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 with Sibelius for mobile on iPad or iPhone 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 Can be installed on an unlimited number of devices by a single user;
single copy can be but only one device is active at a time using Cloud Licensing in Avid
installed on Link. Additionally, one device can be designated as offline if needed.
Sibelius for mobile can be used on a maximum of five devices under
a single account.
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 Sibelius for mobile fea-
tures.
AudioScore and Includes Audio Score First and Includes AudioScore Lite and PhotoScore Lite
PhotoScore PhotoScore First
(not on Sibelius for
mobile)
Avid Sibelius Comparison Guide — 12/9/22 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 on Sibelius for mobile)
Bar numbers Limited Full range of formats
Special Barline types Dashed, Double, Start Repeat, All
End Repeat, and Final only
Bars, irregular No No, except pick-up bars Yes
Cross-staff beams No Yes
(keyboard music) (not on Sibelius for mobile)
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 Sibelius for mobile)
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 Sibelius for mobile)
Half-speed playback No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Espressivo 2.0 No Presets only Customizable rhythmic feel
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Live Tempo (tap tempo) Limited—playback only Record, edit, clear, and play
(not on Sibelius for mobile) back Live Tempo
Playback markings on No Yes
specified repeats
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
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 Sibelius for mobile)
Arrange: automatic arranging No Yes
and orchestration
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Comments (sticky notes) Yes
Compare different scores or No Yes
versions
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Copy and paste to Word and No Low resolution (96 dpi) only Yes
other programs (text only on Sibelius for (text only on Sibelius for
mobile) mobile)
Display timecode No Single format Customizable format
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Edit Dynamic Parts No Limited Full
Edit word menus No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Export a log of changes to a No Yes
score
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Export lyrics as text file No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Filters for editing similar No Quick filters only Yes
objects
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Find No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Focus on staves No Yes
Graphics export (for creating No Yes
worksheets and other content)
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Highlight music Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Ideas Hub No 300 library ideas included 2,000+ library ideas included,
(not on Sibelius for mobile) 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
Instrument changes No Yes
4
Utilities Sibelius First Sibelius Artist Sibelius Ultimate
Join scores together No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Keyboard shortcuts Fixed Customizable
(Fixed on Sibelius for
mobile)
Lyric verses allowed 2 5 Unlimited
Lyrics from text file No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Note input options Fixed Limited Full
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Panorama scroll view Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Paper and desk textures 40 Over 60
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Part extraction No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Paste as Cue No Yes
Plug-ins None 38 included Over 140 included
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Inspector window to edit indi- No Full
vidual objects
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Rehearsal marks No Default only Fully customizable
Repeat structures Fixed Customizable Fully customizable
Rulers No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Score Starter: (40 genre-spe- Yes No
cific templates)
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Score Subsets Can view and edit, but cannot create or delete Create, delete, view, and edit
Slide notes and rests No Yes
Special page breaks No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Timeline window No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Swap voice No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Versions Latest (head) version only Save, view, and print only Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
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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 Sibelius for mobile)
Viewing options for Magnetic No Yes
Layout, page margins, note
colors, full screen, and more
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Worksheet Creator No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Publishing Sibelius First Sibelius Artist Sibelius Ultimate
Advanced layout features No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Auto Layout options No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Edit fonts No Limited Full
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Edit staff types No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Edit text styles No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Engraving rules No Yes
(hundreds to edit)
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Headers/footers No Yes
House Style import/export No Import only Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Intelligent Rests No Yes
Magnetic Layout Fixed Fully customizable
(Fixed on iPad and iPhone)
Manage Dynamic Parts No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
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 and iPhone)
Multiple staff size Fixed Fully customizable
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Note spacing rules Fixed Fully customizable
(Fixed on iPad and iPhone)
6
Publishing Sibelius First Sibelius Artist Sibelius Ultimate
Reset position/design of Limited Yes
objects
Set default object positions No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
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 on Sibelius for mobile)
Email score as .sib or .pdf No Yes
Graphics file export No PDF export only Standard bitmap and vector
(not on Sibelius for mobile) formats (SVG, PNG, JPG,
BMP, TIFF, GIF, and PDF)
MIDI file export—Type 0 and No Yes
Type 1 any device
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
MusicXML file export (com- No Yes
pressed or uncompressed)
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Previous version export No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Publish directly to No Yes
ScoreExchange.com
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Share to YouTube, Facebook, No Yes
SoundCloud
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Sibelius | Cloud Sharing 10 scores 20 scores Unlimited (up to 1 GB storage)
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
Video file (Export score as) No Yes
(not on Sibelius for mobile)
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 and iPhone, supported Ribbon commands are accessible using Command Search.
