🎤 PhraseCue

A free, private lyric prompter for singers, built around vocal-phrasing notes.

Load your song's full mix, its instrumental and your lyrics. Tap once through the song to time it, then sing along to the instrumental while each line lights up on cue. Stress marks, pitch arrows, breath marks and performance notes are all shown in place.

More pictures: Screenshots

▶ Try it: https://greenguy27.github.io/phrasecue/

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Why PhraseCue

• Runs anywhere. It's a single HTML file that works in Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox on Windows, macOS or Linux. There's nothing to install and no internet connection needed.
• Private. Your audio and lyrics never leave your computer. There are no accounts, uploads, ads or tracking.
• Phrasing-aware. Shows BOLD stress, → ↗ ↘ pitch arrows, // breath marks and (performance directions) from your phrasing notes, not just plain lyrics.
• Switch tracks mid-song. Flip between the full mix and the instrumental mid-song without stopping, so you can listen to a phrase and then sing it.
• Simple timing. Tap Space at the start of each line. Mistakes are easy to undo or nudge.
• Portable. Timing saves as a small .timing.json file, or exports as a standard .lrc that other karaoke apps can read.
• Practice tools. Loop a line, a section or your own A–B range, and slow down to 50% without changing pitch.
• Timeline. See the vocal and every line's start under the lyrics. Drag a marker to retime a line, scroll to zoom.
• Snap (auto-timing assist). With both mixes loaded, PhraseCue isolates the lead vocal (full mix minus instrumental) and nudges your taps onto the real vocal starts.
• Record yourself. Sing over the instrumental, play the take back in sync, and download your voice or a voice-plus-instrumental WAV.
• Duets. Lines are colored by singer, with singer A on the left, singer B on the right and Both lines centered.
• Paste or write lyrics in the app. Includes one-click tag buttons for Suno-style sections, breaks and vocals. Editing keeps your timing.
• Lyric & karaoke videos. Export landscape, vertical or square videos, including a bold poster style for TikTok, Shorts and Reels.
• Cover art & share cards. Add a cover, and the stage takes on its colors. Turn any line into a PNG card for posts or stories.
• No MP3 yet? Read and step through lyrics while the song is still being made.

Screenshots

Duets: each singer has their own color and side	⏱ Time mode: tap Space as each blue line starts
📝 Lyrics editor: song title, version and one-click tags	Welcome screen: a checklist shows what's still missing
🎬 Video export: shape, style, duet layout and singer names	Share a line: a PNG card made from your cover art

Vertical video frames: dark style with the duet layout, then two poster colors.

The pictures use the sample song examples/example-suno-duet.txt ("Lantern Road") and examples/example-phrasing.txt ("Paper Boats").

Quick start

1. Open index.html in your browser by double-clicking it, or use the hosted link above.
2. Drag in your files all at once:
   • the full mix audio (MP3, WAV, M4A, OGG, FLAC)
   • the instrumental. If its name contains karaoke, instrumental, without, backing, minus or no vocal, it's detected automatically. Otherwise PhraseCue asks which file has no vocals.
   • one or more lyrics files (.txt, .md or .lrc)
3. Time it, once per lyrics file: click ⏱ Time (or press S), then Space to start the song, then tap Space the moment the singer starts each blue line. With both mixes loaded, 🧲 Snap tightens your taps automatically. If earlier lines already have times, Time mode picks up at the first untimed line and says so. Click Start over at line 1 on the pop-up to redo the whole song.
4. Sing: click 🎤 Sing (or press S), choose Karaoke for the instrumental (or press V), then Space to play.
5. Keep it: use Timing ▾ → 💾 Save timing file and keep the .timing.json file next to your song. Next time, or on another computer, drag it in with the other files.

No lyrics file? Click 📝 Lyrics to paste or type them. The welcome checklist shows what's loaded and what's still missing.

Want to see the lyric formats? Load the files in examples/ along with any audio file. example-suno-duet.txt shows Suno-style tags and a duet.

Lyric file formats

Plain lyrics

Song Title

(Verse 1)
First line of the verse
Second line of the verse

(Chorus)
...

The first line is the title. Lines in ( ) or [ ] are section headers, and every other line is a lyric line.

Vocal-phrasing guide (Markdown-style)

# SONG TITLE
*Genre · Voice · ~84 BPM*

## [VERSE 1]
*(Soft and close to the mic.)*

→ We folded **PA-per** / ↘ on the kitchen floor,
→ wrote our names / on the **SAILS——** ↘

//

Markup	Shown as
# Title	Song title (first heading)
## [SECTION]	Section header
*(direction)*	Performance note in italics
**WORD**	Stressed word, highlighted
//	Breath mark
---	Ignored (spacing only)
Any other line	Lyric line that gets timed

Suno-style lyrics

[Style: Dark Americana, Blues Rock]
[Verse 1]
[Male vocal, low and close]
First line of the verse
Second line (echo)

[Instrumental Break]

[Chorus]
...

PhraseCue reads these the way they're written for Suno:

• Sections: [Intro], [Verse 1], [Pre-Chorus], [Chorus], [Post-Chorus], [Hook], [Bridge], [Final Chorus], [Outro] and so on become section headers.
• Breaks: a tag with no lyrics under it, like [Instrumental Break], [Interlude], [Guitar Solo], [Breakdown], or variations like [Short Instrumental] and [Soft Guitar Solo], names the instrumental break.
• Directions: tags like [Male vocal, soft] show as performance notes, and a combined tag like [Chorus, both vocals] gives a header plus a note.
• Style lines: [Style: …] shows as a small line under the title.
• Backing lines: a whole line in ( ) shows smaller and isn't timed. A (word) inside a lyric line is shown dimmer.
• Title: a short first line followed by a blank line becomes the title. If there isn't one, the file name is used.

Duets / parts

Lines are colored by singer. A small color key appears under the title, the timeline markers match, and exported videos show the singer's name whenever it changes. The part is set by:

• Directions: [Male vocal], [Female vocal], [Both vocals] (also duet, choir, together), in any lyrics format
• Named parts: [Part: Lila], or a bracket tag that's just a name, like [Elyra]
• Line prefix: Wren: I left the light on…. The name is removed from the sung text.

A part lasts until the next one is set. Songs with only one singer aren't colored.

Duet layout: by default, the first singer's lines sit on the left, the second singer's on the right, and Both lines are centered, in the app and in exported videos. Switch it with Timing ▾ → 👥 Duet layout (app) or Duet layout in the video panel.

Singer names in videos: the video panel can show the singer's name above every line (good for vertical TikTok, Shorts and Reels), only when the singer changes, or not at all. Names come from the singer tags, so they're never counted as lyric lines and never need timing.

LRC

Standard [mm:ss.xx] lyric files load already timed.

Instrumental breaks

During an instrumental break, the last line dims and a ♪ Instrumental bar counts down to the next line.

• Estimated breaks: when the gap before the next line is much longer than your usual line length, PhraseCue treats the rest of it as a break, marked estimated. You can turn this off with Timing ▾ → ♪ Estimate breaks.
• Exact breaks: while timing, press Enter the moment the singing stops, then keep tapping Space when it comes back. Backspace undoes the mark, Shift+Enter removes it, and on the timeline you can drag the blue break marker.
• A section in your phrasing file with no lyric lines, like ## [SHORT INSTRUMENTAL], gives the break its name.
• Breaks are saved in the timing file, and exported to .lrc as an empty timestamp, which is the standard way to show "no lyrics here".

Pasting and editing lyrics

📝 Lyrics (or paste / type your lyrics on the welcome screen) opens a text box. Paste or type lyrics in any supported format, fill in the Song title (and an optional Version, like Phrasing or Duet), and click Use these lyrics (Ctrl+Enter).

• Tag buttons insert tags at the cursor, in four groups:
  • Sections: [Intro] [Verse #] [Pre-Chorus] [Chorus] [Post-Chorus] [Hook] [Bridge] [Final Chorus] [Outro]
  • Breaks: [Instrumental Break] [Interlude] [Guitar Solo] [Breakdown]
  • Voices: [Male vocal, …] [Female vocal, …] [Both vocals, …] [Part: name]
  • Marks: [Style: …] ( backing ) // breath **stress**
• Smart numbering: [Verse #] inserts the next verse number, and [Pre-Chorus] is numbered from the second one. Vocal tags leave the cursor inside so you can type details like low and intimate.
• The line under the box shows the format, line, section and singer counts, and how many lines keep their timing.
• Pasted lyrics are saved in your browser and show up in the lyrics menu next time. ⬇ Download .txt saves a file copy.
• Opening the box again edits the current lyrics. Edits keep your timing: lines are matched by their text, so fixed typos, added lines and removed lines only affect the lines you touched. New lines just need tapping.
• No MP3 yet? You can still paste and read lyrics. Choose Continue without audio on the welcome screen, or just click Use these lyrics, then step through the lines with ↑ / ↓ or by clicking them. Load the MP3s whenever they're ready to time the song.
• If you load a lyrics file with the same name, the file's text is used, with your timing carried over the same way.

Lyric & karaoke videos

🎬 Video turns the timed lyrics into a video file, with no other software needed.

• Audio: full mix (lyric video) or instrumental (karaoke video).
• Shape: landscape 1920×1080 (YouTube), vertical 1080×1920 (Shorts, Reels, TikTok) or square 1080×1080.
• Range: the whole song, or just the current loop. That's handy for a chorus teaser: loop the chorus with Shift+L, then export.
• Look: an optional background image (your cover art works well) with a darkness slider, a title card with your credit line, section labels, ♪ instrumental breaks, and an option to hide phrasing marks for a clean public video.
• "Made with PhraseCue" tag: a small see-through tag in the corner, plus a line on the end card. It's on by default; untick it in the video panel to turn it off.
• Format: MP4 (H.264) when your browser can record it, otherwise WebM. The panel shows which before you record. YouTube accepts both. For Instagram and TikTok, convert WebM to MP4 with a free tool such as HandBrake.
• It records in real time, so a 4-minute song takes 4 minutes. Keep the tab open and visible while it records.

Practice tools

• Loop: L loops the current line, Shift+L loops the current section, and A / B set your own start and end. Press L again or click the gold loop button to stop.
• Speed: the Speed menu (or , and .) plays at 50–110%. Pitch stays the same.
• Timeline: the strip above the controls. Gold markers are your lines and blue ticks are detected vocal starts. Click to jump, drag a marker to retime it (hold Shift to skip snapping), scroll to zoom, drag to pan, and double-click to zoom back out.
• Snap: turned on automatically when both mixes are loaded. Taps land on the nearest strong vocal start. Line 1 is never snapped, because intros can fool the vocal detection. It isn't perfect: if a stamp looks wrong, drag its marker or turn Snap off. It doesn't time the whole song by itself, because word onsets inside a line look just like line starts.
• Record: press R to start and stop. Recording starts from where you are, or from the loop start, and stops at the loop end. Wear headphones. Open 🎙 Takes (T) to play takes back, adjust Voice timing if you sound early or late, and download Voice (webm/m4a) or Mix (WAV, takes recorded at 100% speed). Takes aren't saved after you close the tab.
  • The browser asks for microphone access the first time. Recording works from the hosted link in every browser. Opening the file directly works in Chrome and Edge, but Safari may refuse.
  • Chrome asks once to allow multiple downloads the second time you download from the page. Click Allow.

Layout at a glance

• Top bar: lyrics menu · timed status · 📂 Load · 📝 Lyrics · 🎤 Sing | ⏱ Time · Vocals | Karaoke · Timing ▾ · 🎬 Video · Share · ⋯ (loaded files, text size, full screen, undo, help, About)
• Undo: clearing timing, moving lines (keys or timeline drag), removing break marks and editing lyrics can all be undone, with Undo on the pop-up, Ctrl+Z, or ⋯ → Undo.
• Welcome checklist: shows what's loaded and what's still missing: Lyrics · Full mix · Instrumental (optional) · Timed.

Cover art and sharing

• Cover art: click the cover square beside the lyrics (or ⋯ → 🖼 Cover art…, or drop an image with your files). The lyrics stage picks up its colors, and share cards use it. It's saved in your browser per song.
• Share a line: the Share button turns any lyric line into a picture: square 1080×1080 for posts or 1080×1920 for stories, with your cover art or a moonlit background, a glow color, a credit line and the "Made with PhraseCue" tag. You can edit the text first, for example to drop stress capitals from a phrasing file. It downloads as a PNG.
• Poster style for videos: in 🎬 Video, set Style → Poster for a bold solid-color background with heavy type, made for vertical TikTok, Shorts and Reels clips.

Keyboard shortcuts

Key	Action
Space	Play / pause (in timing mode: stamp the blue line)
P	Play / pause in any mode
S	Switch 🎤 Sing ↔ ⏱ Time
V	Vocals ↔ Karaoke
← →	Seek 5 seconds
↑ ↓	Previous / next line
[ ]	Move the current line 0.1 s earlier / later
Shift + [ ]	Move all lines 0.1 s earlier / later
Ctrl+Z	Undo the last timing change or lyrics edit
Backspace	Timing mode: undo the last stamp (or break mark)
Enter / Shift+Enter	Mark / remove an instrumental break after the current line
+ −	Text size
F	Full screen
Home (Mac: Fn+←)	Back to the start
L / Shift+L	Loop current line / section (again = stop)
A B	Set loop start / end
, .	Slower / faster
R	Record / stop
T	Show takes
?	Help

Click any line to jump to it. The Read-ahead slider lights each line up a moment early so you can see what's coming.

Tips

• Lines feel late? Raise Read-ahead, or press Shift+[ a few times.
• Off by a whole line? You probably tapped at the end of each line. Use Timing ▾ → 🗑 Clear timing and tap at the start of each blue line. The timeline makes this easy to spot: gold markers should sit at the left edge of each vocal phrase.
• Timings are tied to the lyrics file's name and line count. Fixing a typo is fine, but adding or removing a line means retiming from that point. In timing mode, click the line and keep tapping.

Putting it on your own website

• Link to it: turn on GitHub Pages for this repo (Settings → Pages → Deploy from branch → main / root) and link to https://greenguy27.github.io/phrasecue/ (already live for this repo).
• Self-host: upload index.html to any web host. It's fully self-contained.
• Embed: <iframe src="https://greenguy27.github.io/phrasecue/" style="width:100%;height:85vh;border:0" allow="fullscreen"></iframe>. Some site builders limit iframes, so a link or button is the most reliable option.

Privacy

PhraseCue makes no network requests. Files you load and anything you record are processed locally by your browser. Timings are stored in your browser's local storage and in any files you choose to download. Clearing your browser data erases the browser copy, so keep your .timing.json files.

License

MIT © 2026 Chris Ross · CRBooks.ink

The sample song in examples/ was written for this project and may be used freely along with the code.