• FeaturesiOS

  • ‘Edit Lyrics’ Rewind/Fast Forward Button Request

On the screen to Edit Lyrics for a song, I often have to do minor rewinds or fast forwards to correct a mis-timed time-code. Attempting to time-code every one of my band’s songs, but it is a bit cumbersome because the player on this screen is small & hard to dial in. Could I request the addition of a -10 / +10 second increment buttons? (or other small increment) This would allow for smoother time coding.

The other request is for an ‘Undo’ button. When a lyric is mis-timed, you could then ideally hit ‘Undo’, ‘Rewind 10 seconds’ and boom you’re back on track. The current way is very manual, so just a suggestion if it isn't too difficult to program. Thanks!

    The position slider can be used to rewind or forward. I prefer to keep that slider as large as possible instead of making it smaller by adding additional ffwd/rwd buttons.

    And Undo is already supported. Every standard iOS way to undo is possible. See here how to undo in iOS: https://www.igeeksblog.com/how-to-undo-redo-typing-on-iphone-ipad/

    Personally I prefer the 3-finger double tap gesture.

      theVAMband I totally agree with you it is something that has always frustrated me as well , but i dont think Peter understands our frustration.

      Peter what is frustrating is, when you make a timecode error it is very time consuming to have to then finger select at the end of the time code, which is quite often inacurate because its a small area to hit and doasnt always get selected properly, then you have to hit DELETE numerous times to errase all the timecode, which then causes another problem if you hit one too many times, you have just jumped back to the top line and possibly erased some of the lyrics by mistake as this is a very fiddly thing, then if you did manage to errase this timecode now you have to rewind to an earlier spot to cue up a start point apropriate so you can tune in to the music so you can possibly correct your mistake, this whole process should be able to be done by a simple UNDO.
      As mentioned, if you hit a wrong timecode by hitting undo once it removes the last entered timecode it automatically jumps back a bit in your song from that incorrect entry and allows you to just hit start again, where you can hear the song and press at the new timecode spot.
      If you repeatedly hit timecode undo it will progressively delete all your timecode, i know there is an all delete timecode, but thats not always usefull if you make a few errors at the end of songs, youve spent all that time it becomes inoficient to delete all yet it is also innoficient to single fix a timecode error, so a simple TIMECODE UNDO is very logical as auto time coding songs is the best way to have synced lyrics, i certainly dont need anything else and have used it sucessfully for years , it just needs some more attention given to it.

          peter yes I agree with having the large fader it was my suggestion to make sliders as large as possible, this works fine, it’s the quick undo of a mistakenly placed time code that I haven’t worked out how to quickly undo , I followed your link but I still don’t know how to undo a badly placed timecode.
          Is it a shake of the iPad, what is a 3 finger gesture where is the undo button?
          If these things exist we need to know in an obvious way as we don’t have your operating system knowledge we can only do with what we see on screen. Apple is loaded with unknown treasures people never use cause it’s just not obvious.

            I‘m using iOS standards wherever possible. And iOS has standard undo buttons on the keyboard:

            I really don‘t know why nobody is aware of it and I will not start explaining standard iOS stuff in the ST3 manual. I wouldn‘t even know where to begin.

              peter thanks Peter I just discovered a three fingers double tap on screen gesture brings down an undo redo option which is perfect to undo timecode entries it actually can do exactly what I suggested but I didn’t know it was available.
              Perhaps a video to expose all these unseen treasures might help as things are more complicated every day it’s so hard to keep up with this mind reading technology , I would just prefer the two undo redo arrows to be always present somewhere obvious so my mind can focus on the job of creating backing tracks, this process on its own is a very complicated beast so keeping things obvious would just simplify it somewhat.
              Thanks for the tip I will see where else I can use this mysterious option.
              Just a thought, it would be great to have simple verbal commands to do these things while editing.

                peter thank you for this suggestion! I consider myself very tech-savvy and was unaware of that 3 finger feature, so much appreciated. Peter, perhaps one of your future videos can be for 'Editing Lyrics with Time Codes', that way we can all know Best practices to make the experience smoother.

                Additionally, my iPhone keyboard does not show the 'Undo/Redo or Copy' icons as your screenshot does, perhaps that is an iPad/iPhone difference...

                Lastly, I've gotten better with the timer/slider, I found if I need to go back a few seconds, its easier to rewind/slide it way back, and then try to find about 5 seconds before my intended spot

                    theVAMband i find the big slider is easy to use specially if you use the timecode of last good entry as a quide, you can easily find a good cue spot to restart the new record, it was the deleting of bad entries that was a pain to do, so by having a fast undo option has greatly spead up the process.

                      peter i dont have those icons on my ipad keyboard, is it a view option?

                        I have just found my SHORTCUTS option in KEYBOARD settings on my ipad was turned OFF, if you turn it ON it will give you UNDO/REDO on the keyboard WHOHOOOOOO! im a happy chappy, BLODY HIDDEN OPTIONS all this time ive been putting up with SHIT unnecessarely, CRAP!🤬

                        I didn't know about the shortcuts option. I guess I never bothered to change any of the keyboard settings in iOS so it was turned on by default.

                        On the iPhone these buttons are never shown. I guess due to the smaller screen size? So on the iPhone you need to rely on the tap gesture.

                          peter all these little traps might be worth while creating a list or video for newcomers to be aware of, I did all my 300 songs the hard way and complained about it yet there was a better way I didn’t even know about, now I can see why you didn’t think there was a problem, same with entering chords inline instead of on top of the text, inline eliminates the problem of easily entering timecode now having quick undo really speeds up things, so I think a video of showing people how to work most efficiently would make a lot of sense, cause finding things out for yourself years down the track is really time wasting.

                          This also applies to little tricks of highlighting chords changes without lyrics, doing this is very tricky if you want perfect timing , you need to have all your chords on a new line so every time you hit a timecode the next chord line is selected ready for next entry, once you are happy you need to place all the chords on one line so you don’t suffer the dreaded line change delay that upsets the timing, eventually you can end up with a good result but it’s tough going if you expect perfection.
                          Example
                          To enter time code you need to do this so it becomes easy to timecode chords.
                          [tc]A
                          [tc]B
                          [tc]C
                          [tc]D
                          [tc]E
                          [tc]F
                          [tc]G
                          [tc]A
                          [tc]B
                          [tc]C
                          [tc]D
                          [tc]E
                          [tc]F
                          [tc]G

                          But then you have to place the chords in a horizontal line with about 4 spaces to make the screen easy and accurately follow the highlighting of the chords , otherwise you are fighting the line shift delay that happens at the exact time the highlight happens this effect is very distracting and to eliminate it you need to place as many chords as you can on one line , this minimises this line changing issue and makes accurate chord changing highlighting more tolerable.
                          [tc]A [tc]B [[tc]C [tc]D [tc]E [tc]F [tc]G
                          [tc]A [tc]B [[tc]C [tc]D [tc]E [tc]F [tc]G

                          All this takes time to accurately achieve but it is possible , perhaps someone knows a better way?
                          Cheers Damir
                          I still believe whenever a timecode is placed if there is a line change involved this time it takes to shift should automatically happen before the timecode so when the line is highlighted it is already in its place and steady then it gets highlighted, this would create a much smoother and pleasing result on the eyes and brain , it would simplify timecode entry as you could place the timecode on the beat and not off beat like now to accommodate the late line change.