In the previous article, “Playback tempo setting: Using MIDI tools,'' I talked about the three types of tempo settings for Finale playback:
(1) Using the playback controller
(2) Using MIDI tools
(3) Using Tempo Marks with Expression Tool
If you look at these in the prioritizing order on the Finale program,
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(1) Playback controller < (2) MIDI tool < (3) Tempo Marks
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That is, tempo marks with numerical values have the strongest effect.
If a numerical tempo mark is placed, you cannot specify the playback tempo using the playback controller, so if you want to repeatedly playback during an arrangement to determine the optimal tempo, you may have to change the numerical tempo mark. This creates troubles such as rewriting numbers or temporarily deleting it.
In that case, by deleting the tempo information of the numerical tempo mark, you can give top priority to the playback controller.
In addition, the numerical tempo mark seems to be set by reading the numerical value entered in the "Character" field of the Expression Designer dialog box. This can be seen from the fact that even if you create just "180" without notes, or even if you create a crazy symbol like "Whachaname 180 blab blab", as long as there are numbers in it, it will be played back at BPM = 180.
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[Trivia]
According to the results of investigating the upper limit of the effective BPM value in Finale, it seems that the upper limit for normal operation is probably around BPM = 32767. If this is exceeded, the value in the "Set to Value" column on the Playback tab will become a mysterious number with a minus sign, and the tempo will no longer be controlled by increasing or decreasing depending on the value. (For your reference. )
