The user interface is divided into two screens; the song text editor and a handy resource of words. The song editor organizes your lyrics in parts (intro, verse, chorus) and it includes the option to add custom entries as well. Like any proper text editor, the font and text size can additionally be tweaked and personalized.

The word tools can offer inspiration and suggestions when you’re drawing a blank. It sports a built-in dictionary, thesaurus, and it’s able to list words and phrases based on emotions. As an example, if you wanted to express “desire” in a lyric, both the words and phrases features would give you a list of related suggestions. Some of the phrases are pretty corny but it could spark an idea for something much better. Rhyming words is also a breeze with its large bank of similar sounding words.

Songsters are given a series of tools that speed-up the writing process including a feature that enables users to record and playback audio. It’s a nice feature to have because it eliminates the need to set up your mic, or fire up an audio editor. After busting out a rhyme, Songwriter’s iPad will save multiple audio clips within the app that can be shared via email or iTunes.

Tunes can also be imported from iTunes but it requires the audio file to be in .wav format. Writers may find this useful for singing over instrumental tracks.

When the song is completed, the entire document can be shared via email or printed within the app. We liked the fact that both the audio and text files were included in the export.

The Bottom Line:
There is definitely some value for song writers within this app. The ability to find similar words and phrases coupled with the digital audio recorder, makes this app a win. SongWriter’s iPad is available for $9.99, and it’s also available on the iPhone for $5.99.

Lyrica 2

The app, developed by two seventeen year olds in Germany, connects to seven lyric databases that search for the correct words to each song in your iTunes library. By selecting any iTunes playlist within the app, Lyrica 2 will download and display lyrics for every song, and if it’s unable to locate a tune, there’s also an option to edit the text yourself.

Users can also do the whole collection in one shot however this will seriously increase wait times.

While playing a song, users have the ability to print and edit the lyrics, with an added option to translate to German, French, Spanish or Italian. There’s additionally a feature that will scour the database for a single phrase should you forget the song title.

Within the Lyrica 2 settings, the font type and size can be tweaked coupled with an option to turn off searching for songs tagged as classical music.

What we don’t like: It would be great to see an update that offers multiple themes to the UI. While the app is useful, it’s not very pretty. There also seems to be bugs within the new phrase search feature, and although it does quickly display the tracks that include the search terms, we found it wasn’t able to load the individual song after selecting it within this menu.

Why it’s cool: While lying back listening to tunes, Lyrica 2 will automatically display each song you play, it’s nice to have the lyrics available to glance at, and the results might even be surprising to you. If you’ve always thought in Purple Haze, Jimi Hendrix was singing “Excuse me while I kiss this guy”.. instead of “sky” — you need this app.

Lyrica 2 is available in the Mac App Store for $1.99.