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Topic: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue. (Read 7117 times) previous topic - next topic
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Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Hi. First post. I did search but couldn't find a related issue.

I have an old song from the '70s that was never converted to a CD by the studio. I digitized it to an mp3 & add the mp3 file to Foobar2000 v1.3.10. Of course there were no lyrics for this file so I created my own using Lyric Show Panel v3 in Foobar. Every line is timecoded but most of the lyrics are skipped in the show panel & many of the lyrics are shuffled around to the bottom of the list with no timecode. I've tried to edit several times but can't get the lyrics to show properly.

I found the lrc file & opened it as a txt file & all looks good. I don't get it.

How can this be corrected. Any ideas? All suggestions are appreciated.

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue. [SOLVED]

Reply #1 –
Well, I figured it out. Seems Windows Notepad placed a space here & there which screwed up Foobar2000's lyric editor. As one last effort I copied the Notepad text to another editor & discovered the extra spaces & corrected.

One last note: the .LRC files had to be deleted from foobar200/lyrics folder first before editing & saving the corrected lyrics.

 ;D

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #2 –
I've never known Notepad for adding extraneous spaces.

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #3 –
Quote from: Jailhouse on
I've never known Notepad for adding extraneous spaces.

Me neither but none the less they were present in my other editor. I think I understand the real issue now that I've thought about it more. It probably had nothing to do with extra spaces. Just needed to delete the lyrics that were present in iTunes, delete the .LRC file for that song in Local (C:)/Users/(user's name)/AppData/Roaming/foobar2000/lyrics & then make lyric edits in foobar2000.

I guess foobar2000 reads & inherits file info from iTunes including lyrics. Like all my iTunes music, I added all the lyrics to these. When playing most of these songs foobar2000's lyric search can find a scrolling lyric version that overrides the iTunes version for visibility & use that instead of my iTunes original lyrics.

But, in this case, all the songs on the vinyl album were digitized, then made into mp3s. I only add lyrics to one of these songs in iTunes. When playing this song in foobar2000 the lyrics from iTunes did appear but did not scroll. Out of curiosity I decided to fix that. Somehow editing the lyrics in foobar2000 caused a overwrite conflict with iTunes & the .LRC file for that song. The lyrics appeared but  were ill timed & completely unorganized. After I deleted the lyrics in iTunes, delete the .LRC file for that song in Local (C:)/Users/(user's name)/AppData/Roaming/foobar2000/lyrics, editing in foobar2000 worked properly.

I guess the best solution is to dump iTunes but I can't until the transition is complete. So far, I'm liking foobar2000.

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #4 –
I played with one file for hours in Notepad & never could get the text to paste properly into the Lyric Show 3 without everything being in a mess. When I copied & paste the text from Notepad into Open Office /Letter it was the same mess as it was in Lyric Show 3. After editing in Open Office /Letter, then paste that copy into Lyric Show 3 all was perfect.

It seems Notepad is the issue. I don't know why. I'd recommend to avoid using it & use MS Office/Write or Open Office /Letter.

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #5 –
Quote from: GARoss on
I found the lrc file & opened it as a txt file & all looks good. I don't get it.
From the component documentation (emphasis mine):
Quote
Look for any lyric file that is version 3 format and marked 'yes' for having timing information.
Are you sure the files in question are version 3 format?

Edit: added a word

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #6 –
Quote from: Jailhouse on
Quote from: GARoss on
I found the lrc file & opened it as a txt file & all looks good. I don't get it.
From the component documentation (emphasis mine):
Quote
Look for any lyric file that is version 3 format and marked 'yes' for having timing information.
Are you sure the files in question are version 3 format?

Edit: added a word

Jailhouse, editing karaoke-style lyrics is new to me, as I am new to Foobar2000. Basically, I've learned a lot over the past couple of days. I can't say for sure but it seems many of the lyric searches find .lrc files that are written by contributors/forum members of FooBar2000. The timing of the scroll & lyrics are sometimes wrong. This isn't a big deal but it has taken a while for that to sink in.

The other thing is it seems the only sure fire way to edit lyrics is to keep them in the Lyric Show 3 editor. Many times when editing in Notepad or other word editors all looks fine until they are pasted back into Lyric Show 3. Many times the lyrics are scattered out of the timestamp order. I don't know why this happens. Like I said, using the Lyric Show 3 editor seems best.


Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #7 –
It's all good as long as you're getting the results you need.  :)

Here's a how-to on creating lrc files in Notepad, just in case it might be helpful to you. I don't see anything that stands out to me, but then this is literally all I know about it.


Edit: added link

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #8 –
@GARoss
You can create a shortcut giving easy access to adjusting the overall offset of a .lrc file in the built-in editor. The saved timestamp formats being looking like one of these (values in milliseconds):
Code: [Select]
[offset:1200]
[offset:-1400]
Menu File -> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts. Click the Add new button.
Type adjust offset (or as much as necessary) in Action - Filter list by: and select Adjust offset in [main]->View->Lyrics Show 3.
Assign a Key combo, e.g. Ctrl+Win O. Do not make the hotkey global. OK. Test.

I hope this can save a few milliseconds in the future ;D.

Btw, Lyrics Show 3 has its own thread.

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #9 –
Quote from: Jailhouse on
It's all good as long as you're getting the results you need.  :)

Here's a how-to on creating lrc files in Notepad, just in case it might be helpful to you. I don't see anything that stands out to me, but then this is literally all I know about it.


Edit: added link
Quote from: PeteG on
@GARoss
You can create a shortcut giving easy access to adjusting the overall offset of a .lrc file in the built-in editor. The saved timestamp formats being looking like one of these (values in milliseconds):
Code: [Select]
[offset:1200]
[offset:-1400]
Menu File -> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts. Click the Add new button.
Type adjust offset (or as much as necessary) in Action - Filter list by: and select Adjust offset in [main]->View->Lyrics Show 3.
Assign a Key combo, e.g. Ctrl+Win O. Do not make the hotkey global. OK. Test.

I hope this can save a few milliseconds in the future ;D.

Btw, Lyrics Show 3 has its own thread.

All good info. Thanks! I haven't checked out Jailhouse's link to Notepad yet but I will.

I think where I've had issues is when Lyric Show 3 editor cannot find lyrics in the database it searches my PC & finds lyrics in iTunes. These are not time coded so in Lyric they look similar to how they look in iTunes; verses & chorus in paragraphs but without any highlighting. Trying to edit this in Lyric Show 3 editor is when the issues begin. When opening Lyric Show 3 editor the lyrics are one long continuous line. I've edited these into paragraphs & time coded but as soon as the editor is closed the time coding is mixed & many of the lyrics are without time codes.

This must be a clash with trying to overwrite iTune's tag on the mp3 that causes this. If I hunt down the lrc file of that mp3, change it to a txt file & open in Notepad, all looks normal, time codes where they belong, etc. Save that file back as a lrc, open in fooBar2000 & it's mixed as I described before. It's weird!

The work around seems to be searching for alternate lyrics & loading & editing them.Then save before closing the Lyric Show 3 editor. That seems to work.

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #10 –
To get things fully clear: Do you save your lyrics in tags or as external files?
LS3 doesn't scan the whole HDD for lyrics; it monitors the location as set in Preferences: Lyric Show 3 -> Lyric Saving tab (if 'Save to user defined directory' is chosen).

When having problems with (missing) lineshifts, it is probably a matter of wrong End Of Line control characters (EOL).
I'll suggest you try Notepad++. It's a free, full featured editor which is capable of changing between different control characters (open the problematic file and select Menu:Edit -> EOL Conversion -> Windows Format). AFAIK is Windows' Notepad not capable of doing this.

HTH

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #11 –
Quote
If I hunt down the lrc file of that mp3, change it to a txt file & open in Notepad, all looks normal, time codes where they belong, etc. Save that file back as a lrc, open in fooBar2000 & it's mixed as I described before.
I'm curious: What happens if you open that file in foobar first, i.e., without having opened it in Notepad?

The link I provided shows how to create an lrc file from scratch in Notepad, so that application should work. The result is merely a text file with certain formatting (mainly square brackets, from the looks of it) to tell lrc-capable players what to do. PeteG does have a valid point--I've run across that problem in other situations--but you did state that the file you opened looks fine in Notepad.

By the way, you can open lrc files directly in Notepad. Start the program, click on File > Open (or press Ctrl - O), set the file type from Text Files (*.txt) to All Files (*.*) (found just above the Open button in my Win10 dialog) and find the file in question.

P.S. I agree with PeteG on the benefits of Notepad++. Excellent product.

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #12 –
I think it would be easier if I could post a jpeg pictorial I made of the issue.

I don't see how I can upload a photo. Anyone know how?

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #13 –
Just below the editor you type messages in:
Click the 'selecting them' button. An Explorer window pops up. Navigate to the file(s), select, click Open. Voilá.
PNG or JPG bitmap formats are perfect choices.

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #14 –
Quote from: GARoss on
I think it would be easier if I could post a jpeg pictorial I made of the issue.

I don't see how I can upload a photo. Anyone know how?


Quote from: PeteG on
Just below the editor you type messages in:
Click the 'selecting them' button. An Explorer window pops up. Navigate to the file(s), select, click Open. Voilá.
PNG or JPG bitmap formats are perfect choices.

Hi PeteG
I meant, how to post a jpeg photo in this forum. I don't see a way to do this.

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #17 –
Quote from: GARoss on
Apparently just clicking the link will do the trick, too. ;)
Well, I had to download the bitmap to be able to zoom in on the details -> too much and too blurred info for my old eyes ...
(3) The blue marked line seems to point to internal unsynced lyrics (i.e. saved in the audio file). Correct?
(4) and (5) suggests the above mentioned End-of-Line issue.


Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #18 –
I have old eyes, too (65)! :) The blue lines are just borders between several screen grabs & they are in a numbered sequence 1-8. I have notes trying to explain. I have attached the jpeg but it doesn't show in the Preview.

#1 - It's the rare songs that foobar2000 cannot find lyrics for online & then finds the ones I manually put in iTunes. I'd like to dump iTunes but need it until I organize foobar2000. These mp3's do not have a timecode yet so they are displayed in foobar2000 as they were in iTunes, as indicated in frame #1. This is how the lyrics are displayed in iTunes which apparently tags this info to the mp3 file. At this point there isn't an .lrc file for this song.
#2 - This is how foobar2000 shows this same file. The lyrics & album art are from iTunes. The black lyrics window in foobar2000 is correct except there isn't a timecode so the lyrics slowly scrolls without highlighting.
#4 - Open the lyrics editor & this is how that same songs lyrics look. Just 2 continuous lines.
#5 - You get the same2 lines when opening the text editor.
#6 - Instead of using Notepad & edited the lyrics + added timecode in the lyric editor.
#7 - This is how they look after closing the editor.
#8 - This is how they look when re-opening the lyrics editor.

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #19 –
Hm. I'm only 59, but my eyes feel somewhat older! Not to mention the ears, sigh. Anyway, thanks for the new screenshot – much, much better.
With 'blue marked line' in part 3 of the figure I tried to describe the topmost line in the results pane. And yes, it points to an UNSYNCED LYRICS tag in your audio file. LS3 finds that first and load the contents.
In part 8 of the figure something obviously went terribly wrong or is it just unfinished editing? Too many blank, but timestamped lines. In the bottom there's a lot of unsynced lines.
RightClick the LS3 window and select Preferences... and open the Lyric Saving tab. Is Saving Method set to 'Save to tag' or something else?
I have close to zero experience with lyrics in tags or editing tagged lyrics for that matter. My experience with iTunes is strictly limited to the Store part. But if you open the iTunes player and copy some lyrics, paste into the LS3 editor, make some changes and save the result, something weird may happen with the audio file in iTunes, I suppose? I have no idea how iTunes handles (timestamped) lyrics.
Not to mention what happens when editing iTunes resources (e.g. audio files) outside of the program.
What happens if you copy the lyrics from iTunes and paste directly to Notepad? If there are no linebreaks, then I'll once again strongly suggest Notepad++.

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #20 –
Three things:

1. GARoss, I like the song you picked for an example. One of my favorites.

2. I'm 61 and my eyes are great -- when I'm using all four of them.

3. PeteG is obviously a better person with whom to hash this out. I'll just tiptoe off and watch the proceedings from a safe distance, i.e., spanner-throwing range. :)

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #21 –
Quote from: Jailhouse on
Three things:

1. GARoss, I like the song you picked for an example. One of my favorites.

2. I'm 61 and my eyes are great -- when I'm using all four of them.

3. PeteG is obviously a better person with whom to hash this out. I'll just tiptoe off and watch the proceedings from a safe distance, i.e., spanner-throwing range. :)

I love it. Just a bunch of old geezers hanging around here!   :))

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #22 –
Quote from: PeteG on
With 'blue marked line' in part 3 of the figure I tried to describe the topmost line in the results pane. And yes, it points to an UNSYNCED LYRICS tag in your audio file. LS3 finds that first and load the contents.
In part 8 of the figure something obviously went terribly wrong or is it just unfinished editing? Too many blank, but timestamped lines. In the bottom there's a lot of unsynced lines.

Pete - Part 8 is the problem. Part 6 is how, after editing, it should look. After "OK" & closing the editing window is the issue. The lyrics & all timecoding is mess up to look like Part 8 when re-opening the editor. Part 7 is how it looks in the lyric vies panel.

Quote from: PeteG on
RightClick the LS3 window and select Preferences... and open the Lyric Saving tab. Is Saving Method set to 'Save to tag' or something else?
I have close to zero experience with lyrics in tags or editing tagged lyrics for that matter. My experience with iTunes is strictly limited to the Store part. But if you open the iTunes player and copy some lyrics, paste into the LS3 editor, make some changes and save the result, something weird may happen with the audio file in iTunes, I suppose? I have no idea how iTunes handles (timestamped) lyrics.
Not to mention what happens when editing iTunes resources (e.g. audio files) outside of the program.
What happens if you copy the lyrics from iTunes and paste directly to Notepad? If there are no linebreaks, then I'll once again strongly suggest Notepad++.

Mine says "Save to the configurator folder" which must be the default because I made no changes here.
OK. I have a theory. I believe it all has something to do with iTunes.

All my music was in an iTunes folder & organized by me. All album art & lyrics & song info. Now when playing these same songs but in foobar2000, the lyrics editor searches for lyrics & usually finds something online. If not, it inherits iTunes info. That's OK but those lyrics are not timecoded. When I try to edit in timecode a .lrc file is created in my AppData/Roaming/foobar2000/lyrics folder. This creates a conflict because, in effect, I'm overwriting iTunes info so the files is a mix of both timecode & text file. The results are as you see in Part 8.

I have found that this works - If I delete the songs lrc file (there wasn't an lrc file until I added timecode in the editor & saved) & reedit again but this time reloading the lyrics for elsewhere, anywhere but iTunes, making sure I completely discard the iTunes lyric version, the editor works perfectly. Odd but it seems to work.

BTW - the Notepad ++ is nice software!

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #23 –
Quote from: GARoss on
I believe it all has something to do with iTunes.
Well, not entirely. The culprit may be that LS3 searches for lyrics in tags (+ online if no local success).
But you are saving the edited lyrics to foobar2000's configuration folder (in \lyrics), and LS3 performs no search for lyrics in that folder. Yet.

Suggestion 1. RightClick the LS3 panel and select Preferences... and open the Lyric Searching tab.
Select Tag Search in Search order and >> to Available Sources.
Select Local File search in Available Sources and << to Search order.
Select Local File search again and move it upwards to second position. No reason to perform searches on the net if you already have local lyrics.
Associations search should be the first. It's LS3's own database with indexing of your lyrics library (no lyrics, only file pointers). If you are curious you can select it and click the Properties button.
(If you are really curious you'll find the database in C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming\foobar2000\index-data with the wonderful filename 188A64AA-6C1B-4AC9-990A-067CD016F72C)

If you over time plan to get loads of lyrics it's highly impractical to save them in a single folder (IMHO).
Suggestion 2. In the Lyric Saving tab select 'Save to user defined directory'.
The Filename format could be
Code: [Select]
%tracknumber% - %title%
and Custom directory could be as simple as
Code: [Select]
C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming\foobar2000\lyrics\%artist%\%album%

Btw, you could try this:
In foobar2000 RightClick a file that with certainty contains tagged lyrics. The Properties dialog opens with the Metadata tab active.
Select the <unsynced lyrics> or <lyrics> text in the Value column field with a LeftClick, press Ctrl-C (or better Ctrl-X). Click OK. Open the LS3 editor and paste after deleting the standard text. No need for opening iTunes, I hope!
Or paste the text to Notepad++ first for a routine EOL check. In the status bar you should have Dos\Windows if EOL are okay (not UNIX or Macintosh).

I hope that all this was not too confusing or patronizing.

Quote
I have attached the jpeg but it doesn't show in the Preview.
Nope, it's a known issue. Not a big one.

PS. I've just bought 'Summertime, Summertime' in an online store, to be in sync with the old men, ahem. Alas no B-side. Sweet little a cappella tune from 1958! + unsynced lyrics from Timestamped 3.

Re: Can't get lyrics to view properly; need help to solve issue.

Reply #24 –
I'll work on this, Pete & post results.

BTW - as a teen, (many, many... too many moons ago!) we used call our local radio station & pay "Stump the DJ" & ask them who was the recording artist for "Summertime, Summertime". It depended on their age but most had to look it up even though the song, at that time, was only a few years old.