The new Sibelius: built for Surface Pro 3, designed for musicians, teachers, and students

Sibelius is the world’s best-selling music composition and notation software trusted by musicians, composers, arrangers, publishers, educators, and students all around the world. We put our heads together with the Sibelius team with a vision of making one of the most trusted music tools in the industry better on Surface for musicians, teachers, and students. Together we asked how touch and pen could allow you to make music and share ideas in entirely new ways and got to work. We started by seeking the feedback of composers and music educators around the United States who helped us understand what would make the experience of using Sibelius on Surface Pro 3 more satisfying while writing and teaching music, and you’ll love the new experience.

This weekend, the Sibelius team at Avid announced the next generation of Sibelius optimized for Surface Pro 3. Check out what’s to come.

Touch and gesture controls make getting around quick and easy

Getting around Sibelius feels more natural with multi-touch support that takes full advantage of the touch screen on Surface Pro 3. Pinch and zoom with your fingers or fly across the score with a quick swipe. You can also set predefined zoom levels to zoom in and out quickly with a double tap, very helpful when working with larger scores.

Write and draw all over the score with Surface Pen and the new Annotate mode

Making notes in Sibelius with Surface Pen feels like writing down your thoughts with a real pen on manuscript paper. The new Annotate mode allows you to jot down reminders for yourself about music changes as you’re composing and communicate edits and feedback to others, streamlining collaboration and review. Mark up items and write comments and instructions to arrangers, players, and students. Annotations attach themselves to the bar you’re writing in so you’ll never need to worry about losing your notes. Print and share copies of your score with your annotations, or switch off Annotation mode to print a clean copy of your score.

Add and edit notes with Surface Pen and the on-screen keyboard and fretboard

Add notes to the score with a tap of the Surface Pen, or play music in real time using the on-screen keyboard and fretboard. Two buttons on the Surface Pen allow you to select, erase, and edit your music. The experience of using Sibelius on Surface Pro 3 allows you to finally free yourself from your desk, allowing you to write music anywhere.

Bigger touch targets and support for the high resolution Surface Pro 3 display

Using the new Sibelius on Surface Pro 3 doesn’t only feel more natural, it also looks more beautiful. Support for the high resolution display on Surface Pro 3 allows you to see every detail of your score in stunning clarity. An updated interface with larger touch targets makes using the touch screen feel much more natural.

Learn more about the new Sibelius here.

I’d love to learn how you’re making, teaching, learning, producing, and performing music with Surface. Share your creations and stories with me – send over a tweet to @stpitts and #SurfacePen. I can’t wait to check out all that you share!

Stuart Pitts

Product Marketing Manager, Surface Team