When ripping set the Destination to the external drive in the Rip Dialog. Use Tools > Auto-Organize Files to move any existing files to the drive.

Hi, I have MM 4.0.xxx and just got an external hard drive that I would like to move the music files to and any new music I rip. I want my PC to be the front end. Example, I access MM from my OC but when I select and/or rip a track, I want it to save or be stored on the external hard drive. Is there an easy way to do that? I tried the auto organize both move and copy but out of 1.7 Gb it only showed about 225 Mb??

Here's the issue I am having while hosting my MM music files in an external drive. Its 90 gigs of music and while indexing into the library the external HDD stops reading or something, then the indexing freezes and MM freezes mid-index. Any thoughts? There is nothing wrong with the drive.

Thanks Peke for the info on Steve Monk's ksplugin - I tried it and it was easy to set-up and use but the end result was the same, the sound quality is not up to my expectations. For me that confirms that the problem must be the Edirol and the DAC they use.

I will follow the advice from MMan and contact Florida Music, I hope to find that Brit MMan but if not it will be interesting to hear what they say as they also sell the Edirol UA-1ex.

Once again, the support from the MM community is tremendous - Thanks All :D

Truth be told, I am sure that I skew the mean age upward everytime I log into the forum. We both strive for the old school sound but with the convienence of today's technology. Good thing that the next generation chose to get together to not only build Monkey but still answer us oldtimer's questions.

As you search for a new card, I will pass on that I bought my card online from Florida Music: http://www.floridamusicco.com/

Even though I had made the choice to go with the Juli@, I happened to call them and got one of their employees on the phone. He was a Brit, but I never got his name. Too bad, in hindsight, very freindly "chap". He spent 45 minutes + discussing pros and cons and was the first to hightlight the need to use ASIO to eliminate the windows mixer. If you are still looking, check them out and give them a call.

Cheers!

Jumped for a split of second ;) Check also these:
http://www.savioursofsoul.de/Christian/?page_id=248
http://www.stevemonks.com/ksplugin/

that's it......

Then I vanished.

Thanks for the feedback concerning the volume leveling, I am using volume leveling and as you suggest that may have implications for sound quality. Unfortunately my Amp does not have optical inputs, it is from another generation (like me) but it is very good otherwise. Yes, the Marantz CD player from the mid-eighties has a superb DA converter, over the years I thought of buying later technology (assuming that newer is better) but have not been able to find anything that matches it. It has a warm, expansive tone that is about as close to Vinyl as you can get.

Now I have given the game away, I am an old-timer hankering after the "good" old days! :lol: If only we could have had computers and MM then !

Glad you got the ASIO working, but sorry about the sound. I quickly looked up the USB card you are using and it has a S/PDIF optical out. If your Marantz reciever has a digital input, have you tried passing the output from the card to the reciever digitally and using the DAC in the reciever? It may not be the same quality as the DAC in the Marantz CD player but you may like the sound better than from the DAC in the card.

Also, I don't know if you are using any of the volume leveling features, but I have found that if you use them they can cause some serious clipping/popping issues, especially on classical music that has wide volume ranges, by trying to push the volume too much. I would definately leave volume leveling off if you are doing any critical listening.

Good luck.

Thanks MMan for your detailed response, I tried the SSE version and it works!

The sound quality that I am getting is a disappointment - the Edirol is probably the problem here. The reviews are very good but it was probably not designed to accommodate classical music. I am playing FLac files which were converted after going through the EAC exercise. The output path is MM Flac file to ASIO to Edirol to the Marantz Amp. The sound is sharp and superficial, it has no depth. Surprisingly even the bass notes (cello) are dull and cannot compare with the sound from the original CD played through ta Marantz player but thru the same Amp and Speakers.

I will start looking for a high end DA/AD USB converter again which will hopefully give better results.

Many Thanks again MMan for your posts and advice, you are helping the real monkeys like me to enjoy the magic of MM. :D

I used download from Octahan at this site:

http://otachan.com/out_asio(dll).html

This page is in Japanese, so you can use copy it to google translate if you need to read it in English. However, all you have to do is click on the out_asio(dll)_067.7z (dll version) Ver. 0.67 (182KB) download. This is a zipped file it uses the 7z program for the zip so you may need to download the 7z program if you don't have a program that unzips 7z files. When I extracted the files I used the .dll file in the folder /bin/SSE2/out_asio(dll).dll. I used the SSE version. I copied this .dll file into the Plugins folder under the MediaMonkey program folder. Once I did that and restarted Monkey the plugin shows up under <Tools><Options><Player><Output Plug-ins>. The plugin automatically found my Juli@ and you can configure it in that window. I am running Vista Home Premium 32 bit. So this should work for you.

Good Luck.

Many thanks to MMan for this and other posts about soundcards and using your stereo to play your music using MM.
Lots of very usefull information but I wonder whether MMan or anyone else can share their experience-knowledge on installing ASIO as a plugin.

I have read the posts and the WIKI but despite my best efforts I just cannot get it to work. To my great frustration!

My OS is Vista Home Premium 32bit and I have tried the MM recommended Octahan v.67 and the Winamp plugin as well as ASIO4ALL.

I need ASIO to bypass Windows to get the Output directly to my Edirol UA-1ex which is ASIO 2.0 compatible and has two good quality DA AD converters with 24bit + up to 96Khz conversion.

Without ASIO the sound from the Edirol (made by Roland) is good but not as good as that from a CD via A Marantz CD Player.

I wonder MMan how you got ASIO installed in MM and how the interface with your Juli@ card is configured, or is there anyone else out there who can help.

You are now getting beyond my comfort zone in making recommendations. Remember that I am a layperson who has done some surfing on the web and have a product that works for me. I can endorse the Juli@ because I have it installed and love the sound. As to other choices, your guess is as good as mine. However, I did check out the e-MU 0202 on the web and have a couple of observations. First, it has no digital outputs, either coaxial or optical. Second the analog outputs are 1/4" plugs (studio or professional), not RCA (typical consumer). Third, it seems rather large compared to other options if all you are doing is using it to connect to your stereo. Without digital outputs, your are dependent on its DAC. If you had a digital output you may find the DAC in your current or future receiver might sound better. Also, you may find some other time that you wish you had a digital out. As to the 1/4" plug issue, it's no big del to get a pair of adapter cables, but standard RCA audio cables won't work. Size may not matter, but the MAYA44 seems much more compact, which I would think would matter, especially if you are using a laptop.

You may have done more research and have other reasons for going that direction. My comments are based upon a 2 minute scan of the web site and it's external features, not its technical specs.

As to your other point. based upon my layperson understanding, I can't see how the USB 2.0 connection vs. a PCI connection would make any kind of material difference. I have played music from a USB external drive through the Juli@ with no problem. However, if there are others more knowledgeable on the issue please jump in and confirm or corrrect me.

What ever you decide, post what you think after you have it installed. Good luck!

Hi MMan, Thanks for another informative response. I've done some more research and have found the E-MU 0202 USB 2.0 Audio Interface(Creative) to have the same capabilities & specs as the Juli@. My question now is whether or not USB 2.0 @ 480 Mbps will support playback thru MM on the laptop to the E-MU 0202 to my stereo without gaps, missing music, etc. The Juli@ card is PCI internal @ 132MBps. Just wondering if there will really be any noticable difference with my setup? Than you & take care!

Glad you found the info helpful. Both ESI and MAaudio have external USB cards which support ASIO Drivers. I don't know much about them, but here's a link to a review of ESI/Audiotrack's (same company) MAYA44. It seems to support ASIO drivers and has both RCA and Digital Spdif outputs. I can't speak to the quality of the DAC. It seem that you can get it for under $100.

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=20197

The problem with using the headphone jack, is that you before the signal gets there, it goes through all the Windows sound Kmixer/Kernels etc. With a USB sound card with ASIO drivers, the digital signal goes straight to the sound card and then it can be processed by either the dac on the card or passed digitally to the DAC in the audio system (i don't know if your receiver has Spdif digital inputs). If you are passing only the digital singal to your receiver, I would be the first one to admit that the Julia@ and the MAYA44 are designed to do way more and my be overkill! These are cards designed to do multi-source semi-pro studio recordings, I don't know if there is a cheaper alternative, but at $100 it is not the end of the world. You should also check out MAudio. All I know is that I think the FLAC files sent by Monkey through the ASIO plugin to the Juli@'s DAC and then to my Receiver sound as good if not better than playing a CD directly on my stereo.

I know there are many out there who would argue that this is all overkill and you can't really tell the difference 90% of the time. They may be right, but I know that they couldn't look at you with a straight face and say the other way is better in terms of sound quality!

As to external HD or internal, if you have ever had a hard drive fry or had a laptop lost/stolen, you would know that there are real benefits to having a backup on some external source. I strongly recommend it. For the sake of saving the $75-80 for a 250GB drive, you would kill yourself if you lost your library through drvie failure or loss.

Good Luck!

Hi MM3 monkey and MMan, Thank you so much for your responses; they are just the kind of detailed info I needed being a newbie to MM!! Thanks to your info, it looks like using FLAC makes an external HDD a moot point, although, I believe my notebook has the ability/capacity to add a second internal HDD in the Ultrabay and I will be backing up to either a second internal HDD or an external one depending upon your recommendations.. I now have questions about connecting to my home stereo, so here's what I'm using. I have a new Lenovo ThinkPad X200 notebook chosen for power, speed and size. It has 2 Intel Core2 Duo P8400 processors @ 2.26 GHz 3MB L2, 1066MHz FSB, a Hitachi 200GB 7200 RPM HDD, 3GB PC3-8500DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM), Conexant High Definition SmartAudio 221 internal sound card, HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-U20N CD/DVD RW, 5-1 Media Card Reader and Modem, Windows XP Pro. I will be connecting it to a Pioneer VSX-5500S A/V receiver. I had planned on connecting from the headphones jack on the notebook to the RCA inputs on the reciever but perhaps your method, MMan, would be better. Are there any other methods of connecting (USB, Firewire, etc.)? I just don't know if I can use the ESI Juli@ in my notebook or if there is one made for notebooks with the same features & quality. I have tried my method and it does work, but I am a little suspect of the sound quality. I did Google "best sound card for notebooks" and did not see the Juli@ mentioned and really only saw results for Creative Labs Soundblaster. I have not started ripping to MM libray yet except for a CD ripped in WMA, OGG, FLAC, & WAV formats to check file sizes and bitrates and testing it connected to my reciever. What are your thoughts/recommendations? Thank you!!