Glossary

Add to Library

is in the context of kJams means 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. This is NOT the same thing as Ripping.

Artwork Panel

The place in the corner where you can see album art, singer photo, or a mini lyrics window (see Screen Shots

Burn

To create a new CD, CD+G, VCD or DVD from music or video files that were originally on your computer. This new disc can then be played in any player that can play that type of disc. For example, you might "burn" a CD+G disc that contains your 14 favorite songs, then you can bring that disc out with you when you go to a venue for Karaoke, give the disc to the KJ and sing all your favorite songs.

CD Info.cidb

This is the file used by iTunes to inform the finder what to display for CD track names. The format is discussed in the article CD Info.cidb.

Download

To transfer a file, usually over the internet, from a remote server to your local machine. You are "pulling" the file to your local machine from a remote server. This is NOT the same as "Rip" (see below)

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions. By convention this implies that the answers are also given.

Import

In the context of kJams you should never say "import" as it is not precise enough. Please use the word "Rip" or the term "Add to Library", because they mean very different things.

LCD

See LCD Panel

Messenger

See Messenger

Meta data

Information about something. In this context, it is the various data associated with songs and can include just about anything you can imagine. In addition to name, artist, album, you can have things such as Label Color, Beats per Minute, Composer, even Lyrics. In kJams, essential meta data is stored in tags right in the song file, and is duplicated in the database for efficient access. Non essential meta data is stored in a file next to the song file, in an text XML file in the "plist" format. See: Perfect Metadata, Meta Data Files, Meta Info.

Playhead

See LCD Panel

Rip, Ripping

To copy music and/or video off a CD, CD+G, VCD, DVD. In this context it may also include LaserDisc. This usually involves translating the format of the data as well, eg: the data on a music CD is written in a raw, uncompressed format called "PCM", but when you copy it to your disc, it may be written in "MP3" format

Scrub

An mouse action denoting dragging the Playhead across the timeline track. See LCD Panel

Tag

When a song is stored on a computer, it is stored in a particular "format". That format may be AAC, MP3, Vorbis, QuickTime (which has many sub-formats), or any of a dozen other formats. Each format usually has a "tagging scheme" that manages the meta data for the song. For example, the MP3 format uses a tagging scheme called "ID3", and Vorbis uses a tagging scheme called "Vorbis Comments". Tags almost always include "Name", "Artist", "Album", "Track Number", and "Genre". Tags are stored directly inside the song file itself, so when you copy the song to another computer, the tags of course go with the song.

Upload

To transfer a file, usually over the internet, from your local machine to a remote server. You are "pushing" the file to a remote server from your local machine.

Wiki

This is a Hawai'ian word meaning "quick". It is also the name of the software used to run the kJams web site and manage all this documentation. More info here.