I am having the same  problem with ritards and even the fermata.  Most of the tempo expressions do not do anything although I've had no trouble with the metronome markings.  I have v26.2.2493 on a Mac. I wish someone could offer a solution on this! Anything from 2014 works fine.

What Human Playback (HP) setting are you using?

I've tried both "none" and "classical" and neither setting has made a difference.  It seems like the program wants to ignore all the settings and words in tempo changes except for setting or changing the metronome setting at the beginning.

Nancy Brammer,

1) Now I am talking “Finale-speak”: a fermata is an articulation (created with the Articulation Tool), not an expression (created with the Expression Tool)

2) In the Expression Designer there is a chiclet for Playback.

Some expressions are defined with a playback effect.

Other expressions are not defined for playback.

I suspect that the expressions that are ignored, are not defined for playback.

You can use the Expression Designer to edit the expressions, and give them a playback effect.

Or you can let Human Playback interpret them.

3) As I said, a fermata is an articulation.

You can not edit the fermata articulation, and make it play back.

To get fermata playback, use Human Playback - or use hidden expressions to slow down the tempo during the fermata.

I know that a fermata is an articulation.  I am mainly speaking of the expressions like ritard and any other words to speed up or slow down.  They don't work. Suggestions, anyone? I have tried defining the expression in the playback options but they are still ignored.

Thank you for your suggestions.  However, I have used the expression designer playback to define it but I am not sure how to make it hidden.  I tried the one in the expression designer. It hid it all right, it was totally gone even at the beginning of the piece and also in the list of expressions. I had to recreate it.  Was that what you meant by hidden expressions? By the way, human playback does not make any difference.  There is still no ritard.

To hide an expression:

Expression Tool. Handles appear on all expressions.

Context-click the expression handle.

In the context menu, de-select Show.

I am unable to reproduce your problem with ritardando.

For me, Human Playback interprets ritardando correctly.

You mentioned that

“I've tried both "none" and "classical" and neither setting has made a difference”

You did not try “Standard”?

We may need more info about your problem with ritardando.

What is the tempo before ritardando?

What is the tempo after ritardando?

Hello Peter, thank you for responding. I also tried "standard" and it was the same result.  I downloaded and installed the update to v 26 so now it is 26.3.  I hoped it might help.  I made up a file for just for experimenting and its tempo is quarter = 86.  I finally got something to work after going into the playback controls and setting human prefs to "none" and then un-clicking "tempo changes" in the playback/record options.

I don't know why that should have worked but then I was able to use the molto rit.  Before I did that, the next measure after the rit., it was double timing everything and molto ritard was doing that also, double timing everything. I've had trouble with the ritard in this version forever and putting in a ticket with Finale didn't really help, even with sending them a file. I don't know why but the human preferences seem to ignore the expressions and it looks like all info is filled out in HP preferences for it in tempo variations and all is checked in Garritan. This was a completely fresh file and I even ran a file maintenance on it (data check).

 I have Garritan Personal Orchestra 5 and have been using Finale since it first came out.  I didn't care that much before as I was just using playback to check notes and etc. but now I am publishing a lot of originals and arrangements and need an accurate audio recording that does what the score says.  Previous to v26, I was using 14.5 and had no trouble with this aspect. Those files still work.

Three things control the tempo in Finale, and they work in a hierarchical way:

At the top of the “tempo hierarchy” is the recorded MIDI data Tempo Changes.

Next comes expressions with playback effect Tempo.

At the bottom is the Playback Controls.

Hence it makes sense that you - on a backup copy of the Finale document - clear the MIDI data Tempo Changes:

Edit menu > Clear Selected Items…

De-select everything except the Tempo Changes.

Thank you Peter.  It is helpful to know the hierarchy of the tempo changes.  I will try that clearing method.

I just tried that method and added some a tempo and other changes and they all worked perfectly with standard selected in human preferences.  I wish I understood better why it worked!