change playback tempo?

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BlueeyedBear
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Post by BlueeyedBear » Wed Feb 08, 2012 7:53 pm

how do i change the playback tempo in printmusic 2007? i chose "playback controls" from the window menu, and changed the half note to a quarter, as well as the number following it from 99 to 50. neither did anything.


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miker
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Post by miker » Wed Feb 08, 2012 9:10 pm

If you changed a half note=99 to a quarter note =50, what change we you expecting? They are pretty much equivalent.
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BlueeyedBear
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Post by BlueeyedBear » Wed Feb 08, 2012 9:22 pm

i tried them separately... one at a time. neither change made a difference.

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miker
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Post by miker » Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:34 am

Have you put any tempo markings in the score? Are you starting your playback with the controls, or Spacebar+click?

Can you post a section of the file?
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BlueeyedBear
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Post by BlueeyedBear » Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:58 am

i put a tempo marking of quarter note = 84 at the beginning. i'm starting playback using spacebar+click.

i don't know how to post just a section. it's 146 measures at present, will eventually be 692 measures.

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miker
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Post by miker » Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:52 pm

Using spacebar+click is the problem. That gives a "naked" playback, ignoring such things as tempo, expressions, and articulations.
If you start from the playback controls, you should hear the difference.

You can change the starting measure in the playback controls, as well.
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BlueeyedBear
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Post by BlueeyedBear » Thu Feb 09, 2012 5:48 pm

ok, i used the playback toolbar, randomly chose measure 16, and set quarter note = 90, and played it. then stopped it, changed quarter note to = 30 and played it again. same tempo as when it was at 90. what am i doing wrong? do i need to change the metronome marking at the beginning of the piece instead?

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Peter Thomsen
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Post by Peter Thomsen » Thu Feb 09, 2012 6:33 pm

Three things control the tempo in Finale:

Tempo Tool
Expression Tool
Playback Controls

And they work in a hierarchical fashion.

The tempo in the Playback Controls is overridden by an Expression that sets a tempo.
This is overridden by the Tempo Tool, which is at the top of the "Tempo Hierarchy".


In Other Words:
Yes, you must change the expression with the metronome marking (or delete the expression), since a tempo expression will override the Playback Controls.
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russroan
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Post by russroan » Tue Feb 21, 2012 8:03 pm

Sorry to bump this 11-day old thread, but I thought it better than starting a new one on a similar topic.

I'm using Finale PrintMusic 2011a.

I tried as Peter suggested and added an expression to the measure (quarter = 160, whereas before it was quarter=80) and it did not seem to make any difference on Playback.

Also - you reference a "tempo tool" - I don't see a "tempo tool" on my main tools menu, and searching for "tempo" in the help section turns up nothing. Is this because I'm using "PrintMusic"?

Thanks for any guidance.

-Russ

russroan
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Post by russroan » Tue Feb 21, 2012 8:31 pm

Ugh - found the problem.

I had turned set "human playback" to NONE. For some reason, when you do this, it ignores the expression settings for tempo in the score.

Changing this to STANDARD fixed the problem.

This seems like a bug to me - I don't see how the "human playback" setting should affect the tempo marking but whatever - I can proceed.

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miker
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Post by miker » Tue Feb 21, 2012 10:13 pm

Glad you solved it. And yes, you are correct: PM does not have the Tempo Tool.
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billwmus
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Post by billwmus » Sat Dec 27, 2014 1:38 pm

I am in Finale 2012. Whenever I go to use Playback Controls, the Tempo box (quarter note = 72) is in gray, and I can't change the number. This has been the case through several versions of Finale, and also all of the various templates I use. Can someone help with this?

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miker
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Post by miker » Sat Dec 27, 2014 2:45 pm

I suspect you are stopping playback with the spacebar. This is actually a pause. They clicking the stop button on the playback controls. That should allow you to change the tempo.
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billwmus
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Post by billwmus » Wed Dec 31, 2014 5:49 pm

This is before I push play. Simply when I open up Playback Controls, the Tempo number is grayed out.

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Peter Thomsen
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Post by Peter Thomsen » Thu Jan 01, 2015 1:04 am

billwmus wrote:I am in Finale 2012. Whenever I go to use Playback Controls, the Tempo box (quarter note = 72) is in gray, and I can't change the number. This has been the case through several versions of Finale, and also all of the various templates I use. Can someone help with this?
1) Finale for Windows or Finale for Mac OS X?

2) Does the problem also happen in a “Document Without Libraries”?
(File menu > New > Document Without Libraries)

3) What are your settings in the Playback Controls?
(Scrolling Playback? - Human Playback? - Playback Region?)
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billwmus
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Post by billwmus » Thu Jan 01, 2015 12:28 pm

Thanks for the reply...

I am in Mac OS X

I tried creating a new file with doc without libraries... same thing

My settings in playback control, are usually 'none' - under "Human Playback Style", although when I switch to 'standard' or 'baroque' it doesn't change either. I looked under "HP Preferences" but didn't see anything that looked like it would change anything.

This is REALLY frustrating, as I orchestrate and need to hear things at the correct speed.

Thanks so much for your help tracking this down.

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Peter Thomsen
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Post by Peter Thomsen » Thu Jan 01, 2015 3:51 pm

billwmus wrote:…I tried creating a new file with doc without libraries... same thing…
I suggest that you attached the {document without libraries} here for the gurus to examine.

If others can change the playback tempo in that document, and you can not, then we know that the culprit is not document specific, but rather software specific or hardware specific.

Before you can attach a .mus document in this forum, you must compress it, e. g. as a .zip file.
And the file size must not be more than max. 100 KB.
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billwmus
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Post by billwmus » Mon Jan 05, 2015 1:20 am

Peter, OK, here's the file. Thanks much for your help with this. I just saw your reply on Sunday evening. My daughter was married on Saturday, so I've been a bit distracted.

I had to delete a bunch of staves in order to get the size down below 100 kb, but the issue with the playback speed didn't change.

Here's the compressed file. Thanks.
Attachments
The Grass-SC••• copy.mus.zip
(50.29 KiB) Downloaded 201 times

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Peter Thomsen
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Post by Peter Thomsen » Mon Jan 05, 2015 6:48 am

Bill,

I took a look at the Finale document you attached.

When I opened the Playback Controls, the Tempo box was not greyed out, and I could change the
playback tempo without problems.
See the attached file.
The Grass on the Prairie.mus.zip
(46.79 KiB) Downloaded 226 times
This result makes me suspect that the culprit is not document specific, but perhaps hardware specific.
I suggest that you contact the folks in MakeMusic’s Tech Support.
They know a lot about hardware specific problems.
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billwmus
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Post by billwmus » Mon Jan 05, 2015 12:02 pm

Well, when I opened your file.... the tempo was normal, and I could change tempo. I then opened my 'real' score, and it was working correctly too.

Thanks!! but what did you do??

billwmus
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Post by billwmus » Mon Jan 05, 2015 1:10 pm

Addendum... My tempo speed is now back in grey. Don't know what caused it to go back. It is now at the right tempo though.

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Peter Thomsen
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Post by Peter Thomsen » Mon Jan 05, 2015 1:37 pm

billwmus wrote:…Thanks!! but what did you do??
I only opened the document, went to the Playback Controls, and changed the tempo.
Then I saved the document.
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