Channel 9 – Synchronizing Lyrics

UPDATED Information about this video:

The lyrics entry process has been improved, and is slightly different from how it is explained in the video for Chapter 6:

• You will not be automatically prompted to enter Lyrics when starting a new TuneLing. An empty Lyrics channel will still be created for you, but you’ll need to select it yourself for editing.
• The Lyrics text editor is now larger, occupying the whole space where the points list normally lives, until the Import button is clicked, which creates the Lyrics points list. It still functions as a simple text editor with functions like cut and paste – it’ll feel familiar to any Mac user.
• The Read From Text File and Finish Import To Current Channel buttons still work as described in the earlier video.
• You can now use the Transport controls to play audio while editing lyrics – this is really handy! However, because this is a text editor window, you can’t use the normal alphanumeric keystrokes for transport controls, like SPACE, the square brackets, and the digit keys, unless you hold down CONTROL, OPTION, and COMMAND when typing those keys.  You can, however, still use the mouse to click on transport controls, as always.
• When you Save your TuneLing, the contents of this text editor will be preserved, so you can stop working on lyrics anytime, and come back to finish them later. When you click the Finish Import To Current Channel, they will be converted to a synchronizable points list – this can’t be reversed.

Editing existing lyrics:

It’s certainly easier, and worth the effort, to get lyrics right before importing them, but we now have (limited) ability to edit text within a Lyrics Channel – this allows you to fix minor errors, typos, etc. To do so:

• The points list must be in Lines mode – you cannot edit in Words mode.
• Select a line to edit, and click on its Point Data column, or use the TAB key to select it, just like any other editable point type.
• Edit the text as you like, and hit Return to complete it.
• In most cases, you will then need to re-synchronize all of the words in that line. Go back to Words mode, and you’ll see that the timing of each of those words has disappeared. There are some situations in which this will not be necessary – the existing timing will be preserved – but it’s easy enough to re-sync a few words, when you need to.

   

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