Changing time signature deletes subsequent time signatures

[arntor]

Hi,

I have a piece with lots of time signature changes. It's imported via MIDI, so there are some transcription errors I have to correct.

When I now change one measure's time signature in the middle of a score (say, from 4/4 to 3/4) and let Finale rebar the piece, I would expect that the remainder of the piece's notes would "move one beat to the right", so to say.

But Finale not only rebars, but also applies the new time signature until the end, throwing away all subsequent time signatures. No matter what I do, it always behaves as if I had chosen "Measure x through end of piece" in the Time Signature dialog box.

Playing around with a new blank document (to exclude the possibility of corrupted data), I had the same problem. Additionally, I found that when not rebarring,
- if there is no subsequent time signature change, the time signature meant for only one measure will be applied through the end of piece;
- if there is a time signature change, however, then it will stay.

Weird. But apparently not a bug, as I would have found this problem mentioned somewhere. So I suspect I inadvertedly changed some preference and can't find it again. But which?

[Peter Thomsen]

Welcome to the forum!

Let us be scientific about your issue:

There are several ways to change a time signature.
What are you doing (= what steps) to change the time signature?

[arntor]

Hi,

while I can still reproduce the problem (see below), I was able to circumvent it; so it's no direct show-stopper anymore for me (but still a thing I'd like to learn).

(In case someone's interested: I worked on a piece per DAW, and could only use MIDI to bring the data into Finale. Import brought some timing errors, so I would have to check and correct manually a non-trivial orchestra score - no no no no no. I then found that with MIDI, one can freely set the time resolution - my DAW had a default of 480 ppq ("pulses per quarter note"), which is nice for playback, but utterly exaggerated when there isn't much that is smaller than a 16th and you only want it for notation. Setting the DAW MIDI export to a mere 48ppq gave a clean result when imported by Finale.)


Reproducing the error, "scientifically" (good idea, that approach!): I uploaded two variants of a tiny test file. I did as follows:

Creation of test file:
- New... Default Document
- With Time Signature Tool: double click into measure; then in Time Signature Box: choose number of beats; select "Measures: x to y" (with x == y, so 1 measure only per change)
- repeat with another measure
- fill in some random quarter notes
=> result at this point is file ts-test-1

Modification of test file:
- With Time Signature Tool: double click into measure #3; modify number of beats; select "Measures 3 to 3", so 1 measure only); check "Rebar music"
=> result at this point is file ts-test-2

In the 2. file, I would expect that in measure #4, the time signature is again set to what it was in measzre #2. Instead, the newly inserted time signature is kept.


From all the debugging I have done so far it reeks of a simple solution, and of a facepalm once I know what it was. Any ideas?

Thanks for Your help!

[Peter Thomsen]

My guess is that the culprit is not the time signature change itself, but rather the Rebar operation.


Something to try:
First do the time signature change, with Rebar de-selected.
Next, select the region, and do the Rebar.


A question for you:

Take a look at
Utilities menu > Rebar > Rebar Options…

The settings in the dialog box Rebar Options are (As Far As I Know) program specific, not document specific.
You may have changed the Rebar Options while working in another document.

What are your settings in Rebar Options?

[arntor]

Rebar Options it was; problem solved.

In my attempt to clean up the MIDI import, I had removed the restrictions concerning how much of the piece should be rebar'd, because I wanted all notes after the time signature change to be moved. Reselecting those restrictions brought back normal behaviour for time signature changes. (As to the question why the range options of rebarring supersede the range options given in the Time Signature box itself - good that I don't have to understand everything. Main thing is that it works.)

Mange mange tak for that idea!