Before e-mailing us, please go over the FAQ below. The answer to your question might be here.

When I try to load a song in Jackson, the program tells me that the song is not yet analyzed. What is wrong?

Jackson will load only tracks that have been analyzed. You can analyze them yourself using the BeatMapper. For an overview of the beat-mapping process, have a look at A Visual Guide to Beat-Mapping that is part of the documentation.

The audio suffers from clicks. What can I do?

It is very important that you have the native, most recent drivers for your soundcard installed. You can find them on the manufacturer's Web site. If you still have clicks using the latest drivers, then try increasing the buffer size in the 'audio' section of the 'settings' panel. Increasing the buffer size will make Jackson's sliders less reactive, so make sure that you have the correct drivers installed. Note that the 'DirectSound' setting should allow for a smaller buffer size than the 'multimedia' setting.

Should I use compressed or uncompressed audio?

Uncompressed audio will almost always sound better than compressed audio. On the downside, uncompressed audio can easily take up 10 times as much space as compressed audio. If your hard-disk allows you to, use only uncompressed audio.

Note that compressed audio will consume more CPU resources than uncompressed audio. This can be quite noticeable in the BeatMapper or BeatTracker.

If you obtained your song in a compressed format to start with, then there is little point converting it to an uncompressed format. You will not gain any quality, but will still loose disk space. You will have a small win in CPU resources, though.

Where can I find songs with meta-data built in?

We are currently negotiating with online distributors to have them embed meta-data in the tracks they offer. We will inform you of progress on our Web site.