I wasn't saying the lines were causing anything here, it's just something I noticed.

Hmm, short instrumental portions shouldn't need a blank line... I mean I did suggest using a blank line for much longer solos, etc. just so the current line doesn't scroll too slow. One improvement I hope to make (though it's not an easy calculation) is to have the scrolling target column 64 (the middle of the screen) instead of column 128 (the far right.) The problem is I have to begin drawing the next line prior to the moment the current track time hits that line's timestamp, but depending on the speed of the current line, that delta time (between when I draw the next line at column 128 and when that next line becomes the "current line" at column 64) is different each time. I haven't yet struggled with trying to make it work just right, and I'm not sure it'll be trivial.

So once I (hopefully) implement that, you should not need so many of those blank lines to make sure the words are on the screen at the right moment. The current workaround is to call emphatic with a -o parameter, say, -o 1000000 to have it start scrolling the next line a full second before it's supposed to -- that way, the line is somewhere closer to the middle when we hit that line's timestamp.

Anyway, this is tangential, I just don't want to see everyone adding hundreds of blank lines to their lyrics just because they don't line up correctly. I still have no leads on why the lines are disappearing for you, but I'll continue to look into it (probably not today though.) If you find something, let me know.