Best Music Manager Database Software?

[SnappyPix]

I'm currently having lots of problems with my HD5 hanging and crashing for no apparent reason (already had to reformat it once) - and can't begin to put into words my hatred of Sonicstage.

I'm seriously considering starting again and buying a basic drag & drop player, with no DRM issues (possibly the Archos GMini).
What software would you recommend for managing my music?
I'm prepared to rerip my entire CD collection and start afresh.
I don't want anything fancy - just a program that will help me organise my music and transfer it to the player and back in mp3 format.
Windows Media Player perhaps?

Any help and advice much appreciated!

[PJTX100]

WMP should do fine. It has a sync feature, it may be worth picking a player compatible with that.

If you plan to rerip then have a look at dedicated rippers like Exact Audio Copy or AudioGrabber. They are free and do a good job, though I'm not saying WMP doesn't (not tried its ripping capabilities).

If iTunes v6 was still available I'd recommend that too. You don't need an iPod, you can drag & drop out of iTunes. I do it with my son's player.

[Biskitboy]

Originally Posted by SnappyPix

I'm seriously considering starting again and buying a basic drag & drop player, with no DRM issues (possibly the Archos GMini).

I feel for you brother (or is it sister!) and went exactly down this road myself about 2 month's ago. Absolutely no regrets whatsoever (other than having wasted my time and money with Sony of course).

Even though SS is a pain you don't realise how much until it goes away and after it the MP3 Drag-n-Drop simplicity of the Archos Gmini XS202S is a total joy.

Bite the bullet and do it, think of it as your first step back form the brink of insanity!

Originally Posted by SnappyPix

What software would you recommend for managing my music?

I use Jriver Media Center but their Media Jukebox Plus will do all you need. WMP would probably also be be adequate.

[SnappyPix]

Thanks guys for your replies (sorry, haven't had time to check back before now).

Even though SS is a pain you don't realise how much until it goes away and after it the MP3 Drag-n-Drop simplicity of the Archos Gmini XS202S is a total joy.

Bite the bullet and do it, think of it as your first step back form the brink of insanity!

Now I LIKE the sound of THAT!!
I think the fate of Sony/SS, for me, may be sealed ...

[DingoDog]

Media Monkey

www.mediamonkey.com

There is no alternative.

[Ian964]

I've got an Archos Gmini 400, and use WMP 10 as a music manager - works great. Archos provide the relevent driver so that WMP recognises the Gmini as a music device and can sync it. The Gmini also appears as a USB storage device in Windows, so you can drag-an-drop any files as well. Only downside at the moment is that I rip all my CDs to WMA lossless; WMP converts these on the fly during sync, but the max bitrate it will convert to seems to be 160Kb.

[extremelydodgy]

Sonicstage is a little less chronic in it's CP guise but it doesn't get away from the fact that it's just not thought out as well as it's main rival nor as functional as other alternatives and is still restrictive in the nature of the program. As for whether you use drag & drop or software It really depends on the size of your music collection.


If your collection is minimal, then d&d makes some sense for simplicity. Generally speaking, I find d&d enthusiasts for whom the benefits of d&d are real to be either classical nuts or people who steal all their music. One side has tagging issues which usually need to be resolved by manual grouping, the other has a large number of untagged / mistagged tracks. If you own CD's however and if the size of your collection however exceeds the capacity of your player by a good degree, then d&d starts making less and less sense.


iTunes doesn't apply DRM to your own rips and I highly recommend it in conjunction with an iPod if you are a music lover first and foremost. The way both work together enhances the re-discovery of your music library. One word of warning though: iTunes 7 is a great looking but heavyweight app. It runs great on dual-core Macs / PC's with decent GPU's and plenty of RAM, but updating a friend's 3+ year old P4 left it crawling.


If not, j.River Media Center manages MTP, UMS and iPod players (among others) and is a little more geekish than iTunes while having a similar look & feel at the superficial level - but it's significantly more powerful for HTPC use and complex library management.

[Biskitboy]

Some interesting, not to say possibly controversial, comments here.

Originally Posted by extremelydodgy

....It really depends on the size of your music collection....If your collection is minimal, then d&d makes some sense for simplicity.

I would argue the reverse. With a small collection you can simply sync but with a collection bigger than the player's capacity this is not an option. I very often find myself deleting music to make space for something else and nothing beats Drag-n-Drop for this.

Originally Posted by extremelydodgy

....Generally speaking, I find d&d enthusiasts for whom the benefits of d&d are real to be either classical nuts or people who steal all their music. One side has tagging issues which usually need to be resolved by manual grouping, the other has a large number of untagged / mistagged tracks. If you own CD's however and if the size of your collection however exceeds the capacity of your player by a good degree, then d&d starts making less and less sense.

I won't claim that 100% of my music is 100% kosher (I doubt there is a music fan in the world who could make that claim) but for the most part it is and I reiterate that a big collection only reinforces the need for D&D.

[extremelydodgy]

So you're saying that you can readily identify which tracks you want to transfer / have transferred from two Windows Explorer displays where the capacity of the player is significantly less than your music collection?

[PJTX100]

Originally Posted by Biskitboy

I won't claim that 100% of my music is 100% kosher (I doubt there is a music fan in the world who could make that claim) but for the most part it is and I reiterate that a big collection only reinforces the need for D&D.

My MP3 collection is now over 15000 tracks / 170gbish and I have probably have another 100Gb waiting to be vetted / tagged before I add it to my main collection.

I am very fastidious about file naming and tagging. I will not add anything to my main collection until I am 100% happy it is named and tagged to my own standard.

I don't use folder structures, I just have a couple of folders with all the music in. I can easily locate music because of the file naming conventions.

However, I mainly rely on the tags to manage my collection. And without a music management program that can flexibly access those tags I'd be severely limited in my ability to cut & slice the collection. For example I am starting to use the comment field increasingly. eg i put "vinyl" in there if i've ripped from vinyl. Hence I can instantly find all vinyl tracks easaily. This would not be possible in a native Windows explorer type environment (unless the implement tag searching in the future!)

At the moment I'm using iTunes, and it does the job very well. IMHO you need a program like iTunes to manage large collections.

[DingoDog]

Originally Posted by PJTX100

At the moment I'm using iTunes, and it does the job very well. IMHO you need a program like iTunes to manage large collections.

Thats why Mediamonkey Rocks! I-Tunes without the DRM, without the Spying and without the Apple.

[PJTX100]

Originally Posted by DingoDog

I-Tunes without the DRM, without the Spying and without the Apple.

DRM only comes into the equation AFAIK if you buy the music from iTunes. For me that's about 2 albums out of thousands.

The rest I ripped myself and added to iTunes after ripping - no DRM.

Does iTunes spy on you? It does track musical tastes by the look of it, I suspect by examining the library in some rudimentary way, which I dont mind. Not sure it that's what you mean though.

Mediamonkey looks very nice but IIRC requires new firmware on the iPod which would scupper my in-car use hence it's a non starter.

[DingoDog]

Does it spy on you? Very much so.

You buy a media player to play music and are then tied into their very own media player to transfer files.

You then get adverts targeted at you based on the music you play. The ads are researched by packets of data that are sent unknowingly by 99.99% of all its users to a central server.

There is much spyware hidden in Itunes... stuff we dont even know about. Some of it is very hidden, some of it in strange cookie requests. Every track you click on sends information to Apple.

This is very wrong! Why anyone would allow numerous outside companies to gain access to what they do in their daily lives is very much beyond me. It is sad and very dangerous, the thin end of a very thin wedge.

If you dont believe me... get a packet inspector and watch what personal information seeps out of your pc.

[PJTX100]

Originally Posted by DingoDog

You buy a media player to play music and are then tied into their very own media player to transfer files.

Many companies, from amazon to supermarkets, go to great lengths to track our personal tastes and buying habits. Apple aren't alone in this.

If iTunes was pants then I'd have some sympathy for your negative big brother views. But (v7 aside ) it's actually a very capable music manager which does what I need it to do very well.

But we're deviating from the point here. The point is that whatever media management s/w you use, IMHO you need media management s/w to handle large collections - simple drag&drop from within explorer, though eminently feasible, gives you far less visibility.

[extremelydodgy]

It spies on you as long as you have the mini store thing on. It has to otherwise the targeted recommends on the mini store won't work. Turn it off and it stops spying.