Show Screens Temp
During a live show, it is important to communicate with the audience. Traditionally, this has meant that a good KJ would spend a lot of time on the microphone, making announcements, announcing the lineup of the rotation, etc. While it is still important for a KJ to build rapport with the audience over the microphone, kJams allows you to do much more to get your announcements across. You can either use Messenger to scroll a message along the bottom of the screen (without obscuring the lyrics), or you can use ShowScreens to display a full-screen message.
Using Messenger and ShowScreens, there are many ways to communicate with your audience, even if they're out of earshot, on a back smoking patio (if there's a video screen out there), or sitting at the bar ignoring you but otherwise staring at the screen. Meseenger and ShowScreens allow you to better control the show and to provide a more satisfying experience to your audience.
Messenger
Messenger allows you to insert a message along the bottom of the video display. You can use Messenger to announce Last Call, drink specials, or anything you like. Messages can be displayed immediately or held for later. Note that a Messenger message appears for a few seconds and then fades. If the message is long, it will appear as a crawl. should we specify the length? is there a limit to how long it can be?
- Select Video → Messenger Message to display a custom message at the bottom of the screen.
- Select Show to display the message immediately.
- Select Later to save the message for later.
- Select Video → Display Recent Messenger Message to display a saved message.
- Select Video → Messenger Rotation to scroll the next three singers along the bottom of the screen.(This info is taken from your KJ Rotation list.)
Note Display Recent Messenger Message shows the last message saved, not necessarily the last message displayed. You can show as many messages as you want using Video → Messenger Message → Show without overwriting a message that you have saved using Video → Messenger Message → Later.
ShowScreens
ShowScreens differ from messages in that they take up the entire screen and they stay on the screen for as long as you want.(In other word, you have to turn off a ShowScreen.) By contrast, when you use Messenger, the message crawls along the bottom of the screen and then disappears.
So the deal is, in the Video menu there's a list of predefined messages you can show. To show a message, simply select it from the list, and it’s displayed as a ShowScreen. Note that it will stay on the screen until you select Video → Hide ShowScreen.
If you’re using Producer, you can create your own screens or modify the existing ones. The main ShowScreens you will want to be familiar with are the Message and Rotation screens, as these are the actual templates used by kJams to display screen messages and the Who's Up Next rotation screen between each song. You also may find yourself using the iJams, Tip Your Waitress, and Next Singer screens quite a bit during shows.
Note that each ShowScreen included is just a starting point for what you could envision for visual display between (or during) songs. Some are just sample pieces that you will use to build customized ShowScreens. If you want to hide some of these options that you won't be using during your show, find the actual file(s) in your user Library/Preferences/kJams/Producer Templates, and then prefix the file name with a tilde (~) to indicate that you want that ShowScreen hidden (e.g., ~Big Text.xml)
To learn how to create your own, go to the Producer/Tutorials page, then watch the videos called:
- Composing Text and Pictures, and Fading to Black
- Creating and Editing Comp Templates
- Intro and Outro, and Rotation Templates
In addition to the song meta templates (described in the Xattr page), you can also use [venu] to substitute the current venue name, or [SNGR] to substitute the current Singer.
Additional Customization
Click here to learn more about customizing ShowScreens. Advanced Custom ShowScreens Temp
If you're interested in showing meta data for the songs you play, click ShowScreen Meta Tags.