Sibelius 2018.7 released with bug fixes - Scoring Notes (original) (raw)

Today Avid released Sibelius 2018.7, the latest version of its notation software. This is a workmanlike release devoted to fixing bugs, some of which newly appeared in the 2018.6 update, and some which have been around longer.

There are no new features in 2018.7 since the last update from one month ago, but we are glad to see these issues addressed. A couple of them deserve a brief mention here.

Glissando lines

There are two fixes to magnetic glissandi, the feature which debuted in Sibelius 8.6. Superfluous cautionary accidentals no longer appear in some cases, and accidentals are now correctly displayed when shared between two notes that have an attached glissando line.

The latter could be particularly problematic, as it resulted in incorrect pitches being displayed, like in this passage for three trombones:

From Sibelius 2018.6. Notice the last chord, where there is a missing E-flat in the third trombone. (Example is in bass clef)

From Sibelius 2018.7. The E-flat appears correctly.

Correctly sized PDF export

It’s fair to say that the average user wasn’t bothered by the fact that sometimes Sibelius, upon creating PDF files via File > Export > PDF, would create documents with page dimensions that were slightly off — like 8.5” x 11.02” inches for a Letter-size PDF instead of a true 8.5” x 11” document.

But for certain users with particular printing workflows it could cause problems, since an 8.5″ x 11.02″ document is a non-standard size.

Sibelius 2018.7 fixes this error, which was due to floating point number calculations, the likes of which I hope to never encounter.

Full list of changes in Sibelius 2018.7

Here is the list of changes, as provided by Avid’s Joe Pearson in a post on the Sibelius support forum. They are sorted here by placing older bugs at the top of each list, with fixes to bugs in the 2018.6 release following the legacy items.

Notation

• Legacy: Superfluous cautionary accidentals no longer appear in some cases with gliss lines
• Legacy: Accidentals are now correctly displayed when shared between two notes that have an attached gliss line
• Legacy: Centered bar numbers are now correctly aligned when key signature changes and certain types of barlines are present
• 2018.6: Notes are no longer automatically respaced in some cases when deleting some notes and/or accidentals
• 2018.6: Double and repeat barlines on the final bar of a staff cause the bar number on the subsequent staff to be misplaced
• 2018.6: Various tweaks to improve the appearance and behavior of grace notes
• 2018.6: When changing the voice of grace notes from one to another, extra rests are no longer added

Stability

Sibelius no longer unexpectedly quits when:

• Legacy: Opening a score with the Quick Start dialog disabled
• Legacy: Entering certain lyrics in Japanese and Korean on Mac
• Legacy: Using the “Get score” function to retrieve a score from across a network license server
• 2018.6: Attempting to change the position of a stem using arrow keys
• 2018.6: Opening certain files created in older versions of Sibelius
• 2018.6: Running the Add Rehearsal Mark Plus Double Barline plug-in when final bar is selected with System selection

General

• Legacy: When saving a newly imported MusicXML file for the first time, Sibelius now correctly suggests a .sib file suffix
• Legacy: Page dimensions are now more accurate when exporting to PDF in certain circumstances
• Legacy: Sibelius is now much faster in making edits to text in certain circumstances
• 2018.6: Enharmonic change by pressing Return now operates as expected even when there is text within the selection
• 2018.6: Sibelius now provides extra space for accidentals, as required, when moving a note up or down in semi-tones (1/2 steps) using the keyboard
• 2018.6: When exporting to previous versions, overlapping voices no longer appear overlain

Availability

The Sibelius 2018.7 update is free for all Sibelius users with active subscriptions and upgrade plans. The updated installers are available from users’ Avid Accounts or from Avid Application Manager.