Guide - Create video

Video song archive

Open Video song archive from the Songs menu in the bar at the top of this form (or by right-clicking). Scanning finds name.mp3 and name.srt in the same folder. Double-click to fill both Create video fields, then choose a background.

Each rescan replaces the entire selected archive list; cancelling preserves the previous list. A completed scan with no matches clears it. Files are never deleted.

The ? menu contains Help (this guide) and About CreaVideoLyrics. To open the folder of the MP3 and MP4, the Open MP3 / MP4 folder button in the files section remains.

What this form is for

This is the last step of the chain: it combines the audio, a fixed background image and the synchronized subtitles into a single MP4 video file, with the text appearing and disappearing on screen exactly at the times set in the Sync lyrics form.

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Audio, subtitles and image

Drag and drop: you can drag files straight onto the form (even all at once): the audio, the .srt and the image each go into their own field.

The background picker reopens the folder of your last valid image selection, including after restarting. If that folder no longer exists, it falls back to your home folder.

The three fields must be filled in order, because each one only unlocks after the previous one:

Audio file (mp3): the final track, usually the one generated by the MIDI → MP3 conversion form.
Subtitle file (srt): only enabled after choosing the audio. If an .srt file with the same name as the mp3 exists in the same folder (the one exported from Sync lyrics) it is proposed automatically.
Background image: only enabled after choosing a valid subtitle file. This is the static image that will stay visible for the whole duration of the video, with the text overlaid on top.

Why this forced order: it avoids starting a generation with inconsistent file combinations (e.g. subtitles from a different song). If you exported the SRT with the same name as the mp3 as recommended in the sync guide, in practice you only need to choose the image.

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Opening title: the two boxes Line 1 and Line 2 create a title shown starting from 0: the two lines follow one another, each for the same duration (half of the time up to the first lyric line; all of it if you fill in only one). For instance Title - Artist and then Backing track by.... If you leave them empty, Create Video uses the title and artist read from the MIDI (line 1 title, line 2 artist), when Create Audio File and SRT for Video found them. If the lyrics start right away (under 2 seconds) no title is added.

Open MP3 / MP4 folder: the button at the top right of the files section opens the folder that contains the MP3 (the MP4 video is saved next to the MP3, with the same name).

Choosing the font

The button opens the system window to choose the text font (typeface, bold style, size) that will be overlaid on the video. If you don't choose anything, a default font is used (depends on the operating system) at a standard readable size.

The confirmed font, size and style are remembered after restarting the application. They are stored in [CreazioneVideo] in the system’s main INI file: Music/CreaVideoLyrics/creavideolyrics_osx.ini on macOS, with win/lin suffixes on other systems.

Default font: Impact on Windows, Helvetica on macOS, FreeSans on Linux, size 32.
Size: the value chosen in the dialog is multiplied by 2.5 in the video (32 becomes about 80 pixels), because otherwise the text would end up tiny. Recommended range is 24 to 40: below about 20 the text is hard to read, above about 48 long lines risk running off the edges of the video.
Bold: recommended when the background image is light or full of detail.

Why choose it: a heavier/more readable font (e.g. bold) helps reading on small screens or with "busy" background images. If the song will be projected on a big screen, the default is usually already fine.

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Lyrics style

The Lyrics style menu, below the font choice, decides how the text appears in the video:

Line by line: a single yellow line at a time.
4 lines, highlighted word by word (default): four lines at a time, in fixed positions. The first, larger one is the line being sung and fills with colour word by word; the next three, smaller and grey, show the upcoming phrases. When the first one ends the block moves up by one line, in a single step, like in the OLW player.

Word-by-word highlighting uses the timing in the .parole file with the same name as the SRT, which Create Audio File and SRT for Video writes when the MIDI contains lyrics. If the file is missing (for example with an SRT made by hand in Sync lyrics) or does not match the SRT, the video uses Line by line; this is written in the log file next to the MP3 (name_creavideo_log.txt).

Matching accepts SRT phrases joining consecutive .parole rows and differences in spacing, case and punctuation, while preserving original timings. The final “Outro - Fine” caption stays separate from sung lines.

The text is drawn with FFmpeg’s ass filter; if your copy of FFmpeg does not include it, the previous method is used, line by line. The chosen font, style and size apply in both modes.

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Create Video

It only becomes active once all three files (audio, subtitles, image) are valid. It generates the MP4 video in the same folder as the audio, with the same name as the mp3 file (only the extension differs). The progress bar and the estimated time remaining show the processing status.

Why check the three files carefully before starting: processing a video can take a few minutes per song; checking in advance that the subtitles and image are the right ones avoids having to redo the whole generation.

Note: if the SRT file has no valid lines (no line with a start/end time), video creation stops with an error: go back to the Sync lyrics form and finish the synchronization before trying again.

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M-Live lyrics: in addition to standard lyric and karaoke events, the reader recognizes M-Live SysEx text lines with dedicated syllable progress controllers. A valid original clock produces SRT, .parole and intro files without interpolated word timing. Once both MP3 and SRT exist, the export offers to open Create video. Missing usable lyrics or a write failure is explained in the completion message. Corrected MIDI export preserves the karaoke clock even when its data channel plays no notes. Older corrected files that already lost these controllers must be regenerated from the original.