What is Sibelius Scorch?

Purchasing sheet music online has become a staple for music teachers and musicians alike. And like with everything in life, there are many choices of where to obtain sheet music. While on your journey to find that “perfect” online sheet music store, we hope to shed light on one feature that sets some stores above the others. That feature is Sibelius Scorch, a free Internet plugin that allows the user to view, play and transpose music right in the browser window. Scorch is compatible with PC and Mac computers (see specs from Sibelius’ website below) and is user friendly enough for anyone to use.

Computer requirements needed to download Scorch:

Windows: Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7 or later, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape 7 or later, 20MB hard disk space.
Mac OS X: 10.4 or later, Safari (Safari 4 recommended), Mozilla Firefox, Netscape 7 or later, 20MB hard disk space. Scorch is a Universal Binary.

Scorch is the brainchild of Sibelius, the music notation software division of Avid, a multi-media technology company with offices around the world. Sibelius has score editing software for students, teachers and professional musicians. Their most popular software, Sibelius 6 is internationally acclaimed.

Scorch is just a preview of what Sibelius 6 can do and we still think it is pretty amazing. One online sheet music store that uses Scorch is Sheet Music Direct. When you go to preview a piece of sheet music, the Scorch interface comes up with several different options:

• Preview- The Scorch interface allows you to preview at least the first page of the score. The image is high quality and easy to read.
• Play- Listen to the initial score play at the beginning and even after you change other elements of the pieces.
• Tempo- Increase or decrease the piece’s tempo with a convenient slide bar.
• Instrument- Change the top instrument in the score to a list of different selections such as Horn in F, Trombone, Guitar, Voice and more.
• Transpose- Alter the sound of the piece by transposing it up a major 2nd (two half-steps), down an augmented 4th (six half-steps) and more.
• Page Setup- Prepare the page to print correctly with your specific printer.
• Print- Get that piece of music instantly in your hands by printing from your home computer!

Take advantage of those online sheet music stores that include Scorch as part of their website features. With Scorch, instant gratification has never been so easy.

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