FORMAT WORKSHOP · 16 OCTOBER 2026
Add lyric subtitles to a video with an SRT file
By Jianming Duan · Prepared with AI assistance; examples checked against this converter.
Your lyrics are synchronized to an audio track, but your video editor needs subtitles. The useful deliverable is an SRT file with start and end times, followed by a playback check in the actual video project. Converting the text does not establish that the video uses the same audio edit.
1. Match the lyric file to your edit
Use lyrics you have permission to process and publish. Keep the original audio and LRC together, and check whether the video has a silent introduction, a trimmed verse or a different recording. If your LRC starts at the beginning of a full song while the video starts halfway through it, conversion alone cannot align the two.
Start with line-level LRC. Plain text has no synchronization to preserve, while word-timed LRC needs a separate workflow if you want karaoke highlighting. The format article explains how to tell them apart. Do not rename a .txt file to .srt and expect timing to appear.
2. Convert and inspect the SRT
Paste or open the LRC in the converter. Check whether Apply offset should be enabled, leave shift at zero unless you know a correction is needed, and set the final line’s duration. Preview the first and last cue before downloading. For example, these original lines include an explicit instrumental gap:
[00:05.00]Lights come on by the river [00:08.00] [00:14.00]We follow the road home
The first subtitle should run from 5.000 to 8.000 seconds. Nothing should appear from 8.000 to 14.000. With a three-second last-line setting, the final cue ends at 17.000. Download the UTF-8 SRT and keep it beside your project files so the timing remains easy to inspect.
3. Import into a caption or subtitle track
Open the destination project and find its subtitle or caption import command. Select the SRT and place the captions on the intended sequence. Check the import’s timing origin: some workflows place captions relative to the playhead, while others use the project start. Confirm where the five-second cue actually lands before moving the whole track.
For current application instructions, consult Adobe’s caption workflow or Apple’s Final Cut Pro caption import guide. Both document subtitle-file import. Controls depend on the application and release; the workflow here does not assume a particular menu layout.
4. Diagnose the timing before moving cues
Listen at the beginning, around a middle verse and near the end. If every lyric is exactly one second early, a uniform one-second delay may solve the mismatch. In LRC Workbench, a +1000 shift delays every cue by that amount. Apply the correction in one place and recheck; shifting both the downloaded SRT and the editor track doubles it.
If the beginning matches but the end drifts away, a single shift cannot fix the cause. Check for a different recording speed or version. If timing changes suddenly after a cut, repair that section or synchronize against the final edit. This tool does not analyze audio or stretch the subtitle timeline.
5. Choose how viewers receive the words
A separate SRT is a sidecar deliverable: the destination player or platform must load it, and may let viewers turn it off. Burned-in captions become visible pixels in the exported video and cannot be switched off. Choose according to the destination’s documented requirements. Merely importing SRT into an editor does not guarantee either export outcome.
Set font, position and line wrapping in the editor if its caption workflow supports those controls. Plain SRT is not a portable design preset. In a vertical video, review the actual frame and destination interface so lyrics do not sit under playback controls. Use your destination’s preview rather than assuming a universal safe margin.
6. Check the exported deliverable
- Open the exported video outside the editor and play the opening, middle and ending.
- Confirm whether captions are burned in, embedded or delivered separately as intended.
- Check accented letters and bilingual lines, not only an ASCII test.
- Watch instrumental gaps and the last cue; no words should linger past the intended ending.
- Keep the LRC, SRT and project copy so a later edit can be corrected without starting over.
If text is visible in the editor but absent from the export, investigate the caption export settings first. Re-converting the same LRC will not enable a caption track that was excluded from the output.
Put it into practice
Starting with plain or timestamped text? Use TXT to SRT to prepare a timing draft, then check it against your recording.