Lyrics for multiple verses fails in 3.0.1

[Tim Mariott]

I am trying to create some new songs from scratch in 3.0.1 and find I cannot easily add lyrics for more than three verses. I can start to enter the lyrics for verse 4 but after a few notes something very strange happens. Either the song starts to play from the beginning and/or the lyrics for the next note (the one that I am trying to Tab to) just disappear.

I have found a temporary workaround which is that I have to select each note in turn then navigate down the lyrics for that note and add the lyric for verse 4. For a song of any length this is very tedious!!

This has now happened on two different songs and I am attaching the second example.

I would be most grateful for an early advice on this as a lot of my work is multiple verses for simple songs for our church music group and if there is likely to be a long fix time then I will have to revert to the previous version of Composer.

Thanks
Tim

[Tim Mariott]

I need to make a decision very soon as to whether to back out Composer 3.0.1 as the problem I currently have with entering lyrics makes it unacceptable for my type of use. So I would be grateful for an early reply from you as to whether I can expect any action on this issue.
Thanks
Tim

[dj]

Hi, Tim:

I confirm the problem with 4th verse lyric entry.

It's not on every note on the 4th verse, either. In fact, you can go along just fine for a bar or two before the error occurs.

I find that, in most cases, adding a lyric to the next note, after the spot where the failure occurred will then allow you to go back and add the lyric in the problem spot. In MOST cases.

However, it seems to be possible to add lyrics using Paste Special/Paste Lyrics From Text On Clipboard with no problem. So, if you prepare the lyrics in a text editor, then copy and paste them into Composer, you should be able to work around the problem.

Once you get used to adding a hyphen and a space between syllables, I actually find it easier to add lyrics that way, if there is a considerable amount.

Hope that helps.

David

[Sherry C]

Hi Tim,

My apologies - I thought I had replied here previously, but I don't see my response.

I have written up this issue for fixing (it is not a problem in version 2.6.3) for a point release in version 3.

As David has mentioned, if you use a text editor or copy/paste from another text source, and that seems to work fine (using Edit/Paste Special/Paste lyrics from clipboard). You don't have to add the dashes and spaces for multiple syllables beforehand if you don't want to - you can go in and use Composer's cool tool that adds a hyphen, splits the lyric, and pushes it all forward to do that after pasting in the lyrics.

Again, sorry for the inconvenience, and it is slated for fixing.

ttfn,
Sherry

[Tim Mariott]

David and Sherry

Thanks for your replies. I am grateful for your advice on a workaround, though reluctant to change what I have got used to! I would have to research how to deal with the frequent issue of some verses having a different number of syllables, meaning that sometimes there is an implied tie or slur so the syllable has to be spread over two notes - oh and how do I deal with slurs occuring in all verses?

For my use of the software, it is one of the very few weaknesses of Composer that the lyrics are treated as one single object, regardless of the number of verses, rather than each verse being a separate object. I guess this may be because Composer is rightly focused on the musical notation and the lyrics aspect is of lesser importance to most users.

I will struggle on with the workaround for the moment and look forward to the bug fix.

Regards
Tim

[Sherry C]

Hi Tim,

Fwiw (for what it's worth), I frequently do fakesheets in Composer for hymns to use for singalongs.

My method:


Create the melody line - yours will differ if including all the voices, but can still be the first step. For most hymns I either have or can find a .mid file to start with, making it even easier.
Find the lyrics online :)
Select the first verse and copy it to the computer clipboard (Ctl + C).
In Composer, click the Staff Select button for the staff
Then use Edit/Paste Special/Paste lyrics from clipboard. This pastes in the text as lyrics
Go back to the online source, select the second verse, and copy it.
Step 5 again.
Repeat 6 and 7 for however many verses I have.
After pasting all the verses in, I then go in and use the "Shift lyrics" tools as needed to line up words with notes, or the "Add hyphen, move second syllable" button when needed.

I find the above method to be pretty quick. If you haven't yet watched it, you can view the Tutorial Video on Lyrics - copy/pasting from a text editor and multiple lyric entry (http://www.notation.com/vb-forum/showthread.php?t=3616). It walks you right through all the above and then some :)


ttfn,
Sherry

[Tim Mariott]

Thanks very much: I will work through this. Sadly I have posted another lyric related "feature" separately.

Tim