re. add to library - chartbuster cdgs

[Ron Larrivee]

Upon inserting a chartbuster cdg into my macbook, it plays and data (t, a, etc.) is listed, lyrics come up, etc.

Does that mean I can just copy it to my library & now I can fetch it anytime? or, do I need to use my plextor drive instead?

Thanks,

Ron (newbie)

[dave]

what you want to do is "rip" the songs. Just select the ones you want and drag them to your library (or pick File->Rip).

"Add to Library" is generally used to add songs that already exist on a hard drive, ie: they were ripped by some other software, or previously ripped with kJams but then moved or you decided to rebuild your library after consolidating it.

[Ron Larrivee]

Thanks for your quick response, Dave. I appreciate it.

I want to try to be more explicit - here goes.

I've noticed that several (definitely not all) of my cdgs actually play and come up with title, artist and other data when I insert them directly into my macs hard drive. When this happens, it's unbelievably great...

I'm assuming the following-

1. If the data (t, a, etc.) is not available, I can put it in before ripping, and it'll all be good upon ripping.

2. Would I be likely to have more luck with the data if used my Plextor 716UF external drive, in lieu of the macs internal drive?

3. Often, when I put a cdg in the mac's internal, i get the message, 'can't find disc.

Thank you for such an incredible program - I love it - just don't want to screw it up!

Ron

[dave]

1. If the data (t, a, etc.) is not available, I can put it in before ripping, and it'll all be good upon ripping.

this is in fact required. don't rip songs UNLESS you've got it's metadata.

2. Would I be likely to have more luck with the data if used my Plextor 716UF external drive, in lieu of the macs internal drive?

whether the metadata is in one of the online databases is completely unrelated to which drive you use to simply see what is on the disc. ALL drives are capable of reading the table of contents (which is hashed to a "unique" ID, then that ID is used to query the online databases for the metadata for that disc. DISCS DO NOT HAVE METADATA ON THEM. The only thing that depends on the drive is the ability to RIP the song with the CD+G stream.

3. Often, when I put a cdg in the mac's internal, i get the message, 'can't find disc.

you are seeing a mirage, completely unrelated.

Read about Meta Data
Read about pulling metadata off the internet databases:
freedb
KJ Pro

[philflood]

Just an observation - It seems really strange that the mac drive works sometimes but not all the time with a CD+G disc. On the other hand, if your Chartbuster discs are the 450 song SCDG discs, this makes more sense, as you actually using a DVD that contains pairs of mp3s and cdgs.

[dave]

It seems really strange that the mac drive works sometimes but not all the time with a CD+G disc

Again you're seeing a mirage. When you say "works" in this context it means "shows the proper meta data", ie: it doesn't say "Track 01", "Track 02" etc, but shows real song names. This is unrelated to the drive. If you don't see the data when you put the disc in one drive, you won't see it if you put the disc in the other drive. If you DO see it in one, you'll see it in another.

Whether you can rip the disc however is entirely dependent on the drive. It will work in one drive (always) when it won't work in another drive (always). It never "sometimes" works, period.

[philflood]

Upon inserting a chartbuster cdg into my macbook, it plays and data (t, a, etc.) is listed, lyrics come up, etc. )

Actually, I meant "works" in terms of "lyrics comes up." If the drive doesn't read CD+G, he should never be able to see the lyrics come up. I was not referring to the meta data, which Dave explains expertly, as usual.

[dave]

I am quite sure he's not saying that the lyrics come up "sometimes". Ron, can you please clarify? If you think the lyrics "sometimes" works, can you confirm this with a test right now? I think you'll find that was a mistake or misunderstanding. They either ALWAYS come up or they NEVER do. However, you can rip a song on one drive, then stick it in the other drive and play it from the disc and it will play. However it is not playing off the disc, it is playing from the cache. Clear your cache for the real test.

-dave

[Ron Larrivee]

Thanks for the comments (dialogue), guys -- I'd like to accommodate your suggestion, Dave, but I'm struggling with other computer related issues at the moment that'll prevent me from doing so...When I get the other stuff sorted out, I'll be happy to oblige.

After emailing you last night Dave (re. computer memory issues), I contacted MAC support to sort out how to increase (or possibly move memory around)? [Once more, I possess minimal technology skills here. For me, it's a foreign language - do not understand most of the technical vocab, etc. etc. and so, am prone to - impulsivity and focus on details not a strong suit - ADHD +++]

The Techs concern was that I do not have enough memory (160gb) on my internal hard drive to hold all of the music, photos, apps., etc. that I have. (He was also cautioned me about doing too much at this time and possibly messing up the computer itself.)

So, he suggested I purchase an external hard drive and move my music folders - (iTunes and/or kJams) to that folder. Now, my preference is to have both apps on my computer with an external serving as back-up - however - I will do what's necessary to have a smooth running show w/out issues. Now, I'm ok with that - and I know you suggest laCie - so, I'm going to purchase a laCie.

My concern from my reading of different forum issues is however, once I move the folder to another place from the MAC internal, to the laCie external drive, that kJams will not be able to find it due to the change in location, {as I believe that I've gleaned that information from my reading of forums} - so, clearly, I'll need help with that when I make this move. I just want to be certain that this is the best way to proceed.

Advice appreciated!

Thanks for the help & regret the annoyance
- this is just not my strength, but I'm working at it.

Ron L. ( )

(If necessary or helpful, more on my hardware overview below.)

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook
Model Identifier: MacBook4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MB41.00C1.B00
SMC Version: 1.31f0
Serial Number: W8832FHQ0P1
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

Memory - Capacity: 148.73 GB Available: 5.5 MB Used: 148.72 GB on disk

[dave]

When I get the other stuff sorted out, I'll be happy to oblige

great I look forward to your reply.

ADHD

me too, with a touch of aspbergers

The Techs concern was that I do not have enough memory (160gb) on my internal hard drive

the Tech in this case may be correct. You show that you have only 5.5 MB of free space on your internal drive. this is not enough space for kjams to cache even one song. you should have a few GIGAbytes free on your hard drive.
Download this tool and run it, pick your hard drive and hit OK. give it a few minutes and you'll get a picture. Look for big blocks. click a big block and it will tell you what it is. is this a file you don't need? then delete it. is it like a movie or backup or something you *could* put on an external drive? them move it to the external drive and delete it from the internal. repeat ad nauseam until you have a few gigs of free space.

one thing to note for the learning curve: "Memory (RAM)" and "Hard Drive Space (storage)" are two TOTALLY different things, yet they are both measured in GigaBytes. so it's easy to confuse them. You do not use the word "memory" to refer to your hard drive, just say "hard drive space" . Ram is like hands. if it's in your hand you can manipulate it. Hard drive is like a chest of drawers. You have to open the drawer and pull something into your hand before you can manipulate it. then put it back. when you fall down (crash) you drop everything in your hands (not put back in the chest), but everything in the chest is still safe.

it is not LaCie i recommend, it is Seagate. be sure to get a Seagate drive as your external HARD drive. I only mention LaCie in connection with LightScribe, which is what you may need to rip and/or burn, it is a CD/DVD drive, not a hard drive. Any LightScribe will do, not just the LaCie drives..

Moving your folder is not that hard, tho it may be a bit confusing for you. See here and let me know.

[Ron Larrivee]

The Techs concern was that I do not have enough memory (160gb) on my internal hard drive

the Tech in this case may be correct. You show that you have only 5.5 MB of free space on your internal drive. this is not enough space for kjams to cache even one song. you should have a few GIGAbytes free on your hard drive.
Download this tool and run it, pick your hard drive and hit OK. give it a few minutes and you'll get a picture. Look for big blocks. click a big block and it will tell you what it is. is this a file you don't need? then delete it. is it like a movie or backup or something you *could* put on an external drive? them move it to the external drive and delete it from the internal. repeat ad nauseam until you have a few gigs of free space

Hi Dave, Thanks again for your help. Well, I can tell it's Friday the 13th --- every move I make seems to be doomed for failure at this point. let me quickly catch you up on events

1. Went to apple store to fetch a hard drive this am, impulsively - returned w/ 500GB laCie "rugged" all terrain hd - hopefully this will do?

2. When I returned from store, read you email, smacked myself about laCie, and went back to work trying to figure things out ... here i am.

3. Tried to download the tool you suggested "GrandPerspective" but unable to do so (of course) because not enough memory space to download program. (This was a great idea on your part!)

4. At this point, I believe I need to remove all karaoke music from computer - get kJams back to "new born" - save all karaoke music to laCie external hard drive (i hope this will work) ---

5. Just read the following, as you rec'd re getting rid of files: "That is, it does not work for files you have "Add to library..."'d. In other words, if you have imported pre-existing MP3+G files, this procedure will not help you. In that case, you will need to move all your music, then throw out your library folder and re-import them from the new location."

Okay, so I initially "add to libra'd" files (cavs mp3+g, roughly 20k of songs) and things were looking good - kJams running great, although meta data was not solid on 1,000's of entries, so I was disappointed - but could find by songtitle some & numbers others, so I figured I could probably make it work for a gig ---- then I started ripping scdgs (4,000 titles) by dragging to "add to library," that was working great for the first 2,500 titles or so - all meta data I needed was right there on the screen, damn I was some kind of excited --- then, suddenly it slowed to a crawl and the warning started coming -- esellerate warn; start up cache warning, etc. - now here I am, trying to start over

So, that's it

Thanks for reading this tome,

Ron Larrivee

(then, ultimately deal with itunes music as well - i seem to have screwed that up also)

[dave]

Please read this very carefully or you will continue to confuse people:

"Memory (RAM)" and "Hard Drive Space (storage)" are two TOTALLY different things, yet they are both measured in GigaBytes. so it's easy to confuse them. You do not use the word "memory" to refer to your hard drive, just say "hard drive space" . Ram is like hands. if it's in your hand you can manipulate it. Hard drive is like a chest of drawers. You have to open the drawer and pull something into your hand before you can manipulate it. then put it back. when you fall down (crash) you drop everything in your hands (not put back in the chest), but everything in the chest is still safe.

Please stop labeling your hard drive space as "memory" because it's not.
All you need to do is delete some stuff from your hard drive that you don't need. you only need enough such that you can download GrandPerspective. Try running kJams, go to prefs->audio and click the "clear cache" button. make sure it's set to like 5 or something, until you get your hard drive cleared off. DO NOT PLAY any songs. then quit.
Also, when quoting me, please use the quote button so it's obvious, otherwise it seems you're just repeating to me what I said. I have fixed your previous replies.
Sure the LaCie will be just fine i'm sure.
Sure, rebuilding your library from scratch is fine, as it will ensure a good setup.
You can have kJams automatically reinterpret all your meta data in one fell swoop.
Please don't say "add to library" when you mean "rip" they are TOTALLY different things and you will cause confusion. See the Glossary again.
Your computer will continue to crawl until you free up a big chunk of space.

[Ron Larrivee]

Ok, Dave - thanks for hanging in there ---

3.79gb of hard drive space now available - opened Grand Perspective for help ... again, terrific tip & idea

cleared cache current cache size reads: 0.0

then I quit, per your instructions

Thanks,

Ron

[dave]

okay so now you should be able to find big files on your HD that you can just summarily delete, or move to your external drive. The hope here is you can clear enough room such that you CAN store all your music on the internal drive, with several FREE GigaBytes left over. Then you don't have to cart around the external HD.

[Ron Larrivee]

Thanks, Dave --- supper time around here, so I'll be heading off shortly.

Now when I cleared the cache, 24,342 music files remained.

Also, SCDGS that were added to library, show up as separate playlists.

Is this as expected?

Thanks again,

Ron