tempo markings

[musicman8623]

How do you show a tempo marking above the staff? i.e quarter note equals 120 bpm.

[Peter Thomsen]

According to your signature you are using Finale 2000.
Many things are much easier in later Finale versions.

I am not absolutely sure how things work in Finale 2000, but here are some thoughts:

1) Tempo marks are document specific (not program specific).
They are usually created with the Expression Tool.
Take a look in the dialog box Expression Selection.
If your document was created from the Default Document, then there might be a ready made tempo mark expression that you can duplicate, edit and modify as needed.

2) You can also create a tempo mark expression “manually” yourself, from scratch:
Create a new Shape Expression.
In the Shape Designer, use the sub-tool Text Tool to create a text block.
You can freely mix fonts in the text block, and use e. g. the font Engraver Text T for the note symbol.

I hope that this is clear?
If not, ask again.

[edibleland]

My version 26.3 Finale just went on the fritz concerning playback tempos. It does not respond to mid score tempo changes as it did just a few hours ago. At first I could change the tempo by placing a tempo marking at the top of the score. Now it is just stuck on quarter=160 even though I replaced it with 108 at measure 1. I am aware of all the issues and my markings were working fine. Something must be disabling tha. Also I can't initiate a topic on this forum so maybe my computer has been taken over by some force.

[motet]

Try rebooting.

[edibleland]

Ignore this problem I stated about tempos. I edited text expression and made those problems go away. Not sure why they cropped up.

[edibleland]

Try rebooting.

I did not see your post. I was able to get them to work by editing text expression.

[edibleland]

Now it is even stranger. The tempo marking works when I place it between measures 1 and 16 but does not work from measure 17 on. I am wanting to change the tempo at measure 18 which worked until now. Now editing the expression whether using metronome or setting the tempo manually does not make any difference. Rebooting the computer and restarting the program did not make any difference.

[edibleland]

that is it worked fine until several hours ago.

[edibleland]

I had muted all but strings and piano and the tempo marking was above the piccolo (top of score) and when I unmuted the tempo marking worked. This is very odd. I guess you can only set tempos for playback when all lines are unmuted and then go ahead and mute them to work on particular choirs of the orchestra. Still wondering if this is normal behavior as I have not used muting while changing tempos before. So it seems I am sort of back in business but confounded.

[heinzfan]

In the tempo expression designer playback tab do you have "match playback to metronome marking text" checked? If so that should work no matter what is muted or soloed and whether viewing the score or part, even though only the top staff of the score appears in scroll view. The tempo mark should be part of the "Tempo Marks" expression category. When viewing "document/edit part" the metronome mark should automatically appear as well. If you still have an issue perhaps post the file?

[danielleoh]

I'm having one hell of a time with this. I created a file in an earlier version of Finale and it played back fine. Now when I open it to edit (in 27.2) the tempo changes don't apply. I cannot export the audio file for my musicians who are waiting impatiently to hear what I've created, and I cannot listen to it myself. BUT if I stop playback a measure or two ahead of the change and use the "click + spacebar" method, the affected region does change tempo appropriately. This good bit of luck doesn't last though; it will fail to change at the next tempo marking.
I've created my expressions correctly, indicating the new tempo and ticking the box that says to match the speed to match playback tempo to metronome marking. This sure smells like a bug to me, but I'm open to suggestions...
Oh, I'm using version 27.2 in Windows 10 and 11 (have the same problem on both my computers). And I have also tried clearing all midi data from the file, then applying new tempo change markings; none of that has helped.

[motet]

The best way to get to the bottom of it would be to make your file available.

If click+space works, that suggests Human Playback may be the culprit. I'm not much of a playback guy, but I do know of one bug: if there's a fermata right before the tempo change, it will skip the tempo change. If that's the case, let me know and I'll give you instructions for a work-around.