Importing
From KJams Wiki
Contents |
But First
"Importing" in this context refers to "Add to Library", which is very much NOT the same thing as Ripping.
When you use the "Add to library..." function, presently kJams does NOT copy the files into your library. That means, you MUST have your songs stored where you want them to permanently reside. You can NOT move your songs once kJams imports them (unless you know what you are doing). They can be on an external volume, but the volume must be online for kJams to be able to play them.
Also keep in mind you can not place them in the "kJams Music" folder before you "Add to Library…" them, you do not own that folder, kJams does. In fact don't mess with that folder at all (unless you understand exactly what to do).
Bin/Cue Pairs
A pair of files with .bin and .cue extensions can be added as if it were a CD, making it easy to burn bin/cue on your mac. Simply "Add to library" the .bin file, and kJams will automatically find the .cue file next to it (it must be named exactly the same, excluding file extension). kJams will then query the freedb for meta data, and then add all the songs from the bin file as separate entries into the database. Note that all the songs now in the database will just point to the same .bin file, much like all the songs from a CD point to the same CD. Bear in mind that kJams does not save Meta Data in separate files like it does for all other song types. This means if you edit the meta data, then one day you rebuild your library, the editing will be lost.
A naked .bin file does not have a corresponding .cue file to go with it, and kJams assumes it contains only one song. In this case kJams does preserve any meta data you change, so rebuilding your library will recover your edited data.
Tagged Songs
If the songs you are importing are tagged (eg: they have ID3 data, Vorbis Comments, or QuickTime Metadata (or if you've used kJams to Xattr tag them)) then you may simply go "File->Add to Library…", navigate to the root folder, click okay, then click the "Tags" button in the next dialog (if it shows up). kJams will then import everything and you're ready to go.
However if you are importing untagged music, and you hope to glean some meta-data out of the file names directly (and optionally the enclosing folder names) then please read the next section.
Untagged Songs
This works for importing pre-existing Audio+G, Zipped Audio+G, QuickTime, MPEG, kar, midi, naked BIN files
First, make sure you've got preferences->tags->conform song names: set to "L-T - R - S". This is important. You can change it if you know why you want to change it, but i recommend against it 'till you know what you're doing.
In the following explanation, I am going to use these conventions:
R - artist name
S - song name
L - album name
T - track number
I - Ignore this bit of information
/x/ - stands for "folder named <x>" (without the brackets), eg: "/R/" is a folder who's name is the artist's name, or "/L/" is a folder who's name is the album name. To extend the idea, "/R - L/" is a folder who's name contains both the artist and the album, separated by a "space dash space".
Okay. As you know, pre existing songs can be named a variety of ways. eg:
LEG086-07 - U2 - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me.zip
SC8397-13.zip
AH2003-03 - Pink Floyd - Time.zip
BL21-04_-_Every_Breath_You_Take_-_Police,_The
Adams, Bryan - Cuts Like A Knife - SC-1.zip
Now, the problem is, it takes a human to interpret these names. Some are laid out "L-T - S - R.xxx", some are "L-T - R - S.xxx", some could be "T S.xxx. Some songs have "pretty" names in the names of the folders enclosing the song!
If you've got all your songs from one source, then they're probably all named the same way. However, if you got your songs from many sources, then you will probably want to sort them into like-minded folders before continuing. If this is the case, you should see below for info on pre-sorting, before cointinuing.
So to get started, just pick File->Add To Library and navigate to the root folder of your songs, select it and hit okay. Go have coffee if you have a lot of songs.
Now, you will spend some time "fixing" songs in batches. Select a group of songs that are similarly broken and right click "Re-interpret names" and pick the right interpretation, or make a new one (with the edit button). Watch the tasks window, after about 10 seconds kJams will attempt to update what is on the disk (renaming the files and updating the tags). Don't get too far ahead of the tasks, you may want to do a batch then let kJams finish pushing the meta out to them and then let it complete saving the database again. Then go on to the next batch.
If you get thru your whole library, and now all the meta is correct, YOU WILL NEVER GO THRU THIS PROCESS AGAIN!! That's because as you went kJams updated the actual files on the disk. If you ever need to rebuild your library from scratch, all the meta is already there, and it will all import in one fell swoop. Yeah!!
Basically this new way lets you do all your work in kJams not in the finder. No sorting necessary. But it helps to read below to understand the reasoning behind this madness.
To learn about the "re-interpret names" dialog, scroll down to the bottom section.
Pre-Sorting
In order to spend less time interpreting individual songs, and more time interpreting in large batches, you will want to pre-sort your song files into folders where the names have a similar format. EG: put all the files who's names are "L-T - S - R.xxx" in one folder, and all those with "L-T - R - S.xxx" in a separate folder. By pre-sorting, you're saving yourself the hassle (later) of interpreting every single file, you only have to interpret batches of files. So just pre-sort your library into sub folders.
Another convention is to use the folder hierarchy to store meta info. EG: "/R/S/L-T.cdg" is common, or even "/R/S/L-T - S - A.cdg" or "/R/S/L-T - A - I.cdg". This means there is a folder who's name is the artist name, inside that is a folder who's name is the song name, inside that are the files that match that have album, track number, artist and song, but since we already got song from the folder name we can Ignore it.
Now if you have one of those albums that has a number as part of it, like a series for example:
"CB5042-2-17 Give a Little Bit - Goo Goo Dolls"
The template string would be L-L-T S - R
The two L's will suck up the "CB5042" and the "2", leaving "17" for the track.
Here are examples from my library: In the above picture, I've created a "More Music" folder. This could be your external HD filled with songs. But inside that, i've created a folder called "zip standard", could be called anything, it just separates the zip files from the unzipped files. Inside "zip", here's the big secret: make new folders that correspond to the types of songs in your library. I found that I had these three types of names: LTRS, LTSR, and RSLT, I then sorted my entire library into these three folders. The following show examples of the other two folders:
Above is the "Album-Track-Song-Artist" group of songs
And finally, above shows songs with names like "Artist-Song-Album-Track"
Below, you can see I've also created a folder for unzipped files. The format should be similar to what you see here.
After you have sorted your library like the above, if you only have four types of songs, it should only take four interpretations to import your entire library. You may want to trash your "kJams Library" folder to start fresh. Then launch kJams and go "File->Add to Library..." and navigate to where your external music lives. Next you'll see:
Song Name Interpretation Dialog
The dialog shows the file name to be interpreted (labeled "File:"), plus the two enclosing folders ("Folder" and "Grandfolder"). The interpretations that are available for the file are shown in the "Interpret As:" popup. The box shows what happens when applying the interpretation to the file (and possibly it's enclosing folders). If there is no interpretation that makes the meta info as shown in the box come out correctly, you can edit what appears in the menu by pressing the Edit... button, which will launch your default text editor (likely TextEdit).
The format of the text file is just the interpretation styles, one per line. The ONLY things you should type into a style are the letters "R", "S", "L", "T", "I", the separator " - " (that's a "space dash space"), or just a plain space " ", or a dash "-", or parentheses: "(" or ")". That's it. If you need something more, let me know. I won't try to predict what will happen if you type something else, you might crash. Anyway, add your new style, then save the file and switch back into kJams, which will update the menu, now you can select the new format you added.
I recommend against using the radio buttons, unless you know what you're doing.
