Lyric chord positioning

SansMuso

Hi Peter, I’m having a problem when doing lyrics in Word 2016 and saving them as a .txt file … when I import the lyrics into an ST3 song, the position of the chords above the lyrics changes and I have to re-edit the lyric file in ST3 to get the chords in the correct position.

Can you please advise/help? Thank you.

davedroug

SansMuso don't put the chords over the lyrics put them in the word where the chord should be like this in brackets [Am7] etc
I can [E] feel a new expression on my face
I can feel a strange sensation taking place
I can [A] hear the guitars playing lovely [E] tunes [Dbm]
[F#m] Every [Abm] time that you …. walk in the [E] room

they will then show over the word in red or green which ever you chose

Damir

SansMuso hi Sans I had the same problem and your best solution is with the existing system is to do what Peter suggested just enter your chord changes in the brackets within the lyrics line and normal chord lettering without brackets where there is no lyrics.
This makes it a lot faster when time code stamping the song lyrics as you can just keep going without manually skipping unwanted lines which is very time consuming and the end result is the same, and also you will find the chords follow the lyrics much better if you zoom in on your lyrics while the other way you have to manipulate them separately to the lyrics to keep them in sync which is a real ball buster.
Cheers Damir

JonathanS

SansMuso Use a fixed width font in Word such as Courier New.

peter

Dave is right. Either you use the bracket notation for inline chords, or you need to work with fixed width fonts like Courier for example. If you do the latter, make sure you also enable the fixed width font option in Stage Traxx.

jhipple86

peter so what do i do when the chord change occurs between words? if i do the bracket thing between the words, itll just put it over the word.

thanks

Donny

This was very useful info for me too.
Thank you, guys!

Donny

This was very useful info for me too.
Thank you, guys!

SansMuso

Just for the record, the fixed width setting option solved my problem. To have to go back and edit all of my lyrics using the square bracket method was too prohibitive time wise. I did have to edit about 10 lyrics that I had changed before setting fixed width but all done now and working perfectly.

My advice to anyone starting off with Stage Traxx is to set the fixed width txt option asap.

Damir

SansMuso My advice to anyone starting off with Stage Traxx is to set the fixed width txt option asap.

I have mine turned off , I don’t really understand its operation , perhaps someone can explain.
At the moment fixed width text is off and default Font size is set to 50.
I find this works fine as I like my lyrics as large as possible for most songs it’s fine sometimes I go down to 42 that’s my minimum size I allow so if then a line is still too long I just let it wrap around to give me another line as all my songs are line synced and the chords are placed in brackets I don’t seem to have any problems with it on stage and my songs font size does not vary too much from song to song .
So what will Fixed Font Width do for me , I simply haven’t spent enough time experimenting and I hope I haven’t cocked it up as I have 360 songs to consider.
Can someone explain thanks in advance.

peter

In a fixed width font each character has the same width. This makes it ease to place elements on specific positions.

Here is an example where I use 4 dashes to indent a character with a regular font. You will notice the dash takes up less space than the numbers below it:

----x
12345

And with a fixed width font:

----x
12345

Damir

peter ahha, so fixed width on means all characters fit in to the same space while with it off all characters use a different space to fit in depending on their requirement.

If what i just said is correct it should not effect me too much as i have placed all my chords in brackets so if i turn on fixed width i should still get all my chords in the correct spot.
So what is the advantage or disadvantage here, is one easier to read ?

And just to mention i went to the online manual to be presented with no information on this so perhaps Peter you could elaborate on this so the manual helps do dos like me.

Lishy

Having this on really helps when adding guitar tablature. If it’s off the lines go all over the place.

Damir

Lishy Having this on really helps when adding guitar tablature. If it’s off the lines go all over the place.

Thanks Lishy i use to place my chords above my lyrics and i found if i adjust my font size the chords went all over the place, so then with Peters suggestion i started using chords in line with brackets this has eliminated a lot of problems.
Line Time code entering is a lot simpler, changing font size wraps the chords to new lines this is the biggest issue i had and now i don't seem to have any issues but was wondering what Fixed font width will do for me if i turned it on as the instruction manual does not explain anything at all.

So my recommendation to all new users enter your chords in line and in the brackets wherever you have lyrics you will end up with a much simpler work flow and less hassles afterwards.

Riff

jhipple86
If that happens (which isn't often), you can fudge the lyrics by adding periods or slashes.

Here's a little [A]....example or if it's a longer pause [G]/ / / / | / / / / | / / to sing do this.

peter

You don't want it above the words?

jhipple86

peter
not always

peter

The problem is that ST3 can only highlight chords in seperate lines. Of course you can just replace the square brackets with the color tag. Then you will get colored chords on the same line as lyrics. It is just a bit more work to format it that way.