Is there any software for working with lyrics? VST / Standalone

[Functional]

I know this might have a better subforum elsewhere, but please just bear with me.

So I've been writing recently quite a lot of lyrics and I keep having the issue that I can hardly put them in a sensible way inside my DAW (in this case, Cubase). I can make a marker track inside Cubase and add snippets here and there, but it's impossible to see any of the writing unless you're extremely zoomed in.

So I figured, isn't there a plugin that allows you to input lyrics and that would display them in some helpful way? I think scoring software often offers this kind of utility, but sadly I'm shite at scoring

The reason I want to work with lyrics inside DAW is because it's much easier for me to write that way for rhythms and I'll also remember exactly how I wanted everything when I open the project up again later. Once I get the lyrics done, I can write the melody for the singer etc. But before that, I need to work like this

[an-electric-heart]

Makes sense. I can't think of anything besides FL's notepad.

[lfm]

Old Sonar 8.x and earlier had pretty good in that stems wrapped into rows and you could sync to melody - do hyphenation to suggest frasing.
You could even do more than one verse.
More recent Sonar destroyed this - making it one row.

Did you look at notation software overall - most daws exchange Music Xml these days.

If you have it all like a document - isn't that what you want to get good overview?

[Googly Smythe]

A clumsy workaround would be to use Cubase's score editor.
Create a midi track, open it in the score editor, add plain text (your lyrics) where required, size the editor appropriately, open/close it when you need it.
You could add a window configuration to call it up.
And you won't need to know anything about scoring to do this.

[Functional]

A clumsy workaround would be to use Cubase's score editor.
Create a midi track, open it in the score editor, add plain text (your lyrics) where required, size the editor appropriately, open/close it when you need it.
You could add a window configuration to call it up.
And you won't need to know anything about scoring to do this.

Sadly, this doesn't work nearly as well as markers do because with markers you can define a region of time. This way you can get the rhythm unambiguously down. And on the other hand, I don't think it's really too helpful for a visual representation either because it's still just small text on a staff.

I guess it's hard to develop an useful plugin for this purpose, but honestly wish someone would try and make one. I'm thinking I can't be the only one troubled by this?

[Distorted Horizon]

Reaper

[Functional]

Reaper

Great DAW and all, but I'll need to run simultaneously Cubase as I might change some parts to fit better with lyrics. AFAIK daws don't like each other unless you rewire

[EnGee]

Take a look at PG Band-in-a-Box software https://www.pgmusic.com/ (no plugin though). Below is an example of entering lyrics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joU7xrWDXbQ

[lfm]

Reaper

Sadly notation is not something you get Reaper for - pretty much a joke when I tested v5.x this summer. Even worse than current Sonar.

Free notation like Musescore is better.

Cubase is considered really good in that area, but seemingly not all to satisfaction to write lyrics then for OP.

[Functional]

Reaper

Sadly notation is not something you get Reaper for - pretty much a joke when I tested v5.x this summer. Even worse than current Sonar.

Free notation like Musescore is better.

Cubase is considered really good in that area, but seemingly not all to satisfaction to write lyrics then for OP.

I'm 100% sure Cubase is perfect... but as I specified in the original post: "So I figured, isn't there a plugin that allows you to input lyrics and that would display them in some helpful way? I think scoring software often offers this kind of utility, but sadly I'm shite at scoring"

[jancivil]

I wonder how people got on before software at all.

[Functional]

I wonder how people got on before software at all.

Or before parchment. In fact, maybe we should return to those times?

[thecontrolcentre]

https://www.codefn42.com/vstnotepad/index.html

[Functional]

https://www.codefn42.com/vstnotepad/index.html

I was suggested this earlier on in a PM, but it's pretty much the equivalent to just running wordpad on the background (and I got screen estate for that). I'm thinking something more akin that helps you to visualize lyrics on a grid or something. It's not hard to write things down as you go about it, but due to my memory issues, it's much harder to remember exactly how you intended things when you open up the session much later. I thought it was just me, but then I noticed that some of the singers also have similar issue if they write & match the lyrics and hence they sing it and record it. Then they come to the session and listen to what they recorded themselves to refresh their memory. Until the take is down and things get much easier and they can come up further with ideas.

Usually in choruses I don't have this kind of issue as the melody just comes naturally. But anywhere else, this often isn't the case. And I really don't even want to be writing lyrics or anything, but this role seems to always fall on me anyway

And it also absolutely doesn't have to be a plugin. I think standalone software would be actually easier to work with overall since a proper plugin probably would require deeper integration with the DAW rather than the VST format.