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<A NAME="CHILD_LINKS"><STRONG>Subsections</STRONG></A>
<UL CLASS="ChildLinks">
<LI><A NAME="tex2html533"
HREF="node9.html#SECTION00910000000000000000">Lyric Options</A>
<UL>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html534"
HREF="node9.html#SECTION00911000000000000000">Event Type</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html535"
HREF="node9.html#SECTION00912000000000000000">Kar File Mode</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html536"
HREF="node9.html#SECTION00913000000000000000">Word Splitting</A>
</UL>
<BR>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html537"
HREF="node9.html#SECTION00920000000000000000">Chord Name Insertion</A>
<UL>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html538"
HREF="node9.html#SECTION00921000000000000000">Chord Transposition</A>
</UL>
<BR>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html539"
HREF="node9.html#SECTION00930000000000000000">Setting Lyrics</A>
<UL>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html540"
HREF="node9.html#SECTION00931000000000000000">Limitations</A>
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<H1><A NAME="SECTION00900000000000000000"></A>
<A NAME="sec-lyrics"></A>
<BR>
Lyrics
</H1>
<P>
MIDI files can include song lyrics and some (certainly not all) MIDI
file players and/or sequencers can display them as a file is
played. This includes newer “arranger” keyboards and many software
players. Check your manuals.
<P>
The “Standard MIDI File” document describes a <SPAN CLASS="textit">Lyric</SPAN>
Meta-event:
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">FF 05 len text <SPAN CLASS="textit">Lyric</SPAN>.</SPAN> A
lyric to be sung. Generally, each syllable will will be a separate
lyric event which begins at the event's time.<A NAME="tex2html38"
HREF="#foot4127"><SUP><SPAN CLASS="arabic">9</SPAN>.<SPAN CLASS="arabic">1</SPAN></SUP></A></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
<P>
Unfortunately, not all players and creators follow the
specification--the most notable exception are “.kar” files. These
files eschew the <SPAN CLASS="textit">Lyric</SPAN> event and place their lyrics as a
<SPAN CLASS="textit">Text Event</SPAN>. There are programs strewn on the net which convert
between the two formats (but I really don't know if conversion is
needed).
<P>
If you want to read the word from the source, refer to the official
MIDI lyrics documentation at
<TT><A NAME="tex2html40"
HREF="http://www.midi.org/about-midi/smf/rp017.shtml">http://www.midi.org/about-midi/smf/rp017.shtml</A></TT>.
<P>
<H1><A NAME="SECTION00910000000000000000">
Lyric Options</A>
</H1>
<P>
<FONT Face="Serif" Color="Navy"><I>MMA</I></FONT> has a number of options in setting lyrics. They are all called
via the L<SMALL>YRIC</SMALL> command. Most options are set as option/setting
pairs with the option name and the setting joined with an “=”.
<P>
<H2><A NAME="SECTION00911000000000000000">
Event Type</A>
</H2>
<P>
<FONT Face="Serif" Color="Navy"><I>MMA</I></FONT> supports both format for lyrics (discussed above). The
EVENT option is used to select the desired mode.
<P>
<Table Hspace="40%" CellSpacing=0 CellPadding=10 BGColor="OldLace" Border=3>
<tr><td>
<B>Lyric EVENT=LYRIC </B>
</td></tr>
</Table>
<P>
selects the default L<SMALL>YRIC </SMALL>E<SMALL>VENT</SMALL> mode.
<P>
<Table Hspace="40%" CellSpacing=0 CellPadding=10 BGColor="OldLace" Border=3>
<tr><td>
<B>Lyric EVENT=TEXT </B>
</td></tr>
</Table>
<P>
selects the T<SMALL>EXT </SMALL>E<SMALL>VENT</SMALL> mode. Use of this option also prints a
warning message.
<P>
<H2><A NAME="SECTION00912000000000000000">
Kar File Mode</A>
</H2>
<P>
As noted above, Karaoke or .kar files use a slightly different MIDI
format for their lyrics.
<FONT Face="Serif" Color="Navy"><I>MMA</I></FONT> supports kar file creation with this
mode:
<P>
<Table Hspace="40%" CellSpacing=0 CellPadding=10 BGColor="OldLace" Border=3>
<tr><td>
<B>Lyric KARMODE=On </B>
</td></tr>
</Table>
<P>
When this mode is entered the following changes are made:
<P>
<UL>
<LI>The extension used for the MIDI file name is changed from .mid
to .kar (if you have specified an output file name on the command
line this is not done).
<P>
</LI>
<LI>Some meta track information is changed to make it compatible
with the kar useage.
<P>
</LI>
<LI>The word splitting algorithm is modified. In kar mode hyphens (“-”)
are used to indicate syllable breaks and are removed from the
input. You can force a hyphen into your lyrics by using the notation
“\-”.
<P>
</LI>
</UL>
<P>
You can turn the mode off with:
<P>
<Table Hspace="40%" CellSpacing=0 CellPadding=10 BGColor="OldLace" Border=3>
<tr><td>
<B>Lyric KarMode=Off </B>
</td></tr>
</Table>
<P>
Repeated mode switching is quite acceptable and may be useful in
generating proper lyric breaks.
<P>
<H2><A NAME="SECTION00913000000000000000">
Word Splitting</A>
</H2>
<P>
Another option controlled by the L<SMALL>YRIC</SMALL> command is to determine
the method used to split words. As mentioned earlier (and in various
MIDI documents), the lyrics should be split into syllables.
<FONT Face="Serif" Color="Navy"><I>MMA</I></FONT> does
this by taking each word (anything with white space surrounding it)
and setting a MIDI event for that. However, depending on your player,
you might want only one event per bar. You might even want to put the
lyrics for several bars into one event. In this case simply set the
“bar at a time” flag:
<P>
<Table Hspace="40%" CellSpacing=0 CellPadding=10 BGColor="OldLace" Border=3>
<tr><td>
<B>Lyric SPLIT=BAR </B>
</td></tr>
</Table>
<P>
You can return to normal (syllable/word) mode at anytime with:
<P>
<Table Hspace="40%" CellSpacing=0 CellPadding=10 BGColor="OldLace" Border=3>
<tr><td>
<B>Lyric SPLIT=NORMAL </B>
</td></tr>
</Table>
<P>
<H1><A NAME="SECTION00920000000000000000">
Chord Name Insertion</A>
</H1>
<P>
It is possible to have
<FONT Face="Serif" Color="Navy"><I>MMA</I></FONT> duplicate the current chord names and
insert them as a lyrics. The option:
<P>
<Table Hspace="40%" CellSpacing=0 CellPadding=10 BGColor="OldLace" Border=3>
<tr><td>
<B>Lyric CHORDS=On </B>
</td></tr>
</Table>
<P>
will enable this. In this mode the chord line is parsed and inserted
as verse one into each bar.
<P>
The mode is enabled with “On” or “1” and disabled with “Off” or
“0”.
<P>
After the chords are extracted they are treated exactly like a verse
you have entered as to word splitting, etc. Note that the special
chord “z” is converted to “N.C.” and directives after the “z” in
constructs like “C7zCS” will appear with only the chord name.
<P>
<H2><A NAME="SECTION00921000000000000000">
Chord Transposition</A>
</H2>
<P>
If you are transposing a piece or if you with to display the chords
for a guitar with a capo you can tell
<FONT Face="Serif" Color="Navy"><I>MMA</I></FONT> to transpose the chord
names inserted with C<SMALL>HORDS=</SMALL>O<SMALL>N</SMALL>. Just add a transpose directive
in the L<SMALL>YRIC</SMALL> command:
<P>
<Table Hspace="40%" CellSpacing=0 CellPadding=10 BGColor="OldLace" Border=3>
<tr><td>
<B>Lyric CHORDS=On Transpose=2 </B>
</td></tr>
</Table>
<P>
Please note that the Lyrics code does <SPAN CLASS="textit">not</SPAN> look at the global
T<SMALL>RANSPOSE</SMALL> setting.<A NAME="tex2html41"
HREF="#foot4053"><SUP><SPAN CLASS="arabic">9</SPAN>.<SPAN CLASS="arabic">2</SPAN></SUP></A>
<P>
<FONT Face="Serif" Color="Navy"><I>MMA</I></FONT> isn't too smart in it's transposition and will often display the
“wrong” chord names in relation to “sharp” and “flat” names. If
you find that you are getting too many “wrong” names, try setting
the CN<SMALL>AMES</SMALL> option to either “Sharp” or “Flat”. Another
example:
<P>
<Table Hspace="40%" CellSpacing=0 CellPadding=10 BGColor="OldLace" Border=3>
<tr><td>
<B>Lyric CHORDS=On Transpose=2 CNames=Flat </B>
</td></tr>
</Table>
<P>
By default, the “flat” setting is used. In addition to “Flat” and
“Sharp” you can use the abbreviations “#”, “b” and “&”.
<P>
You can (and may well need to) change the CN<SMALL>AMES</SMALL> setting
in a number of different places in the song.
<P>
<H1><A NAME="SECTION00930000000000000000">
Setting Lyrics</A>
</H1>
<P>
Adding a lyric to your song is a simple matter ... and like so many
things, there is more than one way to do it.
<P>
Lyrics can be set for a bar in-between a pair of <SPAN CLASS="textbf">[]</SPAN>s
somewhere in a data bar.<A NAME="tex2html42"
HREF="#foot4060"><SUP><SPAN CLASS="arabic">9</SPAN>.<SPAN CLASS="arabic">3</SPAN></SUP></A> For
example:
<P>
<Table Hspace="40%" CellSpacing=0 CellPadding=10 BGColor="OldLace" Border=3>
<tr><td>
<B>z [ Pardon ]
<BR>
C [ me, If I'm ]
<BR>
E7 [ sentimental, \r]
<BR>
C [when we say good ] </B>
</td></tr>
</Table>
<P>
The alternate method is to use the L<SMALL>YRIC </SMALL>S<SMALL>ET</SMALL> directive:
<P>
<Table Hspace="40%" CellSpacing=0 CellPadding=10 BGColor="OldLace" Border=3>
<tr><td>
<B>Lyric Set Hello Young Lovers </B>
</td></tr>
</Table>
<P>
The S<SMALL>ET</SMALL> option can be anywhere in a L<SMALL>YRIC</SMALL> line. The only
restriction is that no “=” signs are permitted in the lyric. When
setting the lyric for a single verse the <SPAN CLASS="textbf">[]</SPAN>s are optional;
however, for multiple verses they are used (just like they are when
you include the lyric in a data/chord line). The advantage to using
L<SMALL>YRIC </SMALL>S<SMALL>ET</SMALL> is that you can specify multiple bars of lyrics at
one point in your file. See the sample file <TT><SPAN CLASS="textbf">egs/lyrics.mma</SPAN></TT> for
an example.
<P>
The lyrics for each bar are separated into individual events, one for
each word ... unless the option S<SMALL>PLIT=</SMALL>B<SMALL>AR</SMALL> has been used, in
which case the entire lyric is placed at the offset corresponding to
the start of the bar.
<P>
<FONT Face="Serif" Color="Navy"><I>MMA</I></FONT> recognizes two special characters in a L<SMALL>YRIC</SMALL>:
<P>
<UL>
<LI>A <SPAN CLASS="textbf"> \r</SPAN> is converted into an EOL character (hex
value 0x0D). A <SPAN CLASS="textbf"> \r</SPAN> should appear at the end of each
lyrical line.
<P>
</LI>
<LI>A <SPAN CLASS="textbf"> \n</SPAN> is converted into a LF character (hex
value 0x0A). A <SPAN CLASS="textbf"> \n</SPAN> should appear at the end of each
verse or paragraph.
<P>
</LI>
</UL>
<P>
When a multi-verse section is created using a R<SMALL>EPEAT</SMALL> or
G<SMALL>OTO</SMALL>, different lyrics can be specified for different passes.
In this case you simply specify two more sets of lyrics:
<P>
<Table Hspace="40%" CellSpacing=0 CellPadding=10 BGColor="OldLace" Border=3>
<tr><td>
<B>A / Am / [First verse] [Second Verse] </B>
</td></tr>
</Table>
<P>
However, for this work properly you must set the internal counter
L<SMALL>YRIC</SMALL>V<SMALL>ERSE</SMALL> for any verse other than 1. This counter is set with
the command:
<P>
<Table Hspace="40%" CellSpacing=0 CellPadding=10 BGColor="OldLace" Border=3>
<tr><td>
<B>Lyric Verse=Value | INC | DEC </B>
</td></tr>
</Table>
<P>
This means that you can directly set the value (the default value is
1) with a command like:
<P>
<Table Hspace="40%" CellSpacing=0 CellPadding=10 BGColor="OldLace" Border=3>
<tr><td>
<B>Lyric Verse=2 </B>
</td></tr>
</Table>
<P>
And you can increment or decrement the value with the INC and
DEC options. This is handy at to use in repeat sections:
<P>
<Table Hspace="40%" CellSpacing=0 CellPadding=10 BGColor="OldLace" Border=3>
<tr><td>
<B>Lyric Verse=Inc </B>
</td></tr>
</Table>
<P>
You cannot set the value to a value less than 1.
<P>
There are a couple of special cases:
<P>
<UL>
<LI>If there is only one set of lyrics in a line, it will be treated
as text for verse 1, regardless of the value of L<SMALL>YRIC</SMALL>V<SMALL>ERSE</SMALL>.
<P>
</LI>
<LI>If the value of L<SMALL>YRIC</SMALL>V<SMALL>ERSE</SMALL> is greater than the number of
verses found after splitting the line, then no lyrics are produced.
In most cases this is probably not what you want.
<P>
</LI>
</UL>
<P>
At times you may wish to override
<FONT Face="Serif" Color="Navy"><I>MMA</I></FONT> 's method of determining the
beat offsets for a lyric or a single syllable in a lyric. You can
specify the beat in the bar by enclosing the value in “<
>” brackets. For example, suppose that your song starts
with a pickup bar and you'd like the lyrics for the first bar to start
on beat 4:
<P>
<Table Hspace="40%" CellSpacing=0 CellPadding=10 BGColor="OldLace" Border=3>
<tr><td>
<B>z z z C [ <4>Hello ]
<BR>
F [ Young lovers ] </B>
</td></tr>
</Table>
<P>
Assuming <SPAN CLASS="textbf">4/4</SPAN> the above would put the word “Hello” at beat
4 of the first bar; “Young” on the first beat of bar 2; and
“lovers” on beat 3 of bar 2.
<P>
Note: there must not be a space inside the “<
>”, nor can there be a space between the bracket and the
syllable it applies to.
<P>
Only the first “< >” is checked. So, if you
really want to have the characters “<” or ">” in
a lyric just include a dummy to keep
<FONT Face="Serif" Color="Navy"><I>MMA</I></FONT> happy:
<P>
<Table Hspace="40%" CellSpacing=0 CellPadding=10 BGColor="OldLace" Border=3>
<tr><td>
<B>C [ <><Verse_1.>This is a Demo ] </B>
</td></tr>
</Table>
<P>
<A HREF="#eg:twk">This example</A><A NAME="tex2html43"
HREF="#foot4133"><SUP><SPAN CLASS="arabic">9</SPAN>.<SPAN CLASS="arabic">4</SPAN></SUP></A> shows a complete
song with lyrics. You should also examine the file
<TT><SPAN CLASS="textbf">egs/lyrics.mma</SPAN></TT> for an alternate example.
<P>
<Table Hspace="40%" CellSpacing=0 CellPadding=10 BGColor="#efefef" Border=3>
<tr><td Align="CENTER" BGColor="White">
<SPAN CLASS="textbf"><BIG CLASS="XLARGE">Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star</BIG></SPAN> <A NAME="eg:twk"></A>
</tr> </td>
<tr> <td >
<Table Hspace="40%" CellSpacing=0 CellPadding=10 BGColor="OldLace" Border=3>
<tr><td>
<B>Tempo 200
<BR>
Groove Folk
<BR>
Repeat
<BR> 1 G [Twinkle,] [When the]
<BR> 2 G [Twinkle] [blazing ]
<BR> 3 C [little] [sun is]
<BR> 4 G [star; \r] [gone, \r]
<BR> 5 Am [How I] [When he ]
<BR> 6 G [wonder] [nothing]
<BR> 7 D7 [what you] [shines u-]
<BR> 8 G [are. \r] [pon. \r]
<BR> 9 G [Up a-] [then you]
<BR> 10 D7 [bove the] [show your]
<BR> 11 G [world so] [little]
<BR> 12 D [high, \r] [light, \r]
<BR> 13 G [Like a] [Twinkle, ]
<BR> 14 D7 [diamond] [twinkle,]
<BR> 15 G [in the] [all the]
<BR> 16 D7 [sky! \r] [night. \r]
<BR> 17 G [Twinkle,]
<BR> 18 G [twinkle]
<BR> 19 C [Little]
<BR> 20 G [star, \r]
<BR> 21 Am [How I]
<BR> 22 G [wonder]
<BR> 23 D7 [what you]
<BR> 24 G [are. \r \n]
<BR>
<BR> Lyric Verse=Inc
<BR>
RepeatEnd </B>
</td></tr>
</Table>
</td> </tr>
</Table>
<P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="SECTION00931000000000000000">
Limitations</A>
</H2>
<P>
A few combinations are not permitted:
<P>
<UL>
<LI>You cannot specify lyrics in bars that are being repeated with
the “*” option.
<P>
</LI>
<LI>You cannot insert lyrics with L<SMALL>YRIC </SMALL>S<SMALL>ET</SMALL> and
[<SMALL>STUFF]</SMALL> into the same bar.
<P>
</LI>
</UL>
<BR><HR><H4>Footnotes</H4>
<DL>
<DT><A NAME="foot4127">... time.</A><A
HREF="node9.html#tex2html38"><SUP><SPAN CLASS="arabic">9</SPAN>.<SPAN CLASS="arabic">1</SPAN></SUP></A></DT>
<DD>I am quoting
from “MIDI Documentation” distributed with the TSE Library. Pete
Goodliffe, Oct. 21, 1999. You may be able to get the complete
document at <TT><A NAME="tex2html39"
HREF="http://tse3.sourceforge.net/docs.html">http://tse3.sourceforge.net/docs.html</A></TT>
</DD>
<DT><A NAME="foot4053">... setting.</A><A
HREF="node9.html#tex2html41"><SUP><SPAN CLASS="arabic">9</SPAN>.<SPAN CLASS="arabic">2</SPAN></SUP></A></DT>
<DD>This is a feature! It permits you
to have separate control over music generation and chord symbol
display.
</DD>
<DT><A NAME="foot4060">... bar.</A><A
HREF="node9.html#tex2html42"><SUP><SPAN CLASS="arabic">9</SPAN>.<SPAN CLASS="arabic">3</SPAN></SUP></A></DT>
<DD>Although the lyric can be placed
anywhere in the bar, it is recommended that you only place the lyric
at the end of the bar. All the examples follow this style.
</DD>
<DT><A NAME="foot4133">...eg:twk</A><A
HREF="node9.html#tex2html43"><SUP><SPAN CLASS="arabic">9</SPAN>.<SPAN CLASS="arabic">4</SPAN></SUP></A></DT>
<DD>Included in
this distribution as <TT><SPAN CLASS="textbf">songs/twinkle.mma</SPAN></TT>.
</DD>
</DL>
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<ADDRESS>
bob
2010-11-07
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