App to change timestamps in a Word Doc or Text File

AnthonyB

Hi All,

I recently ran into an issue where having already timestamped lyric sheets and added MIDI events to automate device patch changes, I had a need to add 1-2 bars to the start of most songs.
This was obviously going to throw out all the timestamps and require a lot of manual effort to re-timestamp everything.

While I knew what would be required in theory for a code approach to regex through my lyric sheet, determine what was a time stamp, determine whether the MS value was in 2 digits (10th of a second) or 3 digits ('true' milliseconds), and then add a defined amount of milliseconds to every timestamp, I'm no coder.

So I turned to ChatGPT. A few hours later I have 192 lines of python code that I can package as a Windows .exe that I can drag and drop either a Word document (I use these as my starting point for lyric sheets and include all the ST formatting and timestamps) or a plain text file (what I copy my Word doc into and then also have all of my MIDI automation events in) or even just a multiline window if I want to quickly transform a few lines and can just as easily copy and paste in and out.

So to explain how I plan to use this, this is an example:

A need arises to add 1 bar extra to the start of a backing track
I go into my DAW, add the 1 bar (and whatever is actually needed, Cues, additional count-in, whatever.) and re-export my new backing track, click/cues track, etc. Now that I've essentially added 1 bar duration to the start of my audio tracks, all of the timestamps in my lyric sheet are going to be 'out' by the duration of the 1 bar.
From my DAW I calculate, in seconds to 3 decimal places, how much time this 1 bar has added to my backing tracks. This is how much time I need to add to all the timestamps on my existing lyric sheet, so that the lyric highlight and MIDI events still occur at the right place in the song. So, as an example, the song is 109bpm and is in 4/4 and that 1 bar extra has added 2.202 sec to my audio track exports.
I drag and drop the lyric sheet (Word docx or plain text format) for the song onto my app to load it (or use the Browse button).
I enter "2.202" into the delta time field
I click "Run Update"
A new version of the file, with _updated appended to the filename is produced
In ST3, for that song, I load up the new audio files and lyric sheet

This is a very quick and dirty app, but from my tests, it does what I need and does it accurately.
Very simply:

It will parse through a docx or txt file
Find all "timestamps" in the format [MM:SS.MS] or [midi@MM:SS.MSS:
It will take a number you enter in seconds (positive or negative value, up to 3 decimal places) and add it to those timestamps
It will produce a new version of the Word docx (with all formatting retained) or plain text file with the updated timestamps

It's written in Python and I'll include a Windows executable package that anyone running Windows can simply run, as well as the python script so others can use in whatever way suits them.
I've built it all in Python 3.12.3 and anyone using the script will need to import 2 libraries - python-docx tkinterdnd2 (i.e. pip install python-docx tkinterdnd2)

I won't be providing support for this. Heck, I didn't really write it (ChatGPT did) so I couldn't really even if I wanted!
Equally, suggestions for improvement, feature requests, etc. aren't on my radar. This does what I need and that's all that I need. That said, feel free to do whatever you want with the code if you want to build on it, improve it, etc.

https://mega.nz/file/4fxH2KQQ#CDygIAHD-ib_jVdBD8FHewtRjLOGpwDOb4VJAxqJiN4

peter

You could have used the offset Tag to just offset all timestamps by the specified amount. Or am I missing something?

AnthonyB

peter Yep - could've used an offset, but I hate the idea of leaving an offset in permanently as it means that if I'm looking at timestamps, they aren't the correct values, I have to remember that song has an offset and then factor that in.
Much cleaner to have absolute values everywhere.

AnthonyB

Just circling back to this as I did use an offset to solve a recent problem, and then it created a new problem that led me back to re-timestamping.

I have a song that I already had lyrics timestamped and about 20 MIDI events timestamped.
I was then asked to add a 90 sec intro piece, that would segue directly into the existing song.
As it felt like it was going to be a 'one-off' use for this new 90sec intro+existing song, I thought I'd just use an offset - quick simple, I'd use it once and then that was it. No point expending time and effort re-timestamping everything.

So, I did that, tested it, all was working perfectly... until I had a subsequent request.

Could I also trigger a MIDI event at the start of the new extended length song. Funnily enough, it was to trigger video playback from another iPad running Stage Cue, where the video needed to roughly line-up with the audio.

Bugger. Because I'd used an offset, every timestamp was going to have the offset applied (possible feature request below).
I couldn't use an 'on load' as that wouldn't work with the scenario.
I could possibly use an 'on play', but we start all songs via MIDI Trigger Start/Stop so this wouldn't work.

So, I just bit the bullet and spent 15 mins re-timestamping, checking, verifying.

Now, the feature I wish had been an option, and I know this could be seen as breaking some existing karaoke lyric 'standards', but it would've been so nice if there had been an option for the offset to only apply to timestamped events BELOW the offset tag in the lyric sheet.

I know that is not how the offset tag is generally processed and applied, and this may well be quite a niche scenario, but boy it would've been nice if I could simply have put the one timestamped event that I did not want the offset applied to at the top of the lyric sheet, then have the offset tag, then the rest as usual, and have the offset only applied to the events below the offset tag on the lyric sheet.

peter

Yeah, that's not possible as you can't have negative timestamps and the offset is affecting all timestamped tags. It does not matter where in the lyrics the offset tag is placed.