, SoundStage™ & reverb
Sibelius lets you choose from numerous "rhythmic feel" styles which make subtle enhancements to the rhythm – anything from jazz swing to Viennese waltz!
When playing back scores for ensembles such as orchestra or band, Sibelius’s unique SoundStage feature positions the sounds correctly in 3-D space, as if the instruments were on a concert stage. You can also choose the reverb characteristics of different natural acoustics.
Because Sibelius has such sophisticated playback features, you can use it for far more than just listening to music. Sibelius makes it easy to check the notes you’ve written, accompanies while you practice, and helps you make rehearsal tapes and CD recordings of your music.
Repeats
Sibelius supports every kind of repeat you can imagine - not just D.S., D.C., Coda, Segno and Fine, but complex repeat structures with up to 8 repetitions. You can even make Sibelius jump between arbitrary points in the score during playback, e.g. to skip guitar fill boxes or simulate aleatory performances.
You can make individual notes, dynamics etc. apply only to certain verses or repeats, so you could have the brass play only the second time round, or make verse 3 p and verse 4 f.
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A comprehensive guide to Sibelius's features
