Just to be sure, you have human playback on and the pizz and arco marking don’t have any playback settings (ie, no CC changes or anything else), right? 

Thanks David.

I have "Human Playback Style:"  set to "none".

If set to "Standard", nothing changes.

I have not altered the settings of either 'arco' or 'pizz' in the Expression Tool. I don't know what you mean by CC changes.

You need to have HP on. Standard, custom etc. 

so long as there isn’t anything other than None in the playback settings for each expression they should be interpreted correctly by HP so I’m at a loss. Can you post the  file and note which measures are affected? Thanks. 

What choice in the "Expression Designer" window called "Type" should I choose

for my Arco and Pizz expressions?

Yes, right now they are "None". But the other choices...I don't understand which one to choose (Tempo, Controller, etc...)

I appreciate your help!

I just tested it again with HP set to Standard.

During playback of the attached file (Google Drive link attached)https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VMANFDOqlN_WETZFkJJbbZqDxHxoQTEG/view?usp=sharing , at measure 34 the "Arco" does not work. Bar 35 and on it's all played pizz.

Hi Tom. I have no way to open your file(s) on google drive. Maybe because I'm on a mac, but I really need a .musx file. These are mostly .xml and a .dat file.

Anyway, here is how it should look for the expressions:

Happy to look at the .musx file if you could send it to me at cygnets.night0j@icloud.com

That's what my Expression Designer looks like.

I will email the musx file shortly.

Again, I REALLY appreciate your help as the strings being all pizz makes it very hard for me to check my work by hearing a playback.

This is SOOO frustrating.

I can't even check my work by listening back using that method (can't remember what it's called - SCRUB?) where you press CNTRL-SPACEBAR to hear the vertical entries (that'd be different on your MAC) or CNTRL-SpaceBAR-Shift to hear an individual part.

Even in that mode all of the string notes are just one pluck.

I sure hope you have an idea as to how to "un-stick" the strings from playing pizz for everything (even the whole notes!).

Hi Tom,

I took a look at your file and the pizz and arco seem to be playing back normally on my end. The exception being the staff with the String Bass assigned. Human Playback does not work as reliably with this instrument but, if you change the staff to the standard Double Bass, this will get better results.

Since you are not hearing any of the arco or pizz changes though, first make sure that you have Human Playback set to Standard (MIDI/Audio > Human Playback > Standard). Then try using MIDI/Audio > Reassign Playback Sounds and see if this clears up the issue for you. 

Tom, I reassigned playback sounds and the cello seems to be playing pizz just fine there. Same with the contrabass. The issue is with the two violins and viola, and they get that pizz mark at the beginning of measure 1. You do have things set up correctly as best I can tell. I've also tried clearing MIDI data and that did not make any difference. What's really odd though is that violin 1 is doing it correctly. I deleted the pizz marking for those strings and then re-added it and no change.

I'm going to admit defeat at this point but you have David Cusick looking at it and you can't get any better than that. I'm not worthy ;-)

Good luck. Nice scoring BTW.

Thanks David.

I tried what you suggested with the bass and verifying the Human Playback settings.

BTW all the strings have ARCO at bar 1. I took that out as it is the default for strings (usually).

I noticed now that I missed ARCO for Violin 2 at 11 and Viola at 13. I put those in.

What is mysterious is that it all plays back fine until measure 34 where I the ARCO does not take effect which is clearly evidenced in bar 35 during playback.

I set the Mixer to solo the strings and at 34 to be sure. ARCO Not happening.

Did you listen that far in?

I will attach a new link to this file if you perhaps have the time to check again? As I said this is truly frustrating.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ONVkQwzAXD0S-ev_1U5NfYgjLN25IoJi/view?usp=sharing  

Hey David (Cusick) I just tried something else getting the idea from your suggestion about the bass sound.

I went into the Score Manager and changed the string sounds to "Violin Player 1" "Violin Player 2" "Viola Player1" "Cello Player 1" "Upright Bass KS" and shit if it didn't work perfectly!!

Still a mystery but at least now I can work in the manner to which I'm used to!!  And hear the piece properly!!

Thanks to you both for your time and effort!!

Tom, that is great to hear!