ASS to LRC Converter

A Pythonic CLI application to convert ASS (Advanced SubStation Alpha) subtitle files to LRC (Lyrics) format with support for enhanced word-level timing.

Features

• OOP Design: Clean, maintainable object-oriented architecture with dedicated classes for parsing, conversion, and data models
• Bidirectional Conversion: Convert between ASS and LRC formats
• Enhanced LRC: Generates .elrc files with word-level timing from \K karaoke tags
• Simple LRC: Standard LRC format without word timing
• Compact Format: Merge repeated lyrics with multiple timestamps (e.g., choruses)
• Expand Command: Convert compact LRC back to standard sorted format
• LRC to ASS: Convert LRC files back to ASS format with karaoke timing support
• Metadata Support: Automatically extracts and converts metadata tags (artist, lyricist, album, etc.)
• Comment Events: Support both ASS Comment events and effect=tag for metadata
• Effect-Based Line Breaks: Automatically add line breaks when effect contains "break"
• Configurable Gaps: Add customizable gaps between lyric lines
• Typer CLI: Modern, user-friendly command-line interface with subcommands

Installation

pip install -e .

Usage

Basic Usage

# Convert ASS to enhanced LRC (default)
ass2lrc convert input.ass

# Outputs: input.elrc

Commands

convert - Convert ASS to LRC

Convert ASS subtitle files to LRC lyrics format.

ass2lrc convert [OPTIONS] INPUT_FILE

Arguments:

• INPUT_FILE - Path to input ASS file (required)

Options:

Option	Short	Description	Default
--output	-o	Output LRC file path	Same as input with .lrc/.elrc extension
--enhanced	-e	Generate enhanced LRC with word timing	enabled
--simple	-s	Generate simple LRC (line timing only)	disabled
--compact	-c	Use compact format (multiple timestamps per line)	disabled
--gap	-g	Gap in seconds between lines (≥0.0)	1.0
--version	-v	Show version and exit	-
--help		Show help message	-

Examples:

# Convert to enhanced LRC (default)
ass2lrc convert song.ass

# Convert to simple LRC
ass2lrc convert song.ass --simple

# Specify output file
ass2lrc convert song.ass -o lyrics.lrc

# Custom line gap (0.5 seconds)
ass2lrc convert song.ass --gap 0.5

# Compact format for repeated lyrics
ass2lrc convert song.ass --compact

# Enhanced LRC with custom gap
ass2lrc convert song.ass -e -g 0.8 -o song.elrc

# Simple LRC with no gap
ass2lrc convert song.ass -s -g 0

expand - Expand Compact LRC

Expand compact LRC format to standard sorted format.

ass2lrc expand [OPTIONS] INPUT_FILE

Arguments:

• INPUT_FILE - Path to input compact LRC file (required)

Options:

Option	Short	Description	Default
--output	-o	Output expanded LRC file path	Input with _expanded suffix
--help		Show help message	-

Examples:

# Expand compact LRC to standard format
ass2lrc expand compact.lrc

# Specify output file
ass2lrc expand compact.lrc -o expanded.lrc

lrc2ass - Convert LRC to ASS

Convert LRC lyrics files back to ASS subtitle format.

ass2lrc lrc2ass [OPTIONS] INPUT_FILE

Arguments:

• INPUT_FILE - Path to input LRC file (required)

Options:

Option	Short	Description	Default
--output	-o	Output ASS file path	Same as input with .ass extension
--karaoke	-k	Generate karaoke timing tags from enhanced LRC	enabled
--no-karaoke	-K	Disable karaoke tags (plain text only)	disabled
--help		Show help message	-

Examples:

# Convert enhanced LRC to ASS with karaoke tags
ass2lrc lrc2ass song.elrc

# Convert simple LRC to ASS without karaoke
ass2lrc lrc2ass song.lrc --no-karaoke

# Specify output file
ass2lrc lrc2ass lyrics.lrc -o subtitles.ass

Global Options

# Show version
ass2lrc --version

# Show help
ass2lrc --help

# Show help for specific command
ass2lrc convert --help
ass2lrc expand --help
ass2lrc lrc2ass --help

ASS Format Requirements

Metadata Tags

Include metadata using Comment events or Dialogue lines with effect=tag:

Method 1: Comment events (recommended)

Comment: 0,0:00:00.00,0:00:00.00,Default,ti,0,0,0,,Song Title
Comment: 0,0:00:00.00,0:00:00.00,Default,ar,0,0,0,,Artist Name
Comment: 0,0:00:00.00,0:00:00.00,Default,lr,0,0,0,,Lyricist Name

Method 2: Dialogue with effect=tag

Dialogue: 0,0:00:00.00,0:00:02.00,Default,ti,0,0,0,tag,Song Title
Dialogue: 0,0:00:00.00,0:00:02.00,Default,ar,0,0,0,tag,Artist Name
Dialogue: 0,0:00:00.00,0:00:02.00,Default,lr,0,0,0,tag,Lyricist Name

Supported metadata tags (following LRC specification):

• ti: Title of the song
• ar: Artist performing the song
• al: Album the song is from
• au: Author of the song
• lr: Lyricist of the song
• length: Length of the song (mm:ss)
• by: Author of the LRC file (not the song)
• offset: Global offset value for lyric times in milliseconds (e.g., +100 or -50)
• re / tool: The player or editor that created the LRC file
• ve: The version of the program
• #: Comments (can have multiple)

Karaoke Timing

Use \K or \k tags for syllable timing (in centiseconds):

Dialogue: 0,0:00:00.62,0:00:07.52,Default,,0,0,0,,{\K72}Text{\K106}Here

Effect-Based Line Breaks

Lines with an effect field containing "break" (case-insensitive) will automatically add an empty line after them in the LRC output:

Dialogue: 0,0:00:10.00,0:00:12.00,Default,,0,0,0,linebreak,First verse
Dialogue: 0,0:00:13.00,0:00:15.00,Default,,0,0,0,,Second verse

This will produce:

[00:10.00]First verse
[00:12.00]
[00:13.00]Second verse

Compact Format

The compact format merges identical lyrics that appear at different times into a single line with multiple timestamps. This is useful for repeated sections like choruses.

Example:

Standard format:
[00:10.00]Chorus line here
[00:30.00]Chorus line here
[00:50.00]Chorus line here

Compact format:
[00:10.00][00:30.00][00:50.00]Chorus line here

Warning

• Not all LRC players support the compact format. Use the expand command to convert back to standard format if needed.
• Compact format doesn't support word timing. If you use --compact with --enhanced, word timing will be automatically disabled and a compact LRC without word timing will be generated.

Architecture

The application is structured using OOP principles:

• models.py: Data classes for Syllable, LyricLine, and Metadata
• parser.py: ASSParser class for parsing ASS files
• lrc_parser.py: LRCParser class for parsing LRC files
• converter.py: LRCConverter class for generating LRC output
• ass_converter.py: ASSConverter class for generating ASS output
• expander.py: LRCExpander class for expanding compact format
• cli.py: Typer-based command-line interface

Development

Running Tests

# Install dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run all tests
pytest tests/ -v

# Run specific test file
pytest tests/test_parser.py -v

# Run with coverage
pytest tests/ --cov=ass2lrc --cov-report=term-missing

Code Quality

# Lint with ruff
task lint

# Format code
task format

# Type check
task typecheck

# Run all checks
task qa

Using Task

Available commands:

task                 # Show all available tasks
task install         # Install package
task install-dev     # Install with dev dependencies
task test            # Run tests
task test-cov        # Run tests with coverage
task lint            # Run linter
task format          # Format code
task typecheck       # Type checking
task qa              # Run all quality checks
task clean           # Remove generated files
task build           # Build distribution packages
task publish-test    # Publish to TestPyPI
task publish         # Publish to PyPI

Install Task from: https://taskfile.dev/installation/

License

See LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

Quick Start

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/nattadasu/ass-to-lrc.git
cd ass-to-lrc

# Setup development environment (uses uv)
task dev

# Make changes and test
task qa

Commit Convention

This project follows Conventional Commits.

Format: <type>(<scope>): <subject>

Example: feat(converter): Add compact LRC format support

Pre-commit hooks will automatically validate your commits. See CONTRIBUTING.md for full guidelines.