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Song Editor

UltraStar Play includes an editor that can be used to create a sing-along version of any song.

The following shows how to use the editor.

Table of Content

Create Song From Local Audio File

  • Use the "Create New Song" dialog in the main menu to create a song from a local audio file.
    • This will create a new UltraStar txt file next to the audio file and run the AI tools (vocals isolation, speech recognition, pitch detection) for a quick start.

View Shortcuts and Controls

  • The help dialog shows all available shortcuts and controls

Split Audio to Isolate Vocals

  • Click the button in the left side bar to split vocals audio and instrumental audio
  • Afterwards, speech recognition and pitch detection can be performed on the vocals audio

Change Playback Audio

  • You can select which audio should be played: the original music, vocals, insturmental, or your microphone recording

Dictate Lyrics

  • Configure a microphone and click the recording button
  • Speak clearly in the microphone to dictate lyrics
  • TIP: More speech recognition models are available for download here. As a rule of thumb, larger models are more accurate but need more time.
  • TIP: Your recorded audio is shown in red in the overview bar at the bottom
  • NOTE: The speech recognition models have not been trained on singing data. Thus, you may achieve better results by dictating lyrics and speaking clearly, without singing.

Speech Recognition in Selection

  • As alternative to dictating lyrics, you can run the speech recognition on the vocals audio
  • Select a range or hit Ctrl+A to select all
  • Click the button in the settings to do speech recognition on the last selected range
  • NOTE: The speech recognition models have not been trained on singing data. Thus, you may achieve better results by dictating lyrics and speaking clearly, without singing.

Import LRC Lyrics

Edit Lyrics

  • Double click a note or phrase to open its lyrics dialog
  • Or use the right click context menu to open the lyrics dialog
  • Switch to edit mode in the lyrics area to edit the lyrics of the whole song
    • NOTE: Only notes that have been assigned to a player (P1 or P2) are shown in the lyrics area
  • TIP: You can split a note with space and semicolon when editing a note's lyrics

Special characters

  • A semicolon can be used to separate syllables.
  • A space is shown as circle and can be used to separate words.
  • A line break is shown as arrow-left and can be used to separate phrases.
  • A backslash can be used to escape semicolon, space and backslash characters to add them literally to the lyrics. A line break cannot exist literally in lyrics and thus cannot be escaped.

Pitch Detection

  • Click the button in the left side bar to analyze the pitch of the vocals audio.
  • Move notes to the detected pitch using the right click context menu on a note or phrase.

Select Cover, Background, Video

  • Click the preview of the cover, background, or video to change it

Draw to Add Notes

  • Select an empty range to deselect all notes
  • Hold Shift while dragging to draw new notes
  • TIP: The target layer for new notes can be changed in the settings

Button Tapping to Add Notes

  • Start playback then press the corresponding button to add notes
  • TIP: Reduce the playback speed for better accuracy
  • TIP: The used button and pitch can be changed in the settings

Button Tapping with Lyrics

  • Configure lyrics that should be used during button tapping.
  • TIP: Change the caret position in the text field to start at a different word in the lyrics.

Assign Notes to Player

  • Assign selected notes to a player using the right click context menu
  • NOTE: Only notes that have been assigned to a player are saved to the file!

Adjust Following Notes

  • Enable this option to move following notes accordingly

Note Layers

  • You can hide / show the notes of a layer in the layer menu
  • You can lock / unlock the notes of a layer in the layer menu. The notes of a locked layer can not be edited.
  • You can select all the notes of a layer in the layer menu

Play MIDI Sounds

  • Hold Ctrl while you click on a note to preview its pitch
  • Use the virtual piano to hear a MIDI sound of that pitch
  • MIDI sounds during playback can be enabled / disabled in the settings
  • TIP: MIDI sound during playback can be enabled / disabled per layer in the layer menu
  • TIP: Configure a (negative) delay for MIDIs sound during playback in the settings to synchronize playback and MIDI sounds

Import MIDI / KAR File

  • You can import lyrics and notes from a MIDI file (aka. KAR file if the MIDI file contains lyrics)

Fix Warnings and Errors

  • Click on a warning / error to view its message
  • Click on a warning / error in the menu to jump to its position

Change GAP (aka. Time to First Lyrics)

  • Change the GAP (i.e. the time to first lyrics) using the right click context menu

Change Medley Start and End

  • Change the start and end of the song when used in a medley or as short song

Change Video Offset

  • Change the video offset by dragging left / right on the video preview
  • Reset the video offset using the right click context menu on the video preview
  • Go to previous positions via Alt+Left Arrow
  • Go to next positions via Alt+Right Arrow