Joe, thanks for the above. Just a couple of points though which I can't let pass without comment.

There are several 'standards' for integrating lyrics and music. I'll just spend a minute going through them if I may:

ABC - The ABC standard exists but there is currently some lack of agreement among the software developers as to its implementation. In some discussions over the last week most have recognised that this an area of priority for them.

NIFF - The standard is very comprehensive and the broad concepts are good, but it has yet to attract any commercial support. It would take adoption by Cakewalk or its ilk to ensure that it ever goes anywhere.

MIDI - The MIDI standard to integrate lyrics has existed for quite some time, but developers have been slow to implement it. It's in the display and print routines of Melody Assistant, newer versions of Cakewalk, PowerTracks Pro, Anvil Studio, Nstation and a number of newer Media Players will display the lyrics Karaoke style using a standard lyric enriched MIDI file as input. For Mudcatters the freeware version of Midi Notate will very capably play and print the music with associated lyrics under each note.

I don't believe that the pick-up bars have much to with the MIDI standard per se. This question arose at the time when we were using Alan's program to submit tunes to the forum. By necessity Alan had to create his own standard for displaying the contents of MIDI files in text format and to be able to convert them back again. The conversion from cow to sausage mince worked just fine, but on occasions the reverse process did not always re-constitute the original cow. I'm sure that Alan could have cloned the cow perfectly if he had seen this as a dire need.

There IS a music plus lyrics standard, and the tools are now becoming freely available for us to turn the corner on this subject. End of rave. Regards, John