Resetting preferences fixed this.

The audio file has to be exported at 44100Hz, or as Finale phrases it in documentation 44.1KHz

I've been experiencing this same issue as well, which seems to have been around for a while.

• Yes, the sampling rate of the audio files is the documented 44.1 kHz.
• I've additionally tried disabling Human Playback.
• I've also performed a reset of the settings

As a bug fix will almost certainly not be forthcoming at this point in Finale's lifecycle, the questions are as follows:

• Is there anyone who does not experience this pitch and tempo issue with audio tracks?
• If so, are there any particular tricks or workarounds to consistently getting proper behavior?

Additionally, "adopt Dorico" is not an answer here at the present—Dorico lacks similar functionality  There have been multiple different posts in Steinberg forums for a number of years now that have been requesting this such capability, but there is not yet any concrete roadmap as to when such a feature might be implemented (if ever).

Thank you!

I should have followed up on this. I can't remember what setting I used, but I updated the 44.1KHz, and the bit rate, because the bit rate mattered also (not in Finale's documentation). I just resampled the audio using Adobe Audition and it worked. Again, I can't remember what bit rate I used. Sorry I don't have THAT much of an answer, but it's something.

I'm not impressed with Dorico (love Cubase though), so I don't blame you! Finale is so much more customizable, it's a shame it has reached the hospice of software.

Interesting!  I've tried converting to various *.wav file sample rates and bit sizes, as Finale seems to do a somewhat better job of rejecting files with unsupported rate/bitness values (though a wave file with Microsoft ADPCM encoding seemed to crash Finale outright, lol).

Of the export options available in Audacity for a stereo recording with a 44100 Hz sample rate (c.f. screenshot below, with the caveat that Audacity is unable to export wave files using any of the last 5 encoding options [i.e. starting with GSM 6.10]), the only encodings I've gotten Finale to accept thus far are the following, which unfortunately each still have the same speed and pitch issues:

• Signed 16-bit PCM
• 32-bit float
• 64-bit float

As Audacity is an open source project, there could perhaps be key encoding options that it lacks; I was just trying see if I could quickly find the magic option for Finale.

Thank you!

While there might be multiple layers of settings that each need to be exactly right, in identifying an apparent bug and a potential workaround, I seems to have found a configuration that not only addresses this speed/pitch issue but also addresses another issue with audio file playback being out-of-sync with the score if initiating playback at some point in the score other than the absolute beginning.

In short, this appears to have to do with a Windows system setting that Finale uses.  (As reference, I am using the very last version of Finale for Windows, version 27.4.1.110.)

As background, we'll navigate in Finale to MIDI/Audio > Device Setup > Audio Setup.  This will open the Audio Setup dialog, and we are particularly interested in the "Output" section that is shown in the bottom half of this dialog.

In my case (as shown in the screenshot above), we can see that the Sample Rate setting drop-down is disabled, with a note that it is "Controlled by Windows."  The value displayed comes from Windows settings, and the (apparently default) value on my system was 48000 Hz.

On a hunch, I decided to see if changing this Windows setting to 44100 would mitigate this issue in Finale.  To do that, I completed the following steps (based on a Windows 10 install):

1. Close Finale
2. Open Windows Settings
3. Navigate to the System > Sound screen
4. Under the "Output" section, select from the drop-down menu the output device that is used for Finale playback
5. Below that drop-down menu, click the "Device Properties" link
   
6. On the "Device Properties" page that opens, look along the right side of the window for a "Related Settings" section
7. Under that "Related Settings" section, click the "Additional Device Properties" link
8. In the properties Dialog that opens, select the "Advanced" tab
9. Change the "Default Format" setting to one of the 44100 Hz options (to most precisely match Finale, select "16 bit, 44100 Hz (CD Quality)," but the other 44100 Hz option of "24 bit, 44100 Hz (Studio Quality)" also seems to work for me)
   
10. Click "Apply" to apply the changes and then click "OK" to close the dialog

After re-opening Finale, you should be able to go back into the Audio Setup dialog via MIDI/Audio > Device Setup > Audio Setup and see that the output sample rate is now 44100.

Important Note:  If within this Finale Audio Setup dialog the output sample rate drop-down menu is not disabled, please be aware based on feedback in another thread that if you make a change to this setting within Finale, the change might not take effect and/or might revert.  So, to ensure that a settings change here take effect, it seems best to make the change via Windows (and not Finale).

Summary:

It appears there is a bug in Finale, in that instead of using the shown, configured sample rate, Finale is assuming somewhere within the code that the output sample rate is 44100 Hz.  However, by manually configuring the audio output device to a 44100 sample rate within the Windows settings, we can apparently work around this issue.

For best results with an audio track within a given Finale score, go to MIDI/Audio > Human Playback and select the "None" option.

For best results on the audio file side of things, the file encoding should be 16 bit with a sample rate of 44100 Hz.  I personally use *.wav files, as that eliminates additional variables that other file format like MP3 introduce, but this should work for MP3 files.  (In other words, if you are still having problem and are using MP3 files, try using *.wav files instead.)  You can use a free, open source application such as Audacity to convert an audio file to a different format, if needed.

I hope others might find this helpful….

As Audacity is an open source project, 

In name only. Since UltimateGuitar bought Audacity, MuseScore etc. and renamed the resulting multi-billion$ company Muse Group, they give lip service to the idea but their new army of engineers pretty much ignores the open source community nowadays. On the good side, both Audacity and MuseScore have gotten a lot better.

Unfortunately, yes, that seems to be a common sentiment.  What initially happened to the Tenacity fork of Audacity (which had been created in response to changes in Audacity's direction) was rather…odd, shall we say?  It seems the Tenacity project did eventually pick up again, but from looking at recent release notes, it appears to be a little rough around the edges yet.

In "life after Finale" threads, I've also seen some cite the example of Audacity as to why they're not keen to use MuseScore as a Finale replacement.