Tools and How-To's

[Renard]

Tools

Syncing music with lyrics and pitch requires the use of some tools to generate the karaoke files. Here's a list of what can be used, for a start:
http://wiki.performous.org/index.php/Creation_tools




You may want to check out Composer, made by the Performous team:
http://performous.org/composer

Then, there's also SongEasy: http://people.umass.edu/jvight/SongEasy/

A quick start guide is available in this topic : How to use Composer

(This post will be expanded with a more in-depth how-to)

[Renard]

How to sync songs

This is a quick, small, and messy how-to as a general guideline.

Basic steps:
- Pick a song (get its source MP3 file from the Ressources topic)
- Post in its dedicated topic that you're working on it (or create the dedicated post)
- Find its lyrics (clean them up as necessary, ie. punctuation should be removed)
- Find the song's BPM
- Open both in your Karaoke editor of choice
- Start with the rhythm first, syllable by syllable
- Adjust the pitch when you feel the rhythm is right
- Share your work on the dedicated topic.

Task can of course be divided, since syncing the lyrics and adjusting the pitch requires different skills. Every bit helps!

Also feel free to try songs already made by other users, and post any helpful criticism you may have.

[Renard]

Notice about file priorities
- The first thing you need is a MP3 of the song you wish to cover, no matter its audio quality. The base file will be used for the timing - as long as the BPM hasn't been tampered with, it's fine. You don't have to focus on finding a fine MP3 at first.
- Next is the most important file: the synced lyrics (.txt). Ton of work to do here!
- In QA, once the TXT is completed, these things are verified / added / corrected as needed:
-- MP3 (compromise between audio quality and tech specs [CBR, ReplayGain])
-- Adjusting the TXT gap according to the finalized MP3 file
-- Adding a cover and a background artwork related to the song
-- Adding a video when possible

Basically, you shouldn't worry too much about the assets' quality when working on a song. This comes in QA, once the TXT is completed. The TXT is, obviously, the most important file of all - it drives everything.
Using low quality assets on uncompleted files has a nice side effect too - if released publicly, their quality (or lack thereof) will clearly indicate that it's not a final version and encourage people to update.

[Renard]

Simple pitch detection tool: if you have a microphone, you can try QPitch → http://wspinell.altervista.org/qpitch/
This tool allows you to sing over a song and analyze the pitch you're using.