I have been copying some of my favorite karaokes to my iPad. But, of course, in order to do this I must first find them, so I have been using the Kjams Reveal in Finder feature to find the location of the file on my hard drive. I have noticed that in any given session, the first couple Reveals happen very quickly, but then the speed slows down remarkably. I usually do these for about 25 songs, doing one Reveal after the next. I did a test today to time the speed, and in my test, the first three Reveals happened within 4 seconds, but then subsequent Reveals took 15 seconds or more. I have waited over a minute for a reveal at times. My system data is as follows:
MacBook Pro 2.8ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 8 GB Ram, Lion 10.7.3
Kjams version 1.0d52r49
Library size 75,418 songs
Slow Reveals
Re: Slow Reveals
what's going on in your activity window?
i'm not seeing that problem.
i'm not seeing that problem.
Re: Slow Reveals
Activity window shows nothing going on. Just ran another test. Results in seconds, songs 1 through 10: 3,6,15,18,27,14,17,13,11,17. Note that during the 27 second search, the Time Machine icon showed it as active, so that likely explains that. Also, I just upgraded to 8GB Ram, and I have not had any one minutes or longer reveals since then, but I also have not had a session where I was working on 25 to 50 reveals, just two 10 reveal tests to be able to give you some data. In both tests, after the second reveal the time to reveal increased by over 100%. Dave, I just wanted to bring this to your attention in case there is something going on with the search routine that is causing this to slow up. I probably won't have need to do much more of this as I have the stuff on the iPad that I wanted to move over there, but it does seem odd that it slows so much after 2 or three reveals. In my first test, it went: 1,2,4,16,14,15, then 3, 21, 3, 5, but I discounted the the second 3 as I may had already searched for that song during the first 5 searches. During my second test, I was more careful to make sure I did not repeat a reveal search.
Re: Slow Reveals
okay i'm a little confused because you seem to be using the words "reveal" and "search" interchangeably.
when kjams does a "reveal", there is no search (of the library) going on at all, you've already GOT the song right there, kjams just tells the finder to reveal it (using applescript).
however, "search" (as in you type something into the search field) is known to be slow.
now, it IS possible that some songs are partially missing, in which case, yes, kjams will try several methods of locating the file on disk, so that it can be revealed. this can be tested by re-revealing some slow-to-reveal songs. if they're faster, then maybe that was the case. ALSO, the database will re-save, indicating that a quicker way to find the song WAS discovered (and saved for next time). you can confirm these things by watching the log file.
i agree it doesn't make much sense that repeated reveals would get progressively slower. there is no reason for that that i can see, they should all take the exact same amount of time.
can you detail your steps? is it like this:
repeat
search for song
right click->reveal in finder
end repeat
like that? or something else?
when kjams does a "reveal", there is no search (of the library) going on at all, you've already GOT the song right there, kjams just tells the finder to reveal it (using applescript).
however, "search" (as in you type something into the search field) is known to be slow.
now, it IS possible that some songs are partially missing, in which case, yes, kjams will try several methods of locating the file on disk, so that it can be revealed. this can be tested by re-revealing some slow-to-reveal songs. if they're faster, then maybe that was the case. ALSO, the database will re-save, indicating that a quicker way to find the song WAS discovered (and saved for next time). you can confirm these things by watching the log file.
i agree it doesn't make much sense that repeated reveals would get progressively slower. there is no reason for that that i can see, they should all take the exact same amount of time.
can you detail your steps? is it like this:
repeat
search for song
right click->reveal in finder
end repeat
like that? or something else?
Re: Slow Reveals
That's my bad on using those terms interchangably. To me the Reveal seems like some kind of search, because it does not happen as quickly as I think it should, but yes, the steps are exactly as you list them. I first search for a song using either a set of words from the title or the artist name, then click on the one I wish to reveal, then from the Kjams File menu click on Reveal in Finder, and then repeat the process. Also, just to be clear, the reveal times I gave were timed from the moment I clicked the Reveal in Finder command until the moment the file name appeared on the screen. In many instances, a blank window with the disc number, which is the name of the lowest level subfolder, would appear and would not fill in for several seconds until then all files contained in the subfolder would finally appear with the revealed file highlighted. At first I thought this might have something to do my the depth of my folder structure, but this did not prove to be true. The only constant I found was that after the second reveal, I began to experience longer reveal times.
Re: Slow Reveals
there is a clue. how many songs are in the folder in the Finder? i think that's the problem. "normal" folders might have 2 items in them. if you have ten thousand songs all in the same folder, that's the problem. and this has nothing to do with kJams, this is purely a Finder issue.
Re: Slow Reveals
The folders typically have about 15 items in them. Basically what you would get if you took a karaoke disc and prepared .zip files for each song on the disk. So the entire folder structure would look something like this:
Complex:
External HD 2>Karaoke files>Sunfly>Most Wanted>#925>names of songs on #925
For a smaller collection it would probably have two less folder levels such as:
Simple:
External HD 2> Karaoke files>Smaller manufactuer>names of songs
The lowest level folder in the more complex structure would have usually from 7 to 15 songs in it, all in .zip format. On rare occasions, the files are expanded as .cdg and .mp3 pairs, and in those cases there are double the number of files on the folder.
In one of foldesr where there is a simpler structure, where I got one cd from a manufacturer or other collector, I could have from 1 to 100 files on the lowest level folder.
I'll see if I notice any difference in speeds depending upon the number of songs in the lowest level folder, but that is good clue. If I get any real long reveals again, I will try to replicate it and let you know what's going on. Otherwise, let's consider this resolved for now.
(I am working hard at cutting down the size of my library, too, which I would think also ought to help. I don't need 20 versions of "Sweet Caroline.")
Thanks, Dave!
Complex:
External HD 2>Karaoke files>Sunfly>Most Wanted>#925>names of songs on #925
For a smaller collection it would probably have two less folder levels such as:
Simple:
External HD 2> Karaoke files>Smaller manufactuer>names of songs
The lowest level folder in the more complex structure would have usually from 7 to 15 songs in it, all in .zip format. On rare occasions, the files are expanded as .cdg and .mp3 pairs, and in those cases there are double the number of files on the folder.
In one of foldesr where there is a simpler structure, where I got one cd from a manufacturer or other collector, I could have from 1 to 100 files on the lowest level folder.
I'll see if I notice any difference in speeds depending upon the number of songs in the lowest level folder, but that is good clue. If I get any real long reveals again, I will try to replicate it and let you know what's going on. Otherwise, let's consider this resolved for now.
(I am working hard at cutting down the size of my library, too, which I would think also ought to help. I don't need 20 versions of "Sweet Caroline.")Thanks, Dave!
Re: Slow Reveals
ok, keep me posted