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[laerm]

Hello all --

So, now that the snows have come in I'm looking at winter projects and going crazy on my library seems like a good start (so don't be surprised if I have some in-depth questions soon ). First off, I am trying to figure out how to deal with lyrics. I have been using the MiniLyrics app/plugin for a while as I've found it to be the most reliable and simple solution to get lyrics into my ~70000 song library. The problem is that I haven't figured out how to get the lyrics it writes to the tags into the library reliably. Has anyone else played with this? I think MiniLyrics writes two tags depending on the lyrics: SYNCEDLYRICS or UNSYNCEDLYRICS. I added the UNSYNCEDLYRICS tag to MC and some lyrics are showing up after I update library from tags, but not all. I think I need to edit the stock lyrics field to point it to a different tag, but I'm not sure...any thoughts?

Sorry this question is a bit disjointed. I'm having a hard time getting my head around what I am doing wrong... I've added new library fields and imported custom tags before with no issues, so I don't think that's it, but who knows.

Thanks!
Micah

[rick.ca]

This post may help. I subsequently devised a way to automate the cutting & pasting of lyrics found by MiniLyrics into MC's lyrics field using AHK. It was a goofy and painful solution, so I'm not going to explain it. When I was done (with my puny library about a tenth the size of yours), I wasn't particularly happy with the results. MiniLyrics uses user-contributed sources. After a huge effort in cleaning them up (7,000 is still a lot!), many of them contain errors, aren't formatted properly, or are simply wrong. Now I find myself often going to LyricWiki to find replacements. It's lyrics are user-contributed too, but the quality seems to be fair. The thing that really draws me there, however, is that for most songs they also have an "official" version from Gracenote. Whether official or not, those ones are of a consistent high quality.

I'm not sure what options exist, but—considering the size of your library—I'd look for a commercial solution that would automatically tag files with an official version of the lyrics. Although the same question was asked in the past, it would be interesting to hear what solutions others are currently using.

[laerm]

Ah, yes Rick, I came across your post over the summer when I started using MiniLyrics as, like you, I was looking for a solution that would integrate with MC and download the lyrics when I played a track. Simple. However, we've run into the same issues... (FYI, I'm pretty sure the synced lyrics are in a sidecar file, which is why MP3Tag can't see the tag.) ...and there's no way in hell I'm going to cut and paste all those lyrics (even if half or so of my library is instrumental). I was looking to edit the default Lyrics field so that way I could make it into a computed field that would just pull the lyrics from the unsyncedlyrics tag MiniLyrics creates.

If there is a commercial solution, I don't know: I didn't look for any type of standalone app because what complicates things a bit for me is that I run my server headless. There's just a box in behind my stereo/TV cabinet that has the PC, and I control it all remotely via library server. Now, don't get me wrong, library server is awesome, but it doesn't allow me to directly edit files, so I can't try easily an external app to add lyrics.

If it's not possible, then it's not possible, and I'm ok with that. I don't need to see the lyrics really -- I just thought they'd be cool to add so I can see them on my iPhone.

I'll post back if I have any bright ideas...thanks.
Micah

[NRGman]

I've looked into this to, the way i do it is download foobar2k and Lyrics Grabber 2 0.5.5.2 beta plugin.

once you set them up, add the directory to your music and highlight your audio files in foobat2k, then left click and then lyrics grabber -> search all or say just lyricwiki.

after it queried/downloaded lyrics you have the option to save tag changes, then you update MC library from tags.

then create a smart playlist that contains songs that have no lyrics in the field, those ones you have to google and add yourself.

when your done adding lyrics to your library remove all tracks from the foobar2k library and only add new tracks that need lyrics. 

[laerm]

Oh, see, that's a better idea. Thanks! I will grab that. Don't know why I didn't think of foobar. I am using it right now (literally as I type this) and the Discogs tagger plugin to add label and release date information. I'll just add it as another step to the workflow.

Micah

[rick.ca]

I've looked into this to, the way i do it is download foobar2k and Lyrics Grabber 2 0.5.5.2 beta plugin.

Thanks! That's much better.

Do you find LyricWiki is the best of the available sources?

I'm having to be careful not to overwrite my existing lyrics where they may be better—especially when the WikiLyrics version is a teaser followed by the "Sorry, due to licensing restrictions..." So it looks like my work flow will be...

• Select an artist or album with questionable lyrics.
• Copy the lyrics to a backup field.
• SendTo foobar2000 and run the plugin.
• Use the preview to delete obviously bad lyrics, then write the rest to tags.
• Update Library (from tags).
• Review the lyrics, replacing any "accidents" with backup.
• Replace backup with date of update.

[NRGman]

in the foobar2k cp under lyrics grabber you can set it to only look for lyrics if the field is empty

[rick.ca]

you can set it to only look for lyrics if the field is empty

I realize I could delete existing lyrics and then run it with that setting. But until I get the lyrics, I have no way of telling whether they're better than what I've already got—or even exist. On the other hand, if the quality is consistent and generally better than what I've got, I don't want to mess around. It's much faster just to replace all the lyrics for the entire album or artist. Having the backup allow me to do that with confidence.