Can the tempo of "Swing!" be changed?

Discuss playback problems, including VST, Garritan, MIDI, etc.

Moderators: Peter Thomsen, miker

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Djard
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Finale Version: Finale 26
Operating System: Windows

Post by Djard » Thu Jul 30, 2020 9:40 pm

I find the Swing! expression in Finale useful: it saves me time when writing a section with a triplet feel. But I'm unable to modify the tempo. I found nothing in the manual to change the speed. Surely Finale does not restrict the tempo of swing to 120 BPM?


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Peter Thomsen
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Finale Version: Finale v27.4
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Post by Peter Thomsen » Thu Jul 30, 2020 10:11 pm

I really do not understand.

In my own Swing expression the playback effect does not include Tempo, only Swing.

That is, I can set any tempo in the Playback Controls, and I get Swing playback at that tempo.

If your Finale document will only playback at one specific tempo, then the suspected culprit must be Tempo data in the MIDI Data.

Hence:
Edit menu > Clear Selected Items…
De-select everything except Tempo Changes


Three things control the tempo in Finale:

MIDI Tool (= the recorded tempo changes)
Expression Tool (= the expression tempo changes)
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 MIDI Tool, which is at the top of the “Tempo Hierarchy”.
Mac OS X 12.6.9 (Monterey), Finale user since 1996

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Djard
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Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 2:23 am
Finale Version: Finale 26
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Post by Djard » Thu Jul 30, 2020 10:54 pm

Thanks for responding and the good info.

I did not consider using the playback control in the upper toolbar because in print, the reader would not know the speed at which I wanted the the swing rhythm played. I solved my problem by adding a second tempo expression: in this instance, a half note = 50 in parentheses. I'm a bit disappointed that the specified tempo cannot be added after the "Swing!" marking. I suppose I can add a text block, such as "100 BPM" in parentheses. Is there another option to specify swing tempo?

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michelp
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Post by michelp » Thu Jul 30, 2020 11:19 pm

AFAIK, an expression can only contain 1 playback instruction at this point. So you will need 1 for swing, 1 for tempo. You can of course add a tempo value to the first expression (Swing) but it will only be visual. You'll need a second expression (Tempo).
Michel
MacOsX 12.7.4, Finale 27.4.1 & 26.3.1, Mac Mini Intel Dual Core i7 3Ghz, 16 Go Ram. Azerty kb. MOTU Midi Express XT USB, Roland Sound Canvas SC-88vl, MOTU Audio Express. 2 monitors (27"' pivot, 24'"), JW Lua, RGP Lua

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Djard
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Post by Djard » Fri Jul 31, 2020 3:04 am

Thanks.

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