Finale Forum

Hi all, thanks for the new (to me) forum! But let's not get into all that. . .

Suddenly while working in a fresh file, changes to the playback tempo stopped having any affect. I had loaded an mp3 audio track and was trying to match up the score with it, but after one change it stopped making any further adjustments to the actual tempo. I tried undoing back past that change, no luck (doing so did not change the value in the tempo field either. . . ) I am able to type in a new tempo, click it up or down, change the note value, but nothing actually happens with the tempo. I tried closing Finale, even rebooting my PC, no effect. Seems to just be this file - another one (opened at the same time) does not have the problem.

I have also tried reloading midi, reloading and just deleting the audio track. . . totally puzzled, something corrupted inside the document maybe? How to fix it??

Thanks!

Once you hard wired the Tempo with the MIDI tool, that tempo rules. Try deleting that and then start over.

Zuill

Hey Zuill, I don't understand - I didn't tap a tempo or edit it or anything with midi, all I was doing was changing the tempo value in the playback settings. But maybe something like that happened inadvertently - actually I vaguely remember something like this before, where clearing the continuous data was the solution.

I even went back to a previously saved version of the file & nothing changed. . . eventually I did tap the tempo through the whole piece and that worked.

There was Tempo data in the file. It looked like slightly under 120. Tapping the tempo over-rides that. Glad you got it fixed.

Zuill

Just so I understand - is this tempo data something different than setting the tempo in the box in the playback settings? That was just under 120 - I had been experimenting with settings around 115-118 to see what lined up with the audio track (not sure if it was done to a click or not. . . ) I think I saved the file with it set at 116. But like I said, after changing this a few times, it no longer had any effect on the actual playback (or the visual display of the audio track.) Even changing it drastically to extremely slow or fast, or changing the note value to wholes or 16ths. So either that was not changing the tempo data as it should, or the tempo data was overriding that playback setting - but I don't know where else that tempo data would have come from. . .

Go to the MIDI Tool, choose Edit Tempo from the menu. Double click a measure and you'll see the Tempo data, if there is any. It should be the same for any staff, as it applies to all staves.

Zuill

Here was the response from "Customer Success" (they must realize how dumb that sounds. . .):

It looks like there was some MIDI data that got stuck somehow. Here's a quick and easy fix for this:

1. Choose the Selection tool.
2. Choose Edit > Select All.
3. Choose Edit > Clear Selected Items.
4. Click the None button.
5. Select MIDI Data.
6. Click OK.

That's one way. The other way is with the MIDI Tool. There are some situations where the MIDI Tool method fails to work, so the method they suggested covers that. Nice to have more than one way.

Zuill

Hello and PMFJI,
is also have a tempo problem with one of my files (s. attachment).
Mostly I set the tempo via the expression tool, insert a note and specify the tempo. This normally works exactly.

In this file the tempo should stay from beginnig to end (quarter = 180). But it jumps after the pickup bar in T.1 to very slow tempo and
stays. In T.4 I use the tempo expression again, and the tempo jumps to 180. After the repetition sign it goes
back to the slow tempo, jumps to 180 in T.4 and slows back in T.9.

Here are only the first 16 measures, the whole piece has more than 250 and there are many other sudden tempo jumps.
I have no explanation for this behaviour. Might it has something to do with the repetition signs?

I have tried to clear the MIDI data like Zuill and Paul have described before, but this didn't help.

It seems to be caused by the repeat. I'm not sure why, though. If I put a tempo mark on beat one of the first full bar, it's not heeded, but if I put it on beat 2 it is.

HP does often get wonky about repeats. 2 Options to fix the file:

1. Use hidden expressions at each section with a repeat sign to keep the tempo going.

2. Use the MIDI Tool/Tempo Data and set 180 as the hard wired tempo throughout.

Zuill

As I said, #1 doesn't seem to work if you put such an expression on beat one, but assigning it to beat 1.1 does seem to work.

Since I do get correct playback when it is assigned to beat 1, I'm not sure why you don't. In any case, when you get to bar 9, it slows down again.

Zuill

P.S.: I'm going to guess you have the Assignment for Playback to start other than Beginning of Measure. Mine is set to Beginning of Measure.

Right, I was using the default of "Assignment point" (beat 1--seems like the beginning to me!).

I sometimes marvel that Finale works at all, it's so buggy.

Thank you zuill and motet for your help.

zuill wrote:HP does often get wonky about repeats.

This was an explanation for me.

zuill wrote:Use hidden expressions at each section with a repeat sign to keep the tempo going.

And this was the solution.