Finale Forum

Suddenly, I can't playback anything with pizzicato sound. The file I was working on won't play pizz, and here is what I've tried so far when looking for a solution.

I created a brand new file with the "new document with setup wizard". Selected cello. Entered notes. Selected pizz. Only plays arco. I normally use "play Finale through Midi". No pizz sound there, or with VST. I attached the file if anyone wants to see it. Any solution using play Finale through Midi would be better for me because I don't like VST/Garritan.

I opened an old file that used to play pizz. Only plays arco now.

I tried rebooting the computer.

Changing human playback style doesn't do anything. I tried none and standard.

I'm using Finale 25.5.0.290. Windows PC. Nothing has changed on my computer. No Finale updates available - the only option is to upgrade to Finale 26.

Any help would be, as always, greatly appreciated!

I opened your file on my Mac with Finale 26 and the pizz. played normally. Sorry, I don't know what to suggest.

I tested this in v25 and v26, and the pizz works with Garritan and MIDI. HP is needed to activate the pizz. If things worked before and now don't, sometimes it's a corrupt preferences file. Back up the current preferences file and try resetting preferences.

Zuill

I went to "edit, preferences" and reset. Finale restarted itself. Still no pizz sound in my attached file.

I uninstalled Finale completely and reinstalled. I used a downloaded version of 25 from the website that I got today (so, it's up to date). Interestingly, after reinstall, Finale still had my list of recently opened files, so I'm not sure how complete the uninstall was. Still no pizz sound in my attached file.

I uninstalled again, and uninstalled Garritan and Aria player. Deleted everything I could find on my computer related to Finale other than my music and backup files. Reinstalled. It still had my list of most recent files! (Maybe it just looked at the dates on the files.) Still no pizz in my attached file or a new file or an old file.

Any other thoughts?

Are you starting playback with Spacebar-Click or with the Play arrow in Playback Controls?

Zuill

Playback arrow. Didn't know about Spacebar-click!

As long as you use the playback controls, and also use Human Playback, then pizz should work in both MIDI and VST. With Spacebar-click (on the measure where you want playback to begin), HP is bypassed, so the pizz won't work.

Zuill

P.S.: See if this file does anything. For it to work, I had to choose VST.

Thanks, Zuill for the file. When I tried to play it, it said it was written for Aria version 1.959, and I had 1.872. Since I just downloaded everything today, I guess the older Aria is what you get with Finale 25.

I couldn't make your file play any sound at all, with Midi or VST. The only way I could hear it was to change back from Garritan to Smartmusic Soft Synth. Could be the older Aria is the problem.

No, I don't think so. You probably should contact support and see what they say.

Zuill

Thanks for your help! I'll try support.

The Finale tech support suggested a "clean reinstall" which was even more thorough than what I did. If that didn't work, they suggested creating a new admin account on my computer. Fortunately, it worked. I have their instructions here in case anyone else has a similar problem:

I'd recommend that we cleanly reinstall Finale on your computer first to make sure that all of your components are in the correct place. You can do that by taking these steps:

You will need to be logged in to this computer on a user account that has full administrative rights
Close Finale
Press the WINDOWS key on your computer keyboard once to open the Start menu
Type or copy & paste the following:
Programs and Features
Select the Programs and Features option that appears
In your Programs and Features list, right-click on "Finale", and then choose Uninstall
Hold down the WINDOWS key and type the letter "R" to open the Run dialog box
Type or copy & paste the following:
C:\Program Files​
Click 'OK'
Find and delete the "Finale" folder. (If you have any personal files saved here, be sure to remove them first.)
Hold down the WINDOWS key and type the letter "R" to open the Run dialog box
Type or copy & paste the following:
%appdata%\MakeMusic
Click OK
Delete the "Finale" folder. (If you have any personal files saved here, be sure to remove them first)
Empty the Recycle Bin
Restart the computer
Re-install Finale by downloading it from your MakeMusic account

If you find that you're still having trouble after this then I would recommend that we try running Finale on a new administrator account on your computer. We can do that by taking these steps:

1. You will need to be logged in to this computer on a user account that has full administrative rights.
2. Exit Finale.
3. Press the WINDOWS key on your computer keyboard once to open the Start menu.
4. Type:

Programs and Features

5. Select the Programs and Features option that appears.
6. In your Programs and Features list, right-click on "Finale", and then choose Uninstall.
7. Hold down the WINDOWS key and press the letter R to open the Run dialog box.
8. Type C:\Program Files​ and click OK.
9. Find and delete the "Finale" folder. (If you have any personal files saved here, be sure to remove them first.)
10. Press the WINDOWS key + R to reopen the Run dialog box.
11. Type %appdata% and click OK.
12. Open the "MakeMusic" folder, then delete the "Finale" folder. (If you have any personal files saved here, be sure to remove them first.)
13. Empty the Recycle Bin.
15. Reopen the Run dialog box, type control panel and click OK.
16. Double-click User Accounts and Family Safety. (Window 7: skip to step 15)
17. Click User Accounts.
18. Click Manage another account. (Windows 7: Manage User Accounts)
19. Click Create a new account. (Windows 7: Add...)
20. Type the name you want to give the User Account, and choose Administrator as the account type.
21. Click Create Account.
22. Restart your computer, and log into the account you had just created.
23. Re-install Finale by downloading it from your MakeMusic account.

Well, darn, now it's back again. I think it's got to be the midi files I'm importing. But I'm guessing that only because they are from the outside; not generated in the software by me.

At least I have a working solution, if I'm in the mood to do all that again.

If we could test one of the MIDI files for you, we might be able to find the cause without you having to go through a complete reinstall.

Zuill

Here's another file to test.

Zuill

I had the same problem. The fix was to examine the first measure of the file. There was a hidden box that said "HP Off" on every stave. After deleting them all everything worked fine. I hope this works for you, too.

How did those get there?

How does one find a hidden box?

Expression, not box. In the expression tool you should see the handle. I'd say it's very unlikely that's your problem, though.