If a song has embedded lyrics...

[ChiggyChiggy]

Assuming a song has lyrics to it, like say a Lyrics3 or a Lyric tag in the id3v2 tag, then how does someone even view them? Aside from opening the tag editor of Winamp to see them that is.

Ive thought about adding lyrics to my music but it doesnt seem to have much benefit if ill never be able to view them easily really..

[ujay]

Hi Chiggy,

You'll need a plug-in to do this. Native support for Lyric3 is very limited in Winamp, in fact it doesn't really support Lyric3 at all, just looks for an extended info field.

If you have any existing Lyric3 files then be careful not to tell Winamp to delete ID3v1 tags. Strictly speaking Lyric3 is an extension of the ID3v1 tag and other programs will find it necessary for correct parsing.

There were a couple of plug-ins that handled Lyric3 very well, one for reading and one for writing, but they broke when Winamp went multi user. Last time I had a look they were still usable if you were prepared to play with the 'paths.ini' file, but I found this caused more trouble than it was worth.

It's a very easy issue for the plug-in author to fix, but never been able to contact him.

I liked Lyric3 - as well as lyrics you could embed atrwork and even set up little slide shows. Shame it's gone.

Don't know if there is a currently working plug-in, someone else may have some ideas.

UJ

[ChiggyChiggy]

I was hoping that somehow thered be a way to have cPro display them in one of its configurable tabs >.< I think i know what plugin you mean, they opened in a separate window that was skinned to look like Winamp Classic right ?


Theres just something so ironic about the tagging format that had a limit on how many characters were in a tag (id3v1) allows you to have lyrics, since lyrics tend to be very long lol.

[ChiggyChiggy]

WAIT A MINUTE, apparently you can with cPro!! You just need this plugin http://www.lyricsplugin.com/

Wish it could retrieve them from some online source, but oh well,

Edit: It works rather annoyingly and relies on internet explorer a bit too much for almost everything, does anyone know a plugin sorta kinda like this one?

[MrSinatra]

I don't like embedding lyrics tags myself, I just use the online services in the nav tree to do metrolyrics or songfreaks or similar.

[ChiggyChiggy]

Originally Posted by MrSinatra

I don't like embedding lyrics tags myself, I just use the online services in the nav tree to do metrolyrics or songfreaks or similar.

I like online lyrics too, altho in some cases for some rare songs there might be only one or two not so famous sites that have the lyrics, and you know what happens when you depend on a site that one day just might go kaput...


Or maybe thats just my dislike for cloud stuff talking again...

[DVDdoug]

I'm using the MiniLyrics plug-in ($20 USD for the full lifetime license). It works with embedded lyrics or LRC files. And, it works with most media/audio players, not just Winamp.

For me, the one thing that made it worth paying for was the online database of synchronized lyrics. . I'd say that the database had lyrics for about half my music collection. I have more than 13,000 songs, and I'd NEVER finish if I tried to create synchronized lyrics manually.

The 1st time you play a song, it goes online and looks for the lyrics. From there it can be configured to automatically embed the lyrics and/or download them into an LRC file.

It also has a lyric editor, so you can create your own lyrics, or correct the lyrics or time-stamps. Then if you wish, you can upload the lyrics to their database to share.

[ChiggyChiggy]

I like this.... ill check it out when i can, hopeflly they have a trial to try it out lol. And if possible to integrate well with cPro skins <.<

[Aminifu]

The unregistered version of MiniLyrics works fairly well. On occasion you get lyrics without time-stamps and some that are not well synchronized with the song. As DVDdoug mentioned, it will not find lyrics for every song.

The lyrics are shown in a separate window (not integrated with any of the Winamp skins). The window can be re-sized, repositioned, set to stay on top, and be transparent; so that all you see are the lyrics scrolling by. You can also select the text font you want to use.

[ChiggyChiggy]

Not bad, its actually pretty good and found lyrics for stuff i didnt expect to be found lol.

What service does it use to find lyrics?

Only complaint i can think about is how it sometimes merges with cPro and the tab it creates there just vanishes once you leave the lyric window, but i guess its from cPro using weird hacks to get extra tabs in Winamp that dont work too well all the time.

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by ChiggyChiggy

Only complaint i can think about is how it sometimes merges with cPro and the tab it creates there just vanishes once you leave the lyric window, but i guess its from cPro using weird hacks to get extra tabs in Winamp that dont work too well all the time.

That's curious. I'm using the cPro 2.02 beta 2 engine and the cPro 1 skin in my signature. I never see a tab, only the separate window. What are you using?

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by ChiggyChiggy

What service does it use to find lyrics?

It uses an online database maintained by it's developer, Crintsoft. Registered users (free accounts) are allowed to upload stuff created with the built-in lyrics editor (see link below).

http://www.crintsoft.com/mlfaq-editlrc.htm

[ChiggyChiggy]

Well, if you choose in Minilyric's settings to use "Winamp 5's skin" Itll create a tab thats nicely integrated into the main window, but once you leave that tab its closed D:

[Aminifu]

I can't get it to work (integrate a tab) that way. Right click on the tab heading, maybe the auto close option is selected.

[ChiggyChiggy]

If you do this http://i.gyazo.com/4b1005ee4cc2f4e0b4785c0478902fd4.png then right click on winamp's tab sections (not over a tab that is, just the place around the tabs) you should have an option called "Minilyrics" clicking it brings up that tab

Context menu options not possible with this tab strangely http://i.gyazo.com/3d992536103ce259ce6b829e6717aa79.png

Looking here http://forums.skinconsortium.com/ind...&threadID=1033 it doesn't seem all that unique a bug to me exclusively..

[Aminifu]

Ok, thanks. I can get it to integrate that way. But the integrated panel does have problems. That thread you linked to is very old (maybe Victhor or pjn123 has updated info on this). Anyway since we can't disable the auto close option, that explains why the tab goes away when switching to another one.

In the meantime, using the separate, transparent, MiniLyrics window (a skin option listed below the one in your screenshot) works fine for me. If you select not to have MiniLyrics automatically start with Winamp, then there is a command in the main context menu that lets you open and close this separate window whenever you want without affecting the rest of the skin's UI.

[Aminifu]

Something I just noticed that I think is due to installing "MiniLyrics". The context menu command for accessing a skin's color themes is missing. These color themes can still be accessed thru the General Preferences - Skins options and other ways some skins have.

Have other MiniLyrics users noticed this? Maybe I've managed to screw up my configuration in this area.

[DrO]

Originally Posted by Aminifu

Something I just noticed that I think is due to installing "MiniLyrics". The context menu command for accessing a skin's color themes is missing. These color themes can still be accessed thru the General Preferences - Skins options and other ways some skins have.

Have other MiniLyrics users noticed this? Maybe I've managed to screw up my configuration in this area.

the plug-in can make the issue worse of the menu disappearing, but it's something that has been potentially broken for a number of releases (is just more noticeable with 5.66x). i've internally fixed things a few months back, but other what what you've mentioned, there's no other workaround (as i was able to see it happen without any 3rd party plug-ins at the time i made the fix).

[ChiggyChiggy]

Y.... youre right, the colour themes section is totally gone from the Winamp menu o.O


*sigh* Another third party plugin that has issues...

[Aminifu]

Thanx for the confirmation, ChiggyChiggy.

Any comments on post #6 of the thread linked below.

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=378347

[ChiggyChiggy]

Wait, so its a Winamp issue, and not an issue from Minilyrics you mean? o:

[DrO]

yes it's a long standing Winamp issue (along with some other menu placement handling that i also fixed) but with some plug-ins installed (like Minilyrics) make it more obvious (amongst plug-in load orders and a few other things). ether way, i've fixed the Winamp code issue internally, if it's still broken with the fixed code and a Minilyrics install, then i'd place the blame on Minilyrics (but i'm hoping the code changes made will mean it'll work fine irrespective of the plug-ins installed).

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by DrO

... if it's still broken with the fixed code and a Minilyrics install, then i'd place the blame on Minilyrics (but i'm hoping the code changes made will mean it'll work fine irrespective of the plug-ins installed).

Yes, hopefully the fixed code will deal with the issue and some other strangeness I've seen with the MiniLyrics context menu entry (multiple ghost entries).

It will be awhile before we find out, unless you can find time to check out this plug-in with the fixed code, since we have 6 to 8 months before we can test it (considering the last suggested release eta). Good thing it's not a fatal error. OTOH, it's probably not a good idea for you to start checking things with 3rd party plug-ins at this stage of the code cleanup.

[DrO]

MiniLyrics was always a quirky plug-in at best i found when i used to do that plug-in reviews for it. though it's not something i'm going to bother trying to test against, as that's the point of beta testers (when that's up and running again).