Ritardando Playback Issues

[CHEMICALCAT59]

Hello again,

I have put a ritardando in the 9th measure of my current file. When I start my playback from the beginning, it plays just fine, except for slowing down too much, but that is not my primary issue. The issue is that when I start the playback at a certain measure (using Space + Left Click), the ritardando does not play at all, and the tempo stays the same. Is there a setting to change this? If not, it's not a big deal, it's just a bit annoying to have to start from the beginning of the file to be able to hear the tempo changes.

Also, is there a way to change the speed at which a ritardando makes the music slow down? I tried putting a tempo marking after the rit. and making it invisible, but when I do this the ritardando just plays at its own speed and then when it reaches the marking it resets the tempo.

[Michel R E]

space+click plays back without HumanPlayback, if I recall correctly.

set your playback to start at left-most measure instead. it will chase to the beginning to find the correct tempo, and then playback the correct tempo alterations.

[CHEMICALCAT59]

Thanks, that works! Now my only question is if there's a way to change the speed of a ritardando. The ones in my program keep slowing down way too fast.

[zuill]

With Human Playback, controlling the rit can sometimes be daunting. What some user do is to indicate specific starting ending tempos with hidden expressions to give more direction to HP. I prefer to use the MIDI Tool to get the control I need.

Zuill

[Michel R E]

Thanks, that works! Now my only question is if there's a way to change the speed of a ritardando. The ones in my program keep slowing down way too fast.

I'd been using invisible expressions as a "target" tempo, then an invisible return to tempo (+ a not-invisible "a tempo" marking).

However, I'm having a bit of trouble getting Finale 26 to respond correctly to tempo changes.
It seems to be applying them "whole measure" only, not from where you indicate it.

For example, if my "a tempo" marking is on the 3rd beat, Finale is either playing it on the 1st beat, or on the next measure.
It never did this before, so I'm a bit stumped.

[zuill]

Regarding whole measure playback, did you right click and in the Expression Assignment box, define where the playback should start?

Zuill

[Michel R E]

Regarding whole measure playback, did you right click and in the Expression Assignment box, define where the playback should start?

Zuill

have they recently changed this?
I've never had to do that before.

(and I will try it to see if it fixes the problem)

[CHEMICALCAT59]

Thanks; I think I'll probably just end up putting a few hidden tempo changes to give the appearance of a gradual change in tempo. When I put a tempo marking before and after the ritardando, it just caused the ritardando to not be played at all and then the very last note (the one with the second marking) was played at a slower tempo. Nothing seems to be working so for now I'll just use the manual workaround.

As for the MIDI tool, I tested it out and it's certainly an option for future scores, but for this one in particular I'm working on, there's a lot of trills and ornaments that I would like to be able to hear in the playback, so I don't think I'll use it. Thank you for the help though, I didn't even know the MIDI tool existed until now!

[zuill]

I don't think the MIDI Tool would interfere with trills and ornaments. I was just talking about using that to manually scale the decrease in tempo.

Zuill

[zuill]

Regarding whole measure playback, did you right click and in the Expression Assignment box, define where the playback should start?

Zuill

have they recently changed this?
I've never had to do that before.

(and I will try it to see if it fixes the problem)

When I create hidden tempo expressions, I do that in the Misc. category so I can position them anywhere in the measure. Sometimes I still need to refine the playback starting point with the Expression Assignment. If you use the Tempo category, they are all, by definition, anchored to the beginning of the measure. So, if you drag it to another place, the position in the measure is still the same, so it will play back the change from the beginning.

I don't know that anything in this regard has changed in a long time, but I may be wrong.

Zuill