Guide
Making a synced LRC lyrics file: press Enter as each line starts
When a music player shows lyrics that light up line by line, it is reading an LRC file: a small text file that pairs each line of a song with the moment it starts. Making one needs no special software. Play the song, tap a key at the start of each line, and the page records the times. This tool does that, lets you fix mistakes line by line and writes the file for you.
The format
An LRC file is plain text. Optional tags at the top give the title [ti:], artist [ar:], album [al:] and the author of the LRC [by:]. Each lyric line then starts with a time in square brackets, minutes, seconds and hundredths: [01:23.45]. A player finds the last time that has passed and shows that line. Hundredths of a second are what the format specifies, so the page writes two decimal digits.
A worked example
Press Sample to load four lines of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” with times already set. The output begins with the tags [ti:Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star] and [ar:Traditional], followed by [00:01.00] for the first line, [00:04.20] for the second, [00:07.60] for the third and [00:10.90] for the fourth. The label above the output reads 4 of 4 lines stamped. Typing a new time in the table, for example 00:04.50, changes that line only.
Stamping the lines
Paste or type the lyrics, one line per row. Drop the song in the player if you have it; it stays on your device. Press play, and press Enter, or the Stamp button, at the moment each line begins. Each press stamps the current line and moves to the next. If you do not have the audio, Start the timer runs a stopwatch you can use while playing the music elsewhere. Back one line moves up a line, in case you pressed too early.
Fixing times
The table lists every line with an editable time. Type mm:ss.xx to set it. Set to now gives a line the current position of the player, and Play from here starts the song two seconds before that line, which is a quick way to check. Blank lines are ignored. A line with no time is left out of the file, with a note on the page saying so.
Shifting everything
If every line is a little late or early, use Shift every time. It accepts minus and plus values up to 60 seconds in steps of 100 ms, applies to the whole file and does not change the stored stamps, so you can undo it. Reaction time means most files stamped by ear need an adjustment of a few tenths of a second.
Importing and editing
Paste an existing LRC file into the box and press the import button. The page reads the tags and the times and loads the lyrics, so you can correct them. The download is named after the title with the extension .lrc, in UTF-8 text.
Edge cases
Lyrics in any language work, since the file is text. Players differ in which tags they display. Word-by-word timing, as in karaoke formats, is not supported.
Limits
It does not recognise speech or find timing for you. The sync is as good as your tapping and a little editing. The lyrics, audio and times stay on your device.
Related tools
- SRT to VTT Converter converts video subtitles between formats.
- Audio Converter changes the audio file into a format your player accepts.
- Tap Tempo practises tapping in time with music.
- Guitar Tab Maker writes out the guitar part for the same song.
Checked against the current version of the LRC Lyrics Maker on .