Hey, all you people out there with lots of MIDI or e-roll files that
you play on your various MIDI instruments.  Are you missing the words
that might have previously appeared on the word roll?  I find that
reading the words of the not-so-serious music is half the fun.  Often
the words are amusing because of their antiquity, and they are
sometimes a bit politically incorrect.  It is also difficult to have a
sing-along around the old pianola if there are no lyrics to see.

Are you aware that Spencer Chase has available free on his website a
program that allows you to insert lyrics into a MIDI file simply by
tapping your space bar in time with the tune?  Here is a link to
Spencer's site:

    http://www.spencerserolls.com/Files4Download.html 

Just scroll down the page until you find the heading "KARAOKE LYRIC
ADDING PROGRAM."

Lyrics for tunes are readily available on the Internet.  I have never
yet been unable to find lyrics for any song.  A MIDI file with lyrics
added works brilliantly on VanBasco's MIDI/karaoke player (also
downloadable for free).

Hopefully, one day the VanBasco people may see fit to amend their
program to allow the user to choose between the conventional karaoke
display or a full-screen rolling-notes-and-lyrics display that looks
like a playing piano roll.  Nevertheless, it's pretty good as it is.

Spencer's program takes a bit of patience to get the hang of it and to
become accomplished at tapping at the right time.  You also need to
read Spencer's "Help" file before starting.

It is wise to spend a bit of time getting the lyrics file right before
you start.  You have to ensure that the verses and choruses of the
lyrics match the flow of the music in the MIDI file.  You then need to
focus on each syllable in the lyrics file and ensure that there is a
syllable to correspond with each of the melody notes in the MIDI file.
You do this simply by listening to the music (using, say, Microsoft
Media Player) and reading and amending, where necessary, the lyrics
file in Notepad.

The final step which I have found necessary is to do a trial run with
Spencer's program to check that each word in the lyrics file is broken
down into its syllables.  Some words I have found which don't get
broken down properly are "above", "away" and "overcome".  You should
force words such as these to split properly with hyphens, as follows:
"a-bove," "a-way," and "ov-er-come."

You're now ready to give it a go.

One caution is that if you make a mistake during the recording process,
you will have to go back to the beginning and start again, if you wish
to fix it.  Alternatively, I find it easy to live with small mistakes
in lyrics timing.  After all, many original rolls had mistakes in their
lyrics timing.  The words are still there.  It's only the progressive
karaoke colouration in VanBasco that might be a little off because of
your timing error.

Give it a go, and don't give up too easily.  The results are really
satisfying, once you master the process.  Spencer will be encouraged to
make improvements to his program, if he can see that people are using
it.

Geoff Ward
Australia