G7 Kontakt Edition

List Price: $99.00 Discount Price: $79.99

Features:

• Easy-to-use tool for creating tab
• Can also create standard musical notation and lyrics
• Create Scorch files for publishing on the internet
• Imports ASCII tab (.txt) and standard midi files (.mid)
• Create audio files from your score/tab and burn them to a CD or mp3

Customer Reviews:

Even Better than before... [Posted on 2005-09-28]
See my previous review for G7 (from before Kontakt update.)
This is a great program, with no bugs to speak of, and even faster than it was. I'm now at the point where I can do a fairly involved lead sheet in a half-hour. It's a fine teaching tool, and its font choices are all you could ask for. You can arrange 4 instruments (the most I'd use) easily. It will play back my arrangements so I can check for accuracy. It's completely in sync with my Mac. It's a pro tool.

G7 a guitarist / musicians dream [Posted on 2007-04-11]
The program is very user friendly if you know some music theory though not a lot. The scanning part of the software works great but requires a high quality scanner and there is still some clean up required of the user. The abilty to compose and publish music is great. I find it useful to listen to an unknown piece (using the midi player) and learn to play it. It will transpose and print out very useable scores of either notation or tablature. Great piece of software.

Not just for Guitar, but for all fretted instruments and more [Posted on 2007-10-28]
The Sibelius G7 supports all sorts of fretted instruments, including banjos, steel guitar, dulcimers, mandolins, gamba, requinto, sitars, ukulele, vihuela, dobro and lute. In addition you can add keyboards: piano, electric, synthesizer, honky-tonk, percussion: all sorts of drums, cymbals, tambourine, wood blocks, handbells, too many to list, string instruments: treble and bass clef, and voices.

For the guitars and fretted instruments it easily converts from notation to tab and vice versa by selecting and then copy/paste. You can also edit the tab properties to your liking, and watch the playback on the fretboard.

There are also preconfigured staffs, that have the most popular combinations of instruments, even a mariachi band is included.

Note entry is easy and intuitive. You can use the mouse, or keyboard, and also click on the fretboard. The documentation and tutorial are clear and easy to follow, and within minutes you will be composing or transcribing some music, arranging to fit your band or ensemble, and printing it out or uploading to the Sibelius G7 website to share with others. The printed output is nice looking too and comes with several styles including Jazzy and Handwritten. The program itself seems stable on my Windows system, unlike Noteworthy which caused the computer to hang (losing my work when I rebooted).

Finally, G7 will meet most of your needs for small ensembles and bands, and unless you are composing a symphony, you won't need the really expensive Sibelius Professional edition. The price is right and it's fun to use. The included Kontakt sounds emulate the fretted instruments pretty well. I should also mention that it does notation for guitar special effects like pull-offs and hammer-on, bends and releases, slides, trills and vibrato, tremolo arm bends, slides and scoops, as well as notation for chord slashes and strums. Chord diagrams can also be easily created above the staff. There is just so much included, you won't be disappointed.

Kontackt G7 [Posted on 2007-11-27]
I have found everything about the G7 product itself to be wonderfully easy and intuitive to use. I have been using G7 for almost 3 months now and have only one complaint - and a word of warning to those of you still pondering a G7 purchase.

One of the features of the G7 package is to be able to read the music notation of other G7 and Sibelius users on the Sibelius website forum, and that same material which a friend may send to you via email. This is done by an add-on piece of software called "SCORCH" which is included in the G7 installation CD. However, even though your computer may download and successfully install SCORCH, it may not work, even though your computer's OS (operating system) may handle the bulk of G7.

When I purchased G7 from Amazon, my OS (Windows 2000) was included in the G7 minimum specification requirements for the host computer. But Sibelius does not tell you in any of their advertisements or published specs that W2000 won't work with the SCORCH add-on. So, while I can write, print, email, and even publish my music, I can't read it - or anyone else's.

Here is the email I finally received from Sibelius after trying several different SCORCH downloads and failing to be able to read the notation:

Dear Frank

Unfortunately when creating software and drawing up license agreements, we cannot foresee the changes in technology. This does mean that older software will no longer work on occasions. Scorch is an add on and we have had to change this technology so that it can work with the latest OS on Mac and PC. It cannot work with both old and new I'm afraid.

Best wishes


Richard Payne
Training Manager &
Products Specialist

Sibelius Software Ltd
The Old Toy Factory, 20-22 City North, Fonthill Road, London N4 3HF, UK

Tel: 020 7561 7999 (+44 20 7561 7999)
Fax: 020 7561 7888 (+44 20 7561 7888)
http://www.sibelius.com

London and San Francisco

So if reading Sibelius or G7 notation not generated by you is important, check with Sibelius to see if your OS is compatible with the SCORCH add-on.

Frank Balogh Jr.

Great Product [Posted on 2008-01-18]
The shipping was very fast. The product itself is very easy to use. My only disappointment is you can't use a USB 2.0 hookup its got to be traditional midi. So what I have won't work for entering music through playing guitar. Had I known I probably would have just stuck with my Finale program. Although I like the fact that this is geared for guitar.

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