LRC format reference

LRC is a simple text format: one lyric line per row, each prefixed with a timestamp. Tied to the Beat uses the standard spec plus a couple of optional game-specific tags.

The basic timestamp

[mm:ss.xx] lyric text here

mm — minutes, two digits (00 to 59)
ss — seconds, two digits (00 to 59)
xx — hundredths of a second, two digits (00 to 99)

Some editors export three-digit milliseconds (mm:ss.xxx) — that works too. Both are read correctly by the game.

Example

[00:12.40] I remember when, I remember
[00:15.90] I remember when I lost my mind
[00:19.60] There was something so pleasant about that place
[00:23.20] Even your emotions had an echo
[00:27.00] In so much space

Metadata header (optional)

At the top of your file you can include ID tags. All are optional — the game auto-fills title/artist from MP3 tags — but including them in the LRC helps external tools and makes your file self-contained.

[ti:Rolling in the Deep]
[ar:Adele]
[al:21]
[length:03:48]
[by:community_creator_name]
[la:en]
[offset:0]
[source:https://example.com/where-you-got-the-audio]
[license:CC0]

[00:12.40] There's a fire starting in my heart
[00:15.80] Reaching a fever pitch and it's bringing me out the dark

Tag	Meaning	Required?
`[ti:...]`	Song title	No — read from MP3
`[ar:...]`	Artist	No — read from MP3
`[al:...]`	Album	No
`[length:mm:ss]`	Total duration	No
`[by:...]`	LRC author / creator	No
`[la:xx]`	ISO language code (`en`, `es`, `ja`, …)	Yes — affects word→effect dictionary
`[offset:±ms]`	Global shift in milliseconds (negative = earlier)	No
`[source:URL]`	Where the audio came from — direct link (Pixabay page, CC recording, your own upload, etc.)	Yes — required on Workshop for uploads not composed by you
`[license:NAME]`	Short license name: Pixabay License, CC0, CC-BY 4.0, Public Domain, Own recording, …	Yes — when `[source:]` is present

Instrumental markers

Songs have solos, intros, outros, and breaks — parts with no vocals. Mark them explicitly with [instrumental] so the game triggers a special instrumental wave instead of falling back to default spawns:

[00:00.00] [instrumental]
[00:12.40] First verse starts here
[01:45.20] And the chorus repeats
[02:30.00] [instrumental]
[02:58.50] Final chorus

[instrumental] is the only marker the game reads. Other conventions you may have seen in karaoke apps ([solo], [intro], [outro], [♪], etc.) are not recognized — map all of them to [instrumental] when converting from another format.

Supported languages (30)

Use the language code (matching the game's catalog) in the [la:...] tag:

en — English
es-ES — Spanish (Spain) · Español
es-419 — Spanish (Latin America)
fr — French · Français
it — Italian · Italiano
de — German · Deutsch
pt-BR — Portuguese (Brazil)
pt-PT — Portuguese (Portugal)
nl — Dutch · Nederlands
pl — Polish · Polski
cs — Czech · Čeština
hu — Hungarian · Magyar
ro — Romanian · Română
bg — Bulgarian · Български
uk — Ukrainian · Українська

ru — Russian · Русский
el — Greek · Ελληνικά
tr — Turkish · Türkçe
da — Danish · Dansk
no — Norwegian · Norsk
sv — Swedish · Svenska
fi — Finnish · Suomi
ja — Japanese · 日本語
ko — Korean · 한국어
zh-Hans — Chinese Simplified · 简体中文
zh-Hant — Chinese Traditional · 繁體中文
th — Thai · ไทย
vi — Vietnamese · Tiếng Việt
id — Indonesian · Bahasa Indonesia
ar — Arabic · العربية

Why the language matters. The game maps specific words to specific gameplay effects — fire, ice, rain, lightning, love, dark, etc. Each language has its own curated dictionary. The wrong language tag means words won't trigger the right effects and your track will feel flat.

Common mistakes

Missing leading zeros — [0:12.4] breaks some parsers. Always pad to [00:12.40].
Wrong encoding — save as UTF-8, never ANSI. Non-Latin characters turn into ??? otherwise.
Blank lines with timestamps — [01:23.00] with no text is treated as end-of-line, which collapses pacing. Use [01:23.00] [instrumental] instead.
Duplicate timestamps — two lines with the same [mm:ss.xx]. The second one is ignored.
Non-monotonic timestamps — each line should start after the previous one. Going back in time confuses the game.

A complete working example

This is the exact format of the Workshop's bootstrap item Bass Boom Kids — the reference every upload follows:

[ti:Bass Boom Kids]
[ar:Lilex]
[al:Workshop bootstrap — Tied to the Beat]
[la:en]
[length:03:30]
[by:stable-ts large-v3]
[offset:0]
[source:https://pixabay.com/es/music/melod%c3%adas-para-ni%c3%b1os-felices-bass-boom-kids-425502/]
[license:Pixabay License (free commercial use, no attribution required)]
[genre:electronic]
[ve:1]

[00:00.00] [instrumental]
[00:12.09] Boom, boom, hear the bass, feel it shake the whole wide place
[00:17.04] Clap your hands and stomp your feet, techno kids bring all the heat
[00:20.42] [instrumental]
[00:26.15] Be so deep, it makes us fly
[00:30.08] Jump so high, we touch the sky
[00:33.74] Sing together, one, two, three
[00:36.84] This is our kids' melody

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