FORMAT WORKSHOP · 16 OCTOBER 2026
LRC format explained: timestamps, offset and word timing
By Jianming Duan · Prepared with AI assistance; examples checked against this converter.
You have a file ending in .lrc, but the converter reports a line number instead of producing subtitles. Before changing anything, identify which kind of timing the file contains. A filename alone cannot tell you whether the contents are plain text, line-timed lyrics or word-timed lyrics.
Read one line before reading the whole file
[00:07.25]Paper boats cross the pond [00:11.50]The bridge is quiet now
These original demonstration lines each start with a timestamp. The first line begins seven seconds and 250 milliseconds after the media starts. The digits after the decimal point are a fraction of a second: .25 and .250 describe the same time. In this converter, .2 means 200 milliseconds and .02 means 20 milliseconds. Minutes can continue beyond 59; the seconds field must stay between 00 and 59.
The tag says when to show a line. It does not say when to hide it. That distinction matters during conversion: LRC Workbench uses the next timestamp as the current cue’s end. The last line needs an explicit duration because no later start exists. Keep a copy of the source before adding or adjusting tags.
Repeated tags and bilingual lines
[00:07.25][00:25.25]Paper boats cross the pond [00:07.25]纸船划过池塘
Repeated tags on one line mean the same text is scheduled more than once. Here, the English line appears at 7.250 and 25.250 seconds. In this tool, the Chinese line shares the first start time and is combined with the English into a two-line SRT cue. It does not become a second simultaneous cue. Exact duplicate text at the same time is removed.
Metadata is different from timed text
A line such as [ti:Paper boats] describes the file rather than a subtitle. LRC Workbench skips the metadata tags ar, al, ti, au, by, re, ve, length and id. It rejects other unsupported tags instead of treating them as visible lyrics. A length tag does not set the final subtitle’s end time here; use the last-line duration control.
Make the offset direction explicit
[offset:250] [00:07.25]Paper boats cross the pond
With Apply offset enabled, this tool subtracts 250 milliseconds, so the line starts at 7.000 seconds. This is our documented interpretation, not a promise that every player applies the sign the same way. The separate shift control adds its value: a shift of +1000 then moves that start to 8.000 seconds. Compare a recognizable word with your source player before adjusting a complete file. Do not apply a correction again if it has already been baked into the timestamps.
If a correction would put a line before zero, the converter clamps it to zero and reports a warning. Review the first cue: multiple early lines can then share one time. Keep only one offset tag; multiple tags are rejected because choosing one silently would conceal an ambiguity.
Recognize enhanced LRC before converting
[00:07.25]<00:07.25>Paper <00:07.70>boats <00:08.10>cross the pond
Inline angle-bracket times can schedule words within a line. This is a word-timed form often called enhanced LRC. The converter rejects it. Removing the inner timestamps would discard information, so export a separate line-level copy from your lyric editor if line subtitles are your goal. Retain the enhanced original for karaoke highlighting. Ordinary SRT cues do not reproduce that word-by-word timing.
Prepare a safe input copy
- Save text as UTF-8; changing the extension does not change the encoding.
- Check the reported line for unsupported metadata, missing brackets or seconds outside the valid range.
- Insert an empty timed line where singing stops if the next verse starts much later.
- Preview repeated and bilingual lines, then choose a last-line duration that ends before your intended cut.
For an implementation reference, see OpenLyrics, an open-source synchronized lyric player. LRC is handled by player implementations with differing capabilities; this article defines the subset accepted by LRC Workbench, rather than claiming a universal normative specification.