Lyrics segment highlighting and Chord handling behaviour

AnthonyB

I have a question on lyrics segment highlighting as I'm seeing some behaviour that seems odd to me, but may be 'by design'.

Scenario 1

[00:27.55]## VERSE 1
`A   C#m  F#m   A                 D      G
It's a happening thing, [00:31.42]and it's happening to you.
[00:34.40]Full moon and thunder, [00:37.85]ribbons of blue.

This renders as I would expect.
We hit the first timecode mark [00:27.55] and everything up to the next timecode mark [00:31.42] is highlighted:

Then we get to the next timecode mark [00:31.42], and everything up to the next timecode mark [00:34.40] is highlighted:

Scenario 2

[00:27.55]## VERSE 1
[A]It's a happening thing, [C#m][00:31.42]and it's happening to you.
[00:34.40]Full moon and thunder, [00:37.85]ribbons of blue.

This scenario is not rendering as I would expect. The key difference here is that we have chords sitting in the lyric line, rather than above the lyric in a dedicated chord line with the ` character as per Scenario 1.
We hit the first timecode mark [00:27.55] and it has only highlighted up to the first chord right at the start of the lyric line (i.e. just the 'Verse 1' section header):

then things get stranger.. as we get to the next timecode mark [00:31.42], it highlights the entire line, including the lyric text and chord before the timecode mark:

It's almost as though it is adding the bit that it forgot to render from the previous timecode marked section.
As it proceeds to the next line, it goes back to rendering correctly... until the next section with a Header, and then we see the same behaviour on the first line on that section.
What I hoped would occur in Scenario 2, is the same behaviour as in Scenario 1. It seems that the Chord rendering, in conjunction with a Header tag, is throwing off highlighting rendering logic; at least, that's my interpretation.

Thanks in advance!
Just for reference, I'm running ST 3.8.28 (9019) on an iPad running iPadOS 18.3.1

peter

Stage Traxx can not segment embedded chord highlighting. That's simply not possible with the way the layout engine works. So you will always see a whole chord line highlighted, not matter how many timecodes you place in that line with embedded chords.

But the highlighting in your second example is indeed strange. I will have to dig into the code why that happens the way it does.

Generally I would recommend to keep highlighting on a line by line level. If you need different highlights in a single line, break it up into two or more lines.

AnthonyB

peter Generally I would recommend to keep highlighting on a line by line level. If you need different highlights in a single line, break it up into two or more lines.

Yeah, normally I do follow this as a general rule. I just have a few songs where the singer finds it easier to see certain lyric lines that have lots of words with multiple phrases all on the same line, but appreciates the highlighting for breaking up the phrases. I can understand that it is easier for most of us Westerners to quickly scan left to right, than across down, across down, across down. That said, if the layout engine works a certain way, then I'll work within those boundaries!

peter But the highlighting in your second example is indeed strange. I will have to dig into the code why that happens the way it does.

Thanks Peter, much appreciated!

peter

I found the issue. The next update will fix it. Highlighting will then be identical in both cases.

AnthonyB

peter I found the issue. The next update will fix it. Highlighting will then be identical in both cases.

Brilliant! Thank you so much Peter!!

AnthonyB

peter

Hi Peter, I've just run into another similar scenario and wanted to raise it in case it isn't handled by the fix you mentioned above. And yes, before I continue, I acknowledge that it is safer to only have a single timestamp at the start of each line! 🙂

So like my original issue, this relates to having 2 timestamps on a single line, and what lyrics/chords are highlighted at each timestamp. Unlike my original issue, there is no Header tags involved.

The lyric sheet raw code is as follows:

[02:06.48][Eb]…..….Valerie. [02:10.96][Fm]……..Valerie. {c:green}(_D# C harmony_){c}
[02:15.46][Eb]………Valerie. [Fm] {c:green}(quick transition){c}

We hit timestamp [02:06.48] and get the following:

What is unexpected is that the Fm chord is on the right-hand side of the next timestamp, and yet it gets highlighted.

We then hit timestamp [02:10.96] and get the following:

All good, except for the unhighlighted Fm chord that was picked up by the previous section.

peter

That can't be changed. After layout the chords are in the line above the lyrics. So they will highlight with the first part of the line. If you can't live with this, split it up in two lines.

AnthonyB

peter - got it! Thanks for clarifying!