Track Names and Artist When Ripping

[James Lee]

Hi. I just bought Kjams Pro today and have since been ripping all of my cdg's to my hd. For some reason there are occasionally cd's that will not display the names and artists in kjams but will have the names when i view them in itunes. Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this. I have a ton of cdg's to rip and it will take long enough without having to edit all the info on some of them.

oh yeah...also. I noticed that when viewing video full screen with or without a second display there is a decent loss of quality as far as how clear the text is. Everything is working properly with the video it's just that the words look a little rough when the size is bigger. Not sure if that can be made to look cleaner??

Thanks.
... by the way, I love this software so far

[dave]

occasionally cd's that will not display the names and artists

there is no meta info on a CD. the data must be read from an online DB. if there is no data, then you get 'Audio Track', this is normal.
http://www.kjams.com/wiki/Freedb

iTunes uses a *proprietary* database called Gracenote. If i were to use that DB i would be forever locked in to NEVER EVER using another database, those are their terms. Since this rubs me the wrong way i politely told them to fuck off.

If you are willing to pay a few bucks a month (and it's worth it if you're a KJ and have a subscription to new CDs every month), then you can subscribe to the "KJ Pro™" database (not related to kJams Pro). They are always up to date, since they're paid to be up to date.
http://www.kjams.com/wiki/KJ_Pro

loss of quality as far as how clear the text is

Nope, that's full quality. You're taking a bitmap that is 288x192 and stretching it to something like 1920x1200, you're gonna get pixels. jaggy pixels. Okay having said that, yes i could use smooth interpolation instead of jaggy interpolation. and i probably will. eventually. But just to be clear there is no loss of quality, i'm showing you the *exact* bitmap as described in the CDG file. Put it on a TV and it looks fine at 720x480.

Update: Okay i just turned on smooth interpolation and now i remember why i totally blew it off: it doesn't make a damn bit of difference! Okay it makes a *weency* difference but not enough to justify the cost in speed. Below are the before / after screen shots.

[James Lee]

Thanks for the fast reply Dave. I kind of guessed that was the case. I will have to register with KJ Pro before long since I will be getting new cd's continually. I am considering downloading though or super cdg as it would save time.

One more question. I am about a third of the way through my ripping process and I have noticed a few of the tracks have glitches in the video kind of like the examples you gave of istar. Most play perfectly but a few are real glitchy and a couple have a minor glitch such as a single letter that is fixed somewhere on the screen.

I am using the lacie d2 20x dvd drive with my macbook pro. Is this an issue with the cd's? Some of the tag names seemed to be messed up from my previous issue and all of those were from the same company. The song name and artist were coupled together as the song name. Just wondering if there are companies to avoid or if my disc might just be scratched or if it is in the program.

Thanks again...

[dave]

I am considering downloading though or super cdg

Make sure you do a test purchase for your download to make sure it comes with meta data, some do not. SuperCDG is quick and painless but the quality is usually below par IMHO, SoundChoice and DK usually have the best music quality and they take the time to make the lyrics nice too.

a few of the tracks have glitches in the video

this will be due to excessive scratchiness of the disc. It's pretty unusual on a pristine disc, tho it could be due to shoddy manufacturing, or due to it not being an original disc. You can fix glitches using Producer if you have the time and patience (and the motivation).

tag names seemed to be messed up

this is not related to the disc, it's up to you to ensure the tags are correct before ripping. You CAN fix them after ripping but then the songs will no longer link to the disc.
http://www.kjams.com/wiki/Why_meta_before_ripping

You can "reinterpret names" to extract meta info out of the file name or song name.

[James Lee]

Werd...

Thanks 4 explaining it to the noob. My parents used to KJ and I used to help them out and then started to dj more club style with turntables. I just started getting into KJ and weddings and stuff on my own. We had a fire and the cdg player we had got ruined so when I saw kjams I decided to go this route instead of a new traditional player. I went digital with my turntables incorporating my macbook so it only seemed natural. I will be hosting a karaoke based house party next weekend and then hopefully a few local bars. I will supply a good testimony if you want after I've had more time to experience the software.

[dave]