Automatic lyric alignment is fast, not perfect. Fast vocals, layered doubles, and pidgin/reggae phrasing can land lines a beat early or late. The fix is not re-pasting lyrics — it is manual timing on a waveform.
When to trust auto-sync
Clear studio vocals, one voice, lyrics that match what was actually sung — auto-sync is often good enough for TikTok drafts. Run sync, watch the preview once, ship it.
When to open the timing editor
- Chorus hits before the text appears
- Two lines flash on the same beat
- Ad-libs in the audio but not in the pasted lyrics (downstream lines drift)
- You trimmed the public preview to 90 seconds and need lines repositioned inside the window
How Hatcut’s timing editor works
After sync, section Adjust timing shows a WaveSurfer waveform with one draggable region per sentence. Click a line in the list, scrub the waveform, press In or Out to set bounds, or drag region edges directly. The Remotion preview updates live.
Export uses your edits
Manual blocks are sent to the render queue — we do not re-run alignment on export. What you preview is what the MP4 burn-in reflects.
Practice on the free try page; save long projects in the Hatcut app.