lrxed

June 21, 2025 · View on GitHub

/ˈlɪrɪksd/
A tui application for synchronising lyrics

a showcase of the application

Installation

Building from source

Dependencies:

libasound2-dev (Linux only)
rust toolchain

git clone https://github.com/LunaPresent/lrxed.git
cargo install --path ./lrxed --locked

Cargo

cargo install lrxed

AUR/Arch Linux

yay -S lrxed-bin

Or install lrxed-bin from the AUR using your preferred method of installation.

Nix/NixOS

First add this repo as an input to your flake.

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs?ref=nixos-unstable";

    lrxed = {
      url = "github:LunaPresent/lrxed";
      inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
    };
  };
}

Using the packages

{ inputs, pkgs, ... }:
{
  environment.systemPackages = [ inputs.lrxed.packages.${pkgs.stdenv.system.hostPlatform}.default ];
}

Using the overlays

{ inputs, ... }:
{
  nixpkgs.overlays = [ inputs.lrxed.overlays.default ];
  environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.lrxed ];
}

Using the home-manager module

{ inputs, ... }:
{
  imports = [ inputs.lrxed.homeModules.default ];

  programs.lrxed = {
    enable = true;

    settings.keys.global.quit = [
      { key = "q"; }
      { key = "z"; }
    ];
  };
}

Requirements

A nerd font, for displaying certain icons. This font must be set in your terminal emulator config.
Set a default text editor, e.g. in the $VISUAL envvar on Linux, for the open-in-editor feature.
A local music library. This may clash with your setup if you use a media server such as jellyfin. I suggest trying sshfs to mount the remote media, as running lrxed remotely will not give you good audio playback.

Basic usage

Place your audio and lyrics files in the same directory, with matching filenames so that the file name stem is the same, but the extension for the lyrics file is replaced with .lrc, like so:
```
> ls
jamie_paige_ft_kasane_teto-machine_love.lrc
jamie_paige_ft_kasane_teto-machine_love.mp3
```
Open the audio file in lrxed, either directly using `lrxed <path_to_file.mp3> or by navigating to it with the built-in file browser and pressing enter. If a .lrc sidecar file was not found, lrxed will open a new, blank file.
Synchronise the lyrics by pressing <Space> in time with the music, just before the line is sung.
Navigate through the lines with <j> and <k> or the arrow keys. Press <f> on an already synced line to start playback from there and test the synchronisation. Use <s>, <d> and <c> to increment an existing timestamp, or <S>, <D> and <C> to decrement it.
Press <Ctrl-w> to save the changes to the .lrc file, exit back to the file browser using <Esc> or close lrxed using <q>.

Features & goals

Non-goals:

Be a music player: Yes, it plays music, but lrxed does not aim to implement a queue or autoplay feature, or anything aimed specifically towards improving its viability as a music player.
Be a text editor: While basic text editing entirely within lrxed is a (planned) feature, this will not stand up to any slightly advanced text editing features of <insert favourite text editor>. For all your advanced text editing needs, you can use the open-in-editor feature (default <I>)

Configuration

You may choose between the toml, json or yaml file format to configure lrxed.

Print the path to the configuration file

lrxed --print-config-path [toml | json | yaml]

lrxed does not create this config file, you will need to create it manually.

To print your current configuration, or the defaults if not configured, use

lrxed --print-config [toml | json | yaml]

You can use this as a reference to make your configuration.
The default value in these commands when file type is omitted is toml.

Alternatively, use the following oneliner to create the config and seed it with the defaults.
Example for toml file type:

lrxed --print-config toml > (lrxed --print-config-path toml)

Controls

key	explanation	config identifier
?	show list of key bindings	view-keys
q	[q]uit lrxed	quit
Enter	open/accept	confirm
Esc	back/cancel	cancel
Space	sync lyrics to current time and select next line	sync-timestamp
^w	save	save
j or Down	cursor down	move-cursor-y
k or Up	cursor up	move-cursor-y
h or Left	cursor left	move-cursor-x
l or Right	cursor right	move-cursor-x
g	[g]o to first line	set-cursor-y
G	[G]o to last line	set-cursor-y
_ or Home	cursor to line start	set-cursor-x
$ or End	cursor to line end	set-cursor-x
H	seek backwards	seek-backwards
L	seek forwards	seek-forwards
[0-9]	seek to [0-9]0%	seek-relative
r	[r]esume/pause	toggle-pause
u	[u]ndo	undo
^r	[^r]edo	redo
f	play [f]rom selected word (line for now)	seek-to-cursor
F	play [F]rom selected line	seek-to-cursor-line
t	go [t]o currently playing word (line for now)	cursor-to-playing
T	go [T]o start of currently playing line	cursor-to-playing-line
s	increment timestamp by a [s]econd	adjust-timestamp
S	decrement timestamp by a [S]econd	adjust-timestamp
d	increment timestamp by a [d]ecisecond (0.10s)	adjust-timestamp
D	decrement timestamp by a [D]ecisecond (0.10s)	adjust-timestamp
c	increment timestamp by a [c]entisecond (0.01s)	adjust-timestamp
C	decrement timestamp by a [C]entisecond (0.01s)	adjust-timestamp
I	edit file in external editor	open-in-editor
[	volume down	change-volume
]	volume up	change-volume
{	volume down slightly	change-volume
}	volume up slightly	change-volume
-	speed down	change-speed
+	speed up	change-speed
=	reset playback speed	reset-speed
h or Left or Esc	leave directory	leave-directory
l or Right or Enter	go into directory or edit file	open-file-or-directory

To be done

key	explanation
J	append next line to current
K	split line at cursor
w	cursor to next [w]ord
e	cursor to [e]nd of word
b	cursor [b]ackward by a word
^s	set timestamp average of [s]urrounding
x	delete timestamp
X	delete line
y	[y]ank timestamp
Y	[Y]ank line
p	[p]aste timestamp
P	[P]aste line
i	edit line in [i]nternal editor
o	insert new line after
O	insert new line before
a	toggle [a]utoscroll
A	toggle [A]utoseek (play from newly selected line)

Since you're probably here because you maintain your own media library (with lyrics), I highly recommend you check out the following software if you haven't already:

lrcget - Does everything lrxed does and more, but in a gui and with more traditional, text-input-first controls. Definitely use this for obtaining .lrc files from the internet before editing them, at least until lrxed implements lrclib integration :3
sptlrx - Simple looking but amazing terminal application to use alongside your favourite music player and get a nice synchronised lyrics viewer.
cmus - This is just a really solid music player, I use this alongside sptlrx. Doesn't support lyrics out of the box, but plugins may exist.
jellyfin-tui - If you have a jellyfin server, are addicted to your terminal and also you want a nice built-in synchronised lyrics viewer, look no further. Works out of the box with .lrc files as long as the jellyfin server can serve them.
harmonoid - Very pretty GUI music player with .lrc compatible scrolling lyrics viewer. Warning: this is freeware but not open source.
termusic - Music player built in rust. Has support for synced lyrics but I couldn't get it to recognise .lrc files.

Thank you for checking out my project. Please consider leaving a star if you like it, or if you just feel like giving me a confidence boost.

Making issues and pull requests is very much appreciated. Please be patient with me as this is my first experience maintaining an open source project. Any tips or general feedback are welcome in the discussion tab.