Rotation

What is Rotation?

The "Rotation" is the list of singers who will sing tonight. They are interleaved, that is, if there are two singers, A and B, and A has 4 songs and B has two songs, and A is first, the list will go A-B-A-B-A-A. A singer has control over the contents and order of their "Tonight" list. They simply fill this list and order it to suit. The KJ has control over the order of the singers via the "KJ Rotation" lists.

"KJ Rotation" Playlist

The "KJ Rotation" lists each singer who had declared himself "here" for the evening, and the order in which they were added, or the order the KJ has placed them in. Each singer appears once. The list shows the order of the rotation, starting with first, and listing up until last. A singer will stay in the rotation even if they don't have a song currently in their "Tonight" queue. That way, they won't loose their place if they forgot to add another song by the time they sing. (You can set a pref to kick them out if they do this, forcing them to re-enter at the bottom of the rotation when they add another song, but that will likely make them sing *sooner* than they otherwise would have, so be aware). The current singer in the rotation should be highlighted, and is not necessarily the one at the top. (soon, the current singer will have a speaker icon next to it, separating it from selection, so you can select freely but not interfere with the visual feedback of who is singing). Not necessarily the one at the top means, the list does not change when the singer changes, what changes is just which singer is current. If you don't touch anything, you'll see the highlight change (naa-speaker). The list only changes when singers are added or removed, or when the KJ changes the order manually. If a singer goes home or is no longer singing, the KJ can simply "delete" them from this list, it does not actually delete the singer, it merely un-checks their "Here" check box in the Singer list, so any songs in their "Tonight" list remain there for the next time they show up at the venue.

"Rotation" Playlist

The "Rotation" list is different than the above, this is the one you want to show the audience. The current singer is always at the top, and the list scrolls up when that singer is finished. It also "wraps around" when it gets to the end, so singers may appear more than once (if they have more than one song in their "Tonight" queue). This list is maintained automatically for you, you really don't have much control in this view, since it depends on the contents of other lists. To change what you see in this list, you manipulate the Singers list (to change which singers are "Here"), the individual singer's "Tonight" list (to change the order in which a singer's songs appear) or the "KJ Rotation" list, to change the Rotation order. Note that to change or replace the CURRENT singer you must first STOP the current song (using either the ESC key or ⌘-. [command-period])

Tips

Tip for KJs using Pro in a real-world setting for the first time: {contributed after my first weekend hosting with kJams. -randyj } If you're in PANIC MODE because the wrong song is playing for the singer, it's due to "user error". (You're learning the hard way.) So you go find the right song but you can't get it to play! Grrr! Take a deep breath. Just remember this: To get a song to play quick-n-dirty, press ESC to stop the rotation, click ONCE on the song, press the space bar. Done!

You probably had a singer in Target Mode. To turn it off, double-click the singer name with the red target. To take advantage of Pro features: first add a song to the correct singer, then double-click the Singer in the KJ Rotation list. Check out the shortcuts here: Singers

Another tip for "what do i do if the next singer stepped out for a minute" ? Say your Rotation looks like this: Singers A, B, C, D. Say you have Singer A, just finishing, and now Singer B is up, but they've stepped outside for a smoke or something. That means you want to get Singer C going while B is busy. Okay, in that case, just press right arrow to get singer C to start singing. The next time thru the rotation, the singer B's song will still be there, it does NOT move to their History until they actually sing (60% of) it. If you want B to now come right AFTER C, then, while C is singing, go to the "KJ Rotation" and drag B and drop them ON TOP of D. When you let go, they will be inserted *before* D, so your new rotation looks like: A, C, B, D. When C is done, B is up!

"Who's Up Next" ShowScreen

The ShowScreen that comes up between songs can be turned off with the "prefs->advanced->Show Rotation at End of Song" pref. For some, it comes up too late and stays too long, cutting into the next song. You can help this a lot by making sure "prefs->general->Skip Silence at Start of Song" is turned OFF. If you still need more time, you can adjust when it comes up and how long it stays up. Edit your secrets preferences file and find these:

<key>Show Rotation when less than time remaining (seconds)</key> <real>3</real>

<key>Show Rotation Duration (seconds)</key> <real>10</real>

Change the first one (the "3") to say, "4", then it will come up 4 seconds before the end of the previous song, rather than 3. Then, change the second one (the "10") to say "8", then it will stay up for 8 seconds, giving you a total of 3 more seconds at the start of the next song.

Changing the Background Picture of the "Custom Picture" ShowsSreen

See this section

Changing the Background Picture of the Rotation ShowScreen

If you just want to get rid of the "kJams Logo" in the rotation showscreen, do this:

1. run kjams
2. help->reveal preferences
3. quit
4. in the prefs folder that is revealed, go into the "Producer Templates" folder
5. in there, find the "Pix" folder
6. in there, delete the file "rotation_background.png"
7. run kJams

--> now the Rotation will no longer have the kJams Logo

If you want to replace the background with your own:

1. Find the picture "rotation_background.png", as above
2. edit the picture to your liking
3. save it back in place

--> now your picture shows up!

If you want a different picture PER VENUE:

1. Find the "Pix" folder as above
2. copy it into each venue folder (in /Users/<you>/Music/kJams/kJams Library/Venues/<each venue>) that you want a special picture for
3. edit the picture that is now inside that venue folder

--> each venue has it's own pic!

Meta Tags

You can use meta tags in a Rotation showscreen to show meta data for each song and singer. Here is a list of supported tags. To use them, place them inside of square brackets. For example, to show the current singer, you type [SNGR], and to show the current singer's song, you type [name]. To see an example of this, simply edit the Rotation showscreen.

There are *special* tags you can use as well. Some only work in a Rotation showscreen, some only in "showscreen message", and others in any showscreen

[+sgr] - increments the "current" singer to the next one, so the next set of tags will come from the next singer and the song associated with them
[msg ] - show whatever message is currently "saved" as the "showscreen message"
[venu] - the current venue name
[eCrT] - how long until, and the exact time of, the "end of the current rotation"
[eArT] - how long until, and the exact time of, the "end of all rotations"