I switched to MediaMonkey, and this is why...

Discussion about anything that might be of interest to MediaMonkey users.

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Patozan
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Sep 26, 2008 4:43 pm

Re: I switched to MediaMonkey, and this is why...

Post by Patozan »

I am sure MM is great, I just haven't figured out yet how to make it work with all that ease people say. It is probably just me, but I think it is a difficult program to work with since the learning curve is steep. It will take me for sure more than two hours to organize my collection (I've bee doing it for months now, actually), but I will get there.
carlau

Re: I switched to MediaMonkey, and this is why...

Post by carlau »

I will put this as simply as I can. This is a love letter. I just downloaded mediamonkey and have only been using it for an hour. In that one hour I have managed to do what I have NEVER been able to do with Itunes or WMP. Namely, access a robust set of functions ranging from very decent internet radio to successfully accessing ALL of my music AND syncing to a sansa player. I had no idea that there was such a comprehensive alternative to itunes or WMP. My experience with mediamonkey has been so positive that I'm almost tempted to put aside my simmering resentment at Microsoft for preventing the uninstallation of WMP on Vista. Almost, but not quite. Love it. Absolutely love it. It feels like, after years of resisting the ipod tide and having to put up with quirky (I'm not complaining) alternatives like Archos and Sansa (I have both, and they're great) and all types of weird patched together software, I am vindicated. Free at last and power to the people.
-Carla
nolabar

Re: I switched to MediaMonkey, and this is why...

Post by nolabar »

I'm pretty sure that the greatest "wow" factor of MM is the Amazon tagging. I can't tell you how important that is to me. Sure, there are other apps that tag, and even other music managers that claim this functionality with mixed results. Let me tell you...my life might be a mess sometimes, but my music is tight. MM's integrated tagging makes this sooooooo easy. And it all comes down to the all-in-one-place coolness - I can tag and everything else while still in the same app, without the need for a gazillion different programs, each with their own navigation, appearance, and taskbar entry to get on my nerves.

MM was the first manager that allowed me to ditch all of my ancillary, single-purpose music apps. For the longest time I was running iTunes soley to sync (the abject misery of using it as a player is well-documented). Then I ran another app for accurate tagging and art; yet another that acted as a non-intrusive, nimble player of files, and still another for audio-related burns, etc. Enter the Monkey.

Right away I could tell that I was, well, home. The free Monkey did most of the above tasks. Paying the nominal fee ensured that I never, ever have to roam anywhere else, even if it's to burn a particularly good playlist that's rolling along. Now, only two other music-related apps reside on my computer. iTunes...still...because I'm pretty sure that I need it in the rare event of a setup (act as disk, etc), and mp3gain, which I use to normalize files across genres and recording technology. But the Monkey is always running. The only thing experiencing as much up-time is my browser.

I'm excited that I can customize MM as I see fit, from my tree to my panels, etc. Only Foobar is more tinker-worthy, but correspondingly more irritating. I also love the community, which I've thankfully seldom had the case to use. But it's there should anyone need it, full of polite, knowledgeable peeps. MM has only gone sideways on me once, which was resolved with an reinstall and not too much sweating it.

I campaign for MediaMonkey whenever a casual discussion about digital music is brought up. Almost invariably I'm thanked for the tip. And now I'd like to thank the people who officially work for MM and all the community members who make this the ONLY piece of software I've ever gushed about in a forum.

PS - MM is also the main reason I can't convert to Linux full-time. Can't get it running smoothly in Wine. If one app is more or less the deal-breaker in your OS choice, well, that's one heck of a compliment!
nohitter151
Posts: 23640
Joined: Wed Aug 09, 2006 10:20 am
Location: NJ, USA
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Re: I switched to MediaMonkey, and this is why...

Post by nohitter151 »

nolabar wrote: PS - MM is also the main reason I can't convert to Linux full-time. Can't get it running smoothly in Wine. If one app is more or less the deal-breaker in your OS choice, well, that's one heck of a compliment!
Same here... I'd be using ubuntu full time if it weren't for MM (and Minilyrics)
MediaMonkey user since 2006
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Kingcobra

Re: I switched to MediaMonkey, and this is why...

Post by Kingcobra »

I have to agree with the first poster but to emphasise : 'Impossibly Difficult'. I've had Gold for a year now and I still don't understand it's protocols. It's fine if you put in a recognisable c.d. to rip but I've found it a TOTAL nightmare when recording unrecognised (via Amazon/Freebase) albums. I especially like to rip talking books to dump on my Creative Zen to listen to in workshop or Car. I've just spent about 6 hours trying to rip 12 c.d.s and haven't even managed 2. I've sent about 5 e-mails requesting help and can't understand any of the replies even though I asked for rhe simplest, dumbest instruction like :PLEASE just tell me how to type in the title (talking book 1, talking book 2 etc) and the Artist/Author and tell me how to rip to the library (I can manage to copy to My Music).

Just to put this in perspective : this is the ONLY software that I have problems with. I can compose multiple layers in Adobe Cs3, establish masks in the same etc (just one example of a not so easy prog to show that I'm not a total idiot) but I am utterly stumped by MM, very frustrated, pissed off and mildly depressed after all this time to achieve f*** all.

Previously I had Musicmatch (before it was asset stripped and trashed by Yahoo and, there..... NO problems - if the programme search didn't find title and artist then it was really simple just to type in the album and Artist/Author, click and rip.

I guess i feel down about it because I just cannot do what I want to which is SIMPLY name and rip to the library AND it seems that the technicians are incapable of saying ' Do this, type that, click there - Job done'

I absolutely could not reccommend MM on my experience

And this is fucking brilliant (if I ever get to post this!!!) it's now telling me that the username I've entered is already in use DUH!! Yes, Hello, it's ME : Kevin de Choisy - I know there's only ONE person on the planet with that name!
UnHappy Monkeying, Kevin
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: I switched to MediaMonkey, and this is why...

Post by Lowlander »

It's very simple to edit the tracks before ripping.

Just go to the My Computer > CD drive node and edit the tracks listed with the information you want. Now you can go to Tools > Rip CD and MediaMonkey will rip the CD with the information you entered.

Alternatively you can also edit the tracks in the step where they're listed with a slow double click on each field you want to edit.
yester64
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Nov 21, 2008 5:41 pm

Re: I switched to MediaMonkey, and this is why...

Post by yester64 »

lol
everyone like MM.
I use it for some years too. I upgraded a year ago to become a goldmember. 8)

If a programer reads this. Please keep MM like it is, fast, depentable and not too bloated :) Thanks

I love ya :D
caramel

Re: I switched to MediaMonkey, and this is why...

Post by caramel »

I want to upgrade mm too to become a gold member. I have no problem with it at all. It works great for me. I love it.

Simulation pret immobilier
Guest

Re: I switched to MediaMonkey, and this is why...

Post by Guest »

thanks for your idea
manola
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:51 am

Re: I switched to MediaMonkey, and this is why...

Post by manola »

I am sure MM is great, I just haven't figured out yet how to make it work with all that ease people say
Stocklone
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 1:39 pm

Re: I switched to MediaMonkey, and this is why...

Post by Stocklone »

I switched because it was able to handle my 2000+ albums with ease and Winamp really started to piss me off with its bloated crash-prone software. MM is a wonderful player. I bought a life-time membership because I really think nobody is going to top this as a music player. However, I still do my tagging with Tag&Rename. Tag&Rename just has so many little features that make my life easier. Plus it is kind of nice not having to tie down the player while I am tagging. I have two monitors so switching back forth between programs is very easy.
Guest

Re: I switched to MediaMonkey, and this is why...

Post by Guest »

I had just bought a new stack of CD's and thought to myself, geez it would be nice if i could rip these with album art, so my search began for a new ripping program.

This was the first one, i didnt bother looking any further.

I installed it and within 15 minutes was doing things with my music collection that I'd been putting off cause it was just too hard.

Resetting Artist names on Album Collections, embedding Album Art in my MP3 collection.
Then I discovered it worked with my iPod and iPhone (though v3 firmware has killed this for the time being)

Lastly, this program worked flawlessly on my Windows 7 RC based PC. None of my other music management tools do.

I can finally now turn my second PC into a W7 Box too!

20 minutes after downloading and installing this program, I purchased a lifetime license. I am actually now looking forward to reorganising my collection and completing it's tags.

Thanks for this wonderful program.

Marcus (Australia)
Solitaire001
Posts: 77
Joined: Tue May 05, 2009 7:33 pm

Re: I switched to MediaMonkey, and this is why...

Post by Solitaire001 »

My reason for switching to MediaMonkey is simple: I've found it to be the best all-around application for working with my audio collection both on my computer and with/on my player. Among the features I like are the way it handles album art, allows me to organize my music library the way I want, works seemlessly with my audio player (a Sony NWZ-A818), works very well as an on-computer music player, its ability to edit and update tags, and that it offers keyboard shortcuts for just about everything (I'm an old Wordstar user and like to use keyboard shortcuts where I can).

I originally had an iPod and therefore I used iTunes. I found iTunes worked okay on my system, but of course it only worked with my iPod. It was only when my iPod died due to age that I looked into another player, and by extension a new music management application.

It was when I started using my new Sony player that I started coming across the shortcomings of the other applications that I tried. For example, with my iPod album art was not a consideration since the model I had didn't display it, but I found that working with album art was difficult in some applications (I couldn't be sure if it would actually display on my player). Often, it seemed like I had to work to get the programs to work the way I needed.

Although MediaMonkey has a large number of features that take a while to figure out, it gives me complete control over my music collection and after setting everything up it take little work to use the program. That is why I've found it to be an excellent program.
Eyal
Posts: 3116
Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2005 9:27 am
Location: Québec

Re: I switched to MediaMonkey, and this is why...

Post by Eyal »

Solitaire001 wrote:... (I'm an old Wordstar user ...)
:lol: I remember that Wordstar thing! Dumb terminals connected to mainframes, ^A ^S ^D ^F ^G ... to write that silly Cobol program...

Image

'Sigh'. Old memories...

If you bring MediaMonkey on a laptop and go back 25 years, people will think you're an alien coming from outer space. :)

Thanks for sharing.

Eyal
Skins for MediaMonkey: Cafe, Carbon, Helium, Spotify, Zekton. [ Wiki Zone ].
Solitaire001
Posts: 77
Joined: Tue May 05, 2009 7:33 pm

Re: I switched to MediaMonkey, and this is why...

Post by Solitaire001 »

Eyal wrote:
Solitaire001 wrote:... (I'm an old Wordstar user ...)
:lol: I remember that Wordstar thing! Dumb terminals connected to mainframes, ^A ^S ^D ^F ^G ... to write that silly Cobol program...

Image

'Sigh'. Old memories...

If you bring MediaMonkey on a laptop and go back 25 years, people will think you're an alien coming from outer space. :)

Thanks for sharing.

Eyal
You are welcome. Despite the years since I've used it, Wordstar 4 is still one of the best word processors I ever used (Galaxy 2.43, Professional Write 2.0, and Wordperfect 5.1 for DOS were teriffic too). It corrected all of the weaknesses of Wordstar 3, and didn't overcomplicate things like Wordstar 5 did. Despite the appearance of complexity in Wordstar's commands, once you got to using them they were very intuitive. For me, I got so good at them that I didn't have to think about them, I just thought of what I wanted to do, and my hands moved automatically.

I'm not sure the current MediaMonkey would be that shocking to people from 25 years ago, since its look bares some similarities to Apple Macintosh programs. What would be shocking is the sheer power of modern computers. I remember getting my first hard drive around that time, and it was a massive 30MB. It was so much space then (I couldn't fill it for a while), now it wouldn't even hold one album.
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