Tom Hutchinson, in MMD 120221, extols the virtues of including
lyrics in the MIDI files created by scanning piano rolls.  I agree
wholeheartedly.  The thousands of old songs that were originally
popularised on piano rolls (because there was nothing else, other
than live performance) come alive when you can see them playing in
MIDI format with the original words appearing in time with the music.
And, having the words appear in a large screen format on a computer
screen (such as in VanBasco's Karaoke Player) is a significant
improvement on the (often faded) lyrics passing over the tracker bar,
often out of time.

Sure, it might not have the romantic appeal of a computerised graphical
representation of the words as they were embodied in the scanned roll,
but just ask the sing-a-long group crowding around a pianola, trying to
read the words as they scroll down (not across), which display they
would prefer.  With VanBasco, 20-30 people can join in, just by
displaying on a laptop computer.

The whole purpose of this post is to again commend the software
developed by Spencer Chase for adding lyrics to MIDI files.  Spencer
has significantly reworked the program and it is now amazingly easy
(with a bit of understanding of the process involved) to add lyrics
to any MIDI file, not just MIDI files created from piano rolls.  The
program is available for free to anyone by contacting Spencer, see
his email address on his web site at http://www.spencerserolls.com/ 

I have been using the program for the past few months and would be
pleased to advise anyone on how to use it -- just email me.  So far I
have about 100 scanned roll MIDI files to which lyrics have been added
(mostly by me but some in my collection were done by Richard Stibbons).

100 rolls is a far cry from the 6,000 odd roll scans now done by Terry
Smythe, but I'm still going.  If anyone would like a zip file of my
files with lyrics, just email me and I will send you a copy.  I will
eventually have them available on a web site somewhere or other, but
they're not there yet.

Finally, let me say that if anyone hankers to contribute to the
preservation of this important aspect of piano word rolls (i.e., the
words), please have a look at Spencer's program.  It is fun to use.
For more information and background, see my earlier posting on this
subject at

  http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/201110/2011.10.23.04.html 

Kind regards,
Geoff Ward