I usually have the tune before I have the words. I paint the notes, or I drop in a MIDI file, and then I sit there trying to make a lyric land on those syllables. Count, timing, a melisma that eats a word, a compound that will not split cleanly. If you work the same way in SynthV, you know the feeling.
I have been building a small tool for exactly that step: the melody is already there, and it checks whether the words actually fit. It is a closed beta and still rough. You can ignore the AI suggestions if you want.
I am not handing out a download. If this is your workflow and you want to try it on a song of your own, apply here: KI Songtexter | Songtexte, die auf deine Melodie passen
Yeah, that’s the struggle for sure. I used to compose the midi and write the lyrics at the same time in the editor. But because I’m trying to break out of having my melodies sound the same (as how drawing midi notes end up being for me), I’ve been jamming out the melodies on my keyboard, bring it into Synth V and work on the lyrics (which sounds like your process) And yes, rhythm is a weird beast once you get your lyrics started. So this is what I do now: I start off by setting the grid to 1/16th notes. Many times, just keeping it simple like that helps me find how defined my lyrics to rhythm is. I then bump it up to 1/16T notes if a lyric is either too crammed or too long. I keep bumping it up until 1/32T. Along the way I also play with the phenom timing because many times it’s just a matter of juggling those consonants and vowls, and many times you’ll be surprised how you’ll get it fitting much better. ALSO (and this is the most important part) Sing/chant the line so you “feel” how it sounds. However, after all that and you find you can’t get a group of lyrics working because it sounds to rushed or crammed or too…off…(unless you’re doing Jazz) then you just need to find a simpler grouping of lyrics or even remove a word or two. Real Singers do this all the time (as I used to do such a thing). But yeah, that’s the struggle beween the art of making lyrics and melody and the “science” of making it fit and flow in a way that you like
That grid-and-phoneme dance is exactly the rabbit hole I keep falling into too. The tool in the first post is for that step, when the melody is already there and you want a second opinion on whether the words fit before you cut them. It is still a closed beta and rough. If you want to try it on one of your own songs, you do need to apply: KI Songtexter | Songtexte, die auf deine Melodie passen