Not at all intuitive. On the Views Toolbar, select Chord Display drop down menu. At the top is the Layers option, select Bar Lyrics. Then you can type them in. It's a pain. I copy from lyric sites and paste in which saves a lot of time (Ctrl V). Then I use the Enter key and Backspace key to move the lyrics around to fit the chords. You can move with the cursor keys. You may also have to go into Options, Screen (1st button) and sort out the fonts for lyrics and chords on the middle right of the menu. Again, not immediately obvious. When I get a chance I'll update this with the exact commands, maybe a video, but at least it might get you sorted in the interim. It is great live or when streaming as you can seem to be looking right into the camera and no need for a music stand/music book.
Edit: 23/3/2017 Sorry I got that completely wrong from memory. Now it's correct.
Last edited by lambada; 03/23/1702:15 AM.
Windows 10 Home 20H2 Build 19042.487 BIAB 2021 (Build 818) Intel(R) Core(TM), i3-4160, CPU @3.60 GHz RAM 16 GB, 64 Bit X64-based processor Zoom UAC-2 (USB 3 interface-built in midi) VoiceLive 3 Extreme, Sputnik Valve Condenser Mic
If I recall correctly, in BIAB 2016, line-based lyrics were replaced with bar-based lyrics. This might mean that the video clip you've been watching is not applicable to BIAB 2016.
Thanks, Tom, for validating me! Though I was eventually able to work that out as the experts described, it was extremely frustrating since the videos were not clear and the manual didn't seem to cover it for 2016.
(In the 2017 version, BIAB included several ways to get bar-based lyrics inserted.)
Andy
BIAB 2017 Ultra Windows 8 and 10 Scarlet 18i8 Reaper and Mixpad
Hello. I am a BIAB newbie. I am creating my first song and everything went smoothly until I started inserting (or trying to insert) lyrics.
I was able to insert lyrics by the same method as Iambada but, to me, it was very slow going to do it that way.
I have watched a couple vids and they were of little help.
When I did get my lyrics in using the method above they were skewed when I printed out the sheet music and did not stay anchored with the beats as I had typed them in.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
BTW- my music is very simple- drums, bass,two or three guitars and piano. As far as the music goes, I am using only chords at this time in my music. I am hashing out my initial ideas and I will add notes later as the song moves beyond concept. BIAB appears to be a great tool. I just need to get beyond this bump in the road.
I have been using BIAB for a long time, and all of my music has lyrics. I now only use note based lyrics as they are the most predictable as they stay connected to the note, not the bar or line. Originally, BIAB had only line based lyrics. They worked, but it was a real chore to make the line up with notes, and if you added a bar, everything got out of wack.. Then PGMusic came up with note based lyrics. This solved most of the problems with alignment, but it does have some quirks, such as deleting a note does not delete the lyric. That's because the lyrics are really "event" based. What you are actually doing is putting two events, the note and the lyric at the same point on the time line. You can edit them independently with the event editor. The up-side is that you can tweak the position to get them to better line up, especially at the end of a bar.
It also means if you add or delete notes or bars, the time line is automatically updated and the remaining notes and events (lyrics) keep their place. You can't copy and paste them as you can with line based or bar based lyrics, but they are easily managed. Copy and pasting bars has the option to copy any associated lyrics.
Bar based lyrics, to me, looks like a version of the line based function that limits the exposure of modification to one bar rather than a whole line, but it still has the problem of getting the lyrics to align with the note.
BIAB for Windows Version 2019 (643) Windows 10 (1909)
Thanks Pipeline and Dave. I plan to try and do my lyrics a bit differently now that I have gotten your insight. I guess I am a bit impatient as well since i have only been using BIAB for a couple weeks. I guess I was hoping I could just "sketch" in the lyrics so to speak without a whole lot of initial effort but it turned into a major task. I felt I must be doing something wrong or, at the least, not the most efficient way. Thanks again for responding and the tips.
Don't think that you have to put in every syllable in note based lyrics. You might just put in the key ones, such as end or start of line. Fill in more as you go, knowing that the onees already there will stay with the notes.
BIAB for Windows Version 2019 (643) Windows 10 (1909)
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