Avid releases Sibelius 2026.9, introducing refined engraving controls, including global tie height adjustments and enhanced cross-staff voice positioning, aimed at improving score clarity and workflow efficiency across macOS, iOS, and iPadOS platforms.
Avid has released Sibelius 2026.9 with a set of engraving changes that focus on finer control over how notation is drawn on the page. The update gives users new global controls for tie height, more precise placement options for tremolos, and a rule that extends voice-position logic to cross-staff notation, reducing the risk of crowded or overlapping symbols in densely written scores. According to Avid, the release also adds workflow commands, broader operating system support and a series of bug fixes intended to improve day-to-day reliability.
The most visible change is the new tie-height system. Avid says the software now treats ties more like slurs, allowing their height to be adjusted globally through engraving rules rather than handled note by note. That gives engravers a quicker way to flatten or round ties across an entire score, and it also adds a limit for especially long ties, which should help keep large passages visually consistent.
Tremolo engraving has also been refined. Avid says the distance between tremolo strokes and the stem can now be controlled independently, rather than being tied to stem length. That applies to single and double-note tremolos as well as buzz rolls. The company has also added a new Advanced Filter section for tremolo notes, which should make it easier to select and edit multiple passages at once.
Another notable addition is a new engraving rule for cross-staff voice positioning. Avid says the rule allows Sibelius to apply its voice-placement logic to notes that cross between staves, helping to avoid collisions between noteheads, stems, beams, accidentals and dots. The company says the rule is enabled by default in new scores, while legacy scores keep it switched off to preserve existing formatting.
The update also adds new commands, including direct access to Audio Engine Options, plus toggles for the metronome and a shortcut to change the order of parts and subsets. Avid says Sibelius 2026.9 has been qualified for macOS 27, iOS 27 and iPadOS 27, coming shortly after Apple’s latest operating-system releases, which Ars Technica reported include wider design and performance changes across the platform. Avid’s release notes also list a string of fixes, including improvements to transposition spacing, cross-staff accidentals, respelling behaviour, rhythmic dots after rests, blank worksheet creation and a legacy ManuScript method that could fail silently. The company also says it has corrected a crash affecting one score and another that could occur when loading a file.
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