Finale 2007: Playback a certain measure & Tempo Changing

Every time I playback a piece in Finale, it starts from the beginning. How is it possible to playback a piece starting on the measure you are currently writing? Or for that matter, how can you play back any specified measure? In my composition program Personal Composer, I am able to do this by moving the cursor over the desired measure and pushing the space bar.

Also, is there any way to play back music in finale by hitting the spacebar, instead of dragging the mouse to hit the "play" button? Or is there a way to create your own shortcut to playback music in finale?

Thanks.

For your first question, I remember seeing a thread on it, I'll try and find it.

The second question, in Finale 2006 all you have to do is hold down space and click the measure you want to start from.

I found a sort of answer to your first question. You can set Finale to play back from the leftmost measure displayed on the page. Open up the playback settings from the button next to the transport toolbar and from the Always start at: field, select leftmost measure. That is quite useful for me at least.

Thank you very much, I couldn't figure this out. I also have a question about tempo changes. When I write my music, I always insert about 5-10 tempo changes into each measure, in order to portray a human-like playback. How do I insert tempo changes within a measure?

can you not tell human playback to do some violent rubato?

Yeah, I suggest reading the manual section on Human Playback

can you not tell human playback to do some violent rubato?

Yes I realize there is a plugin that does this, but it is also helpful to know how to insert tempo changes within a measure.

Originally Posted by chopin

Thank you very much, I couldn't figure this out. I also have a question about tempo changes. When I write my music, I always insert about 5-10 tempo changes into each measure, in order to portray a human-like playback. How do I insert tempo changes within a measure?

Click on the Expression Tool icon (mf icon), or Select Tools -> Expression from the main menu to open the Expression Tool. Then double-click on a note within the measure around where you want to change the tempo. When the Expression Selection dialog comes up select the Note Expression radio option then Click Create.

This brings you to the custom expression window. Click on the tempo tab, Check Assign Tempo and enter your tempo. Click OK.

Finale will ask you where to start within the measure, you can either make the tempo change on that note, or the relative position within the measure. If you select relative position, you have even more control since you can have multiple tempo changes on the same note.

You can repeat this process for each tempo change within the measure. Happy editing!

Thanks again! I think I am still going to use Personal Composer for my composition due to ease of use, but I am going to need Finale to format my scores from now on.

I'm still using Finale 2001. To start plying from a particular measure, hold down the space bar, and an "ear" appears. Click on the measure you want to play and off it goes. It keeps playing till you click the score again. Very handy for checking the sound of a few bars. I assume that it still works the same way in more up-to-date versions of Finale. (I hope to upgrade to the latest when I upgrade my computer with Vista OS in the not too distant future.)