How to import CD's from my own collection?

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Robbieboy65
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How to import CD's from my own collection?

Post by Robbieboy65 »

Hi folks, I have been using the free edition of MediaMonkey for a while to manage music I have downloaded from the internet- now I would like to learn how to import CD's from my own collection into my MediaMonkey player. I have to confess that after looking at the 'help' section of the player I am none the wiser as to how to do this and feel a bit confused!

So could someone please tell me in simple step-by-step terms how I take CD's from my own collection and import them into MediaMonkey e.g how do I take the CD of the Beatles "Sgt. Pepper" in my hand, and add it to MediaMonkey so that I have a playlist entitled: The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper"

Thanks in advance to any kind folk who may be able to help!
DazB
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Location: Yorkshire, UK

Post by DazB »

Hi,

Put the CD in the drive and navigate to it via the My Computer node, then right click and select Add/Rescan tracks to library. If the details have not been listed, right click and select get info from FreeDB *before* adding to library.

Daz
Guest

Post by Guest »

Hi DazB, when I try to navigate to the disc through My Computer (D Drive), I get the following message:

"This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the Set Associations Control Panel"

I then get the MM "Import Freedb album data" thingy popping up. Could you please guide me as to what I need to do? Thanks.
DazB
Posts: 409
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2007 4:09 am
Location: Yorkshire, UK

Post by DazB »

Hi,

Dunno, the message may be associated with having autorun enabled for the drive and there being file(s) automatically loaded from that particular CD. Try some different CDs and/or turn off autorun.

Daz
Guest

Post by Guest »

Hi DazB, thanks for that...

I am having all sorts of problems with attempting to rip an audio CD to add to playlists. When I tried to follow your advice, it all seems ok until I remove the CD from my disk drive, then all the tracks on the playlist 'grey out' and are not functional.

Is it possible that ripping audio to CD only works for those who have upgraded to Gold? I have installed the free version (3.0.1.1140 I think)

I must admit I am pretty confused, because the Help section has info on ripping audio CD's, but also a bit about 'virtual CD', and appears to recommend using this rather than ripping as this results in only one track being in library rather than two (digital copy and 'ripped' copy). Not that I could get virtual CD to work anyway!!

I am beginning to think I should look elsewhere for another Media Player. I love the fact that MM plays FLAC files 'on the fly' and burns them 'on the fly', but I am very frustrated with these difficulties in importing audio CD's!!
jc836
Posts: 252
Joined: Sat Nov 19, 2005 7:24 pm
Location: Western PA

Post by jc836 »

When you say "importing" this is where things can get interesting. First-do you want to store the Cd's contents on you hard Drive? If so you should RIP them using that feature in Media Monkey (or as I do using FREE CD Ripper) to a folder of your choosing. Then you can ADD/Rescan that into Media Monkey. The FreeDB updating can be done bwefore the scan or after as needed.
As to 'autorun'-this Windows feature is a nuisance in some cases. I simply highlight "take no action" and close that pop up. Others will suggest that you turn it off-ok if you want to.
For what it is worth-Media Monkey is the BEST library and player available. The dev's have worked long and hard to get it where it is and continue to do so. This is not necessarily true of others out there IMO.
Hope this helps
Retired Broadcast Recording Engineer
Oldies are our main Genre. YES-we listen to Country and a few others too!
DazB
Posts: 409
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2007 4:09 am
Location: Yorkshire, UK

Post by DazB »

Hi,

Add/Rescan tracks merely adds the details of the tracks to the library - hence they (the tracks) become greyed out when you remove the CD.

If you just want to have the tracks available permanently then select "Rip Audio CD".

The Virtual CD route is OK, but if you remove the tracks from the Virtual CD the actual rips will also deleted from the hard drive!

Daz
Guest

Post by Guest »

Thanks, guys. So basically I cannot have a functional playlist in MM unless I have ripped to my hard drive? Maybe what has confused me is that with iTunes the importing process just adds the audio CD to library and from there you make a playlist from it if desired.

Anyway, when I attempt to rip CD to hard drive with MM, I get the following message:

"Due to licensing restrictions, the free version of MediaMonkey can not bundle MP3 encoding functionality beyond a 30 day trial period".

(It then goes on to say if I want unrestricted MP3 encoding please upgrade)

Guys could you please give me a plain English translation of what this means? Thanks.
nohitter151
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Post by nohitter151 »

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, guys. So basically I cannot have a functional playlist in MM unless I have ripped to my hard drive? Maybe what has confused me is that with iTunes the importing process just adds the audio CD to library and from there you make a playlist from it if desired.

Anyway, when I attempt to rip CD to hard drive with MM, I get the following message:

"Due to licensing restrictions, the free version of MediaMonkey can not bundle MP3 encoding functionality beyond a 30 day trial period".

(It then goes on to say if I want unrestricted MP3 encoding please upgrade)

Guys could you please give me a plain English translation of what this means? Thanks.
It means you have to pay for the program if you want to copy CDs to mp3s with MM beyond 30 days.
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Teknojnky
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Post by Teknojnky »

when itunes 'imports' a cd it very likely 'rips' the cd to the itunes music folder.

as far as adding your cd music to MM, there are basically 3 possiblities:

1) add/rescan the disc, this will add the tracklist to the library but will not 'rip' or 'import' (same thing) any files to your hard drive. This is good if you want to catalog the physical cd audio discs, however you must have the disc in the player to play otherwise the tracks will 'grey out' indicating they are not playable.

2) use virtual cd, this will add the disc to the library and 'cache' the tracks by ripping them to a special folder (the virtual cd folder as specified in the options). The tracks are not directly managable, they are simply used as a substitute for the cd when the cd is not in the drive.

3) 'rip' your cd, this will store the music files in the folders you specify using whatever you have configured for the rip settings. This is where you would normally choose .mp3 or whatever file type you prefer.

regarding the licensing restriction, since mp3 is a patened/licensed technology, the MM developers must pay for each copy of the mp3 encoder. To use the 'free' version of MM has thusly a time limitation on mp3 encoding. You can either register and pay for the 'gold' version which allows unlimited mp3 encoding (amongst many other extra features), or you can choose to save to one of the other file types (flac for lossless or wma), or you can google for 'lame mp3 encoder dll' and replace the default limited lame_enc.dll with one downloaded from the internet.
Guest

Post by Guest »

DazB, jc836, nohitter151, and Teknojnky- thank you one and all for all your help, patience and advice- your input has clarified a lot of this for me. I think I favour the 'rip CD' option, my only choice being whether to pay for MM Gold for this purpose, or use FREE CD Ripper. Teknojnky, may I ask- you mentioed that MM Gold has many extra features, what are (some of) these? That will help me decide whether to get MM Gold, or just use the FREE CD Ripper software. Thanks again everyone!
nohitter151
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Post by nohitter151 »

Anonymous wrote:DazB, jc836, nohitter151, and Teknojnky- thank you one and all for all your help, patience and advice- your input has clarified a lot of this for me. I think I favour the 'rip CD' option, my only choice being whether to pay for MM Gold for this purpose, or use FREE CD Ripper. Teknojnky, may I ask- you mentioed that MM Gold has many extra features, what are (some of) these? That will help me decide whether to get MM Gold, or just use the FREE CD Ripper software. Thanks again everyone!
Heres a list of my most used gold features:

File Monitor (automatically updates library)
Advanced Searches and AutoPlaylists
Advanced Portable Device Synchronization with on-the-fly format conversion
Unlimited MP3 encoding
Virtual CD / Previews
Advanced Filters
Sleep Timer
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Guest

Post by Guest »

Hmmm, thanks nohitter151 that sounds pretty impressive actually. Maybe I will get MM Gold...

Nohitter 151, may I push my luck and ask one more question? Just in relation to playlists, is there a simple way I can organise them so that for groups I have a lot of playlists of, there is just the one 'parent' heading, which then expands out into the full list of 'children'?

For example, I have a lot of Led Zeppelin recordings. This is probably an error by me in the way I have created playlists, but at the moment I have a whole lot of individual playlists for Led Zep, one or two of which 'expand', listing other Led Zep stuff. What I would like is just to have one heading 'Led Zeppelin', expanding out to list all my Led Zep stuff. Is there a quick and easy way to accomplish this? Thanks.
nohitter151
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Post by nohitter151 »

Yes, you should be able to do this already by just dragging playlists over one another.
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Teknojnky
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Post by Teknojnky »

Or you can use the Artist &/or Album Artist nodes to expand out all led zepplin (or any artist for that matter) without even needing a playlist.
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