Yeah, I tried all the different players and they all have the same problem, it is hard to grab the text output from them. Timidity willl print the midi info out to stdout, and it can be captured and displayed, but as soon as the music starts, the output stops. I'm not sure where they are sending it? It's not in STDERR either. Anyways, here is a pleasant looking hack of my previous "quicky". I just let timidity do it's thing in a window, so there are no synchro problems. I've set it up for 1024x768, and thru in a fun image to show you how to do it. I made a big font in the xterm, and gave it some fun colors for karaoke.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Tk;
use Tk::PNG;

#works for a 1024x768 display 
my $kar = shift || 'z.kar';

my $mw = MainWindow->new();
my $xscr = $mw->screenwidth;
my $yscr = $mw->screenheight;

$mw->geometry($xscr.'x'.$yscr.'+'.'20'.'+'.'20' );

$mw->fontCreate('big',
   -family=>'courier',
    -weight=>'bold',
    -size=>int(-18*18/14));

my $canv = $mw->Canvas(-bg => 'lightsteelblue',
     -relief => 'sunken',
     -width => $xscr - 100,
     -height =>$yscr - 100,
      )->pack(-expand => 1, -fill => 'both');

my $bunny = $mw->Photo(-data =>
'iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAB4AAAAjEAIAAABcJvHFAAAACXBIWXMAAAsSAAALEgHS3
+X78AAAD 
F0lEQVR42u1YL+yqUBj1vfcLbhY3C44is8BIREYSG9FoNBqNkok2aFhp2BhJDWyadCZN/i
+lOGxan 
jRdOuRsPxl/f+23vJKfX7x6+73znu5dK5RviV9QPDMMwDIPP7/f7/X6XTWU0Go1Go06n0+
+l0PM/z 
PC91CNu2bduWZVmW5bLpjsfj8XgcBEEQBJPJZDKZZAw0n8/n8zkCGYZhGIYgCIIgFEt3OB
+wOh8OA 
gKZpmqZlDDedTqfTKRnO933f95GVer1er9fz0BVFURRFxCR3QfyMQfv9fr/fDyLgOI7jON
+mo419k 
JUkMBoPBYJCRNBrxdrvdbrco6qvVarVaIWdFpQO/5tIcFBbE4nQ6nU6nJIpHjlGlEklTFE
+VRFDIa 
T32/3+/3+3jqHMdxHBcfB2sK6HFFURRFeb1er9crfksoNUrr0GvUfxGfnA+FmX+QALDItG
+LDA6O2 
pQyCJFkPqxMDK2p9LodOAhQaLRjfoKRGo2wObl3G8PoDsA0Gb5Q5oonjfSNKTh96AOh+u9
+1ut1uS 
FuZrONPJ7bJ06tA9TDDsD6QkCnDltEDRkV1Q9AnENyuk8hcyChkkcZKo5uv1er1er3S6cA
+PkFXSx 
MQodPrXFg2zTEsVANhO2JNdEmVo80ub7K/lSDHPyLkNaXrVarVar2W46LMuyLFsKaZ7neZ
+4nvwFR 
NGKeGjYajUajkXz9z+RLn8/n8/ms/ANIQXq5XC6Xy/v9fr/fvw3p9Xq9Xq9VVVVV9fF4PB
+6Pokhc 
r9fr9Vr6s6Lf4dNpbS6/exQA3BHDt/fkPl3wwT85wlcEcrCHZyHO1tmOSl95iGLcQN80Td
+M0jTa1 
LMuyLF3XdV03TdM0zWaz2Ww2Xdd1XRenDlDHgTbtvj/ykMZpDm/6LpfL5XLBmGi32+12G6
+Th5RAA 
Pne73W63iwfGYFosFovF4kOZrtVqtVoN16TD4XA4HPAAKDp5yZUkSZIk1GGz2Ww2m91ut9
+vt0Mof 
lcfxeDwej7PZbDaboRFbrVar1SJfIsLdYZfn8/l8Pue3y1zyiH9VAMFElb5Yp/+PcvAbH/
+25ox5S 
PYYAAAAASUVORK5CYII=');


for my $x (1..15){
    $canv->createImage(30, 30 + $x * 40,
                            -image=> $bunny,
                            );
    $canv->createImage(930, 30 + $x * 40,
                            -image=> $bunny,
                            );
}

my $xtermWidth = 600;
my $xtermHeight = 500;

## this Frame is needed for including the xterm in Tk::Canvas 
my $xtermContainer = $canv->Frame(-container => 1);
my $xtid = $xtermContainer->id();
# converting the id from HEX to decimal as xterm requires a decimal Id
+ 
my ($xtId) = sprintf hex $xtid;

my $dcontitem = $canv->createWindow(475,275,
   -window => $xtermContainer,
   -width => $xtermWidth+100,
   -height => $xtermHeight,
   -state => 'normal');

my $label = $canv->createText( 475,10,
       -text => "Click Background To Hide Lyrics",
       -font => 'big',
       );

$canv->Tk::bind("<Button-1>", \&hideShow);

my $width = $xtermWidth;
my $height = $xtermHeight;

my $bframe = $mw->Frame(-bg=>'black')->pack(-expand => 1, -fill => 'x'
+);

$bframe->Button(-text => "Exit",
                -bg => 'lightsteelblue',
                -command => [sub{Tk::exit}] )->pack(-side=>'right', -p
+adx=>20 );
my $startbut;
$startbut = $bframe->Button(-text => "Start",
                -bg => 'hotpink',
                -command => sub{
     $startbut->configure(-state =>'disabled');
     system("xterm -fn 10x20 -bg 'black' -fg 'hotpink' -into $xtId -e 
+timidity $kar &");
                  } )->pack(-side=>'left', -padx=>20);

my $tl; #used to mask xterm 

MainLoop();
sub hideShow {
    if ($canv->itemcget($label, -text) =~ /Hide/) {
             $canv->itemconfigure($label,
                    -fill => 'white',
                    -text => "Click Background to Show Lyrics");

             $tl = $mw->Toplevel(-use=>$xtId );
           } else {
             $canv->itemconfigure($label,
                    -fill => 'black',
                    -text => "Click Background to Hide Lyrics");
             $tl->withdraw;
        }
}
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