Hi Peter,
I’m wondering if this feature already exists, or if it might be interesting to implement if there’s enough demand. Either way, I’d love to hear what other users are doing.
There are songs where you encounter:
- long introductions
- long instrumental breaks between verses
I often struggle while waiting and getting ready for the next line, especially with songs I don’t know by heart or those with non-standard structures (not just verse-chorus-verse, etc.).
To help myself, I write notes in the lyrics to indicate when the next verse comes in, like this:
[00:35.79]You don't believe me…
[00:39.33][_Instrumental break: WAIT until 01:35_]
[01:35.09]There's a sign of love…
Or I use a kind of countdown, for example:
[00:35.79]You don't believe me…
[00:39.33][_Instrumental break: WAIT until 01:35_]
[01:33.00] Prepare!
[01:34.00] Ready!
[01:35.09]There's a sign of love…
I was thinking there might be an easier way to do this—something that gives a clear visual indication of the duration of the instrumental break. For instance, a progress bar like in many karaoke videos, or the three dots in Apple Music that show pauses between verses. Maybe even with color, to make it even more visually helpful.
It should be easy to program, provided the lyrics are properly timecoded and the gap between the current and next timecode is long enough. To avoid too many countdowns in “regular” songs, there could be a “minimum pause duration” setting—like only showing the countdown if the pause is longer than 60 seconds.
What do you think?
Best,
Chema