Best MP3 library Software?

[Wishmaster]

I'm curious what everyone is using for their MP3 librarys.
WMP, Media monky, Itunes, Zune etc .. (or any others worthy of mention)

Recently, I've been looking into other software just for something different.

Ive always used and a big fan of Media Monkey, due to its excellent tagging and organizing abilities as well customization options.

Itunes was just horrible IMO. I can't explain it, but just didnt seem so friendly with a large Music Library.. Maybe Im missing something.

Zune seems actually pretty decent. For Mp3s, Pictures and Music videos.
Overall, fairly good... and looks good.
With the exception its missing one major item, IMO. .... A Equalizer :-/

At any count, whats everyone elses experiences,thoughts, recommendations?

 

[FuturDreamz]

I currently use WMP because i have a lot of movies on my notebook, but I was given two ipod nanos (2G and 3G iirc) so I will need to use iTunes.

 

[Venths]

► J.River Media Jukebox is one among the best. Equalizer options are very good as far as I have used it with my Creative 5.1

## Media Jukebox: Free J. River Media Jukebox software ##

► Another pick is JetAudio. Good visualization & Skin's. Good sound effects and adjustments.

## JetAudio ##

 

[Element7]

Ive always used Itunes and I love it. It keeps everything organized and is just easy to use. Other programs like aTunes, Zune, Media Jukebox etc look like Itunes rip-offs to me.

 

[Wishmaster]

► J.River Media Jukebox is one among the best. Equalizer options are very good as far as I have used it with my Creative 5.1

## Media Jukebox: Free J. River Media Jukebox software ##

► Another pick is JetAudio. Good visualization & Skin's. Good sound effects and adjustments.

## JetAudio ##

i'll check em out thanks

 

[Venths]

► J.River Media Jukebox is one among the best. Equalizer options are very good as far as I have used it with my Creative 5.1

## Media Jukebox: Free J. River Media Jukebox software ##

► Another pick is JetAudio. Good visualization & Skin's. Good sound effects and adjustments.

## JetAudio ##

i'll check em out thanks

you are welcome Check and post your views about them !!

 

[noobvious]

I personally am a big fan of Mediamonkey, but the two other biggies in the realm are Winamp and J.RiverMediaJukebox. Each of them has certain functionalities that aren't optimized in the free versions, like Mediamonkey.

I like the fact that the LAME MP3 encoder can be substituted in the free Mediamonkey for the time-stamped version that comes with the free MM. I don't think you can make that switch in the other two programs, but I could be wrong. It's a nice option for converting my .flac files onto something more suitable for my Sony Walkman MP3 player.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I use an antique version of I-Tunes (version 4.9) as an mp3 player on my PC. I removed Quicktime and replaced it with Quicktime Lite.

But I don't let it control my library. I do that myself with Windows Explorer.

I like I-Tunes primarily because it has a full-screen interface and can be configured the way I want it. I looked at a few other applications and thought they had horrible GUIs.

For tag management, I use mp3tag.

For volume control, I use mp3gain.

For mp3 analysis, I use Encspot.

For ripping, I use CDex.

For burning, I use Imgburn.

For recording, I use Audacity.

For mass renaming, I use Name It Your Way.

I-Tunes is strictly for playback, either from the library or from individual playlists.

 

[noobvious]

I use an antique version of I-Tunes (version 4.9) as an mp3 player on my PC. I removed Quicktime and replaced it with Quicktime Lite.

But I don't let it control my library. I do that myself with Windows Explorer.

I like I-Tunes primarily because it has a full-screen interface and can be configured the way I want it. I looked at a few other applications and thought they had horrible GUIs.

For tag management, I use mp3tag.

For volume control, I use mp3gain.

For mp3 analysis, I use Encspot.

For ripping, I use CDex.

For burning, I use Imgburn.

For recording, I use Audacity.

For mass renaming, I use Name It Your Way.

I-Tunes is strictly for playback, either from the library or from individual playlists.

mp3Tag is great, indeed. I have used CDex in the past, and if your CD's are in good shape, it does just as well as the vaunted Exact Audio Copy. EAC is better on old, scratched CD's though, in my experience.

I also agree with you on organizing your own files with Explorer. My usage of Medaimonkey consists of playback, podcast aggregating, .flac transcoding, and loading my Walkman with tunes.

 

[pparks1]

I use EAC to rip my music, I've used Mp3Tag to fix ID3 tags and I pretty much use Media Monkey as my player of choice.

 

[Shiori]

Winamp with Enhancer 017 plugin for listening music and KMPlayer for watching movies. That's basically all I need. +If I ever happen to burn anything, I use ImgBurn.

 

[Gornot]

I have been using Winamp for years and just waited for a chance to throw it away. At the time of iTunes 8 I loved how it looked and functioned and everything, but it didn't support HE-AAC files, which is pretty much 80% of my music collection.
Then came Win7 and WMP12 and I never looked back. I still use Winamp for ripping, though, and MPC-HC for videos.

But here is a program that was closest to replacing Winamp before WMP12: RadLight

 

[grimreaper]

i use Nero 9 for pretty much everything love it....and WinAmp for listening to trance and hip hop tunes

 

[jimbo45]

Hi all

I think the OP meant software to MANAGE his collection -- not software used for PLAYING MUSIC -- a totally different topic.

I rip all my CD's to FLAC with standard tags

Now create an Access DB or MySQL DB with things like artist / track / album -- you can extract the tags directly . MySQL is better as it's FREE and can be used for web queries easily as well.

Link the fields together with a "Foreign Key" as the actual file or URL address of the track / song.

Now you can even access this via the Internet if you want with "Bog standard" DB queries. (WAMP - Windows Apache MySQL Php combo is easier than bothering with IIS) .

Works great

A bit of work needed to get the tag info into the Database but once you've started then its fine.

Don't forget though if you MOVE the music you will need to update the DB as well.

To play I just pass a playlist / track to winamp and it works fine as well -- winamp will play flac files directly. I'm not a big fan of highly compressed mp3 music full of nasty "artifacts" -- certainly when played through a decent sound system with good Studio quality speakers.

Note there are plenty of good GUI tools to administer mySQL type databases and create queries -- for example phpMyadmin is a good one.



http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/index.php

Don't be scared to play around with Databases -- great methods of doing all sorts of useful things and MySQL is FREE.

For example once you've built your DB

1) Create your Query -- show tracks / albums say of Gene Pitney (that's going back but who cares)

2) When the list comes up double click on the track you want to play

3) Winamp plays it (I have FLAC file to be handled by Winamp as default but you can use your player of choice)

Same works for playlists -- create a Query building your playlist -- then play it.

Same methodology can be used for DVD's etc.

Incidentally using this type of approach means your music can be spread accross network drives or even at opposite ends of the Internet as all you need is the foreign key with the URL of your track linked to your ID3 tag.


I HATE "ICHOONES" BTW.


When I've got time I'll try and write this up in the tutorial section with examples so you can try it yourselves if you get stuck.

Topic - making a Music Library with MySQL. It's really EASY and will save you time and money. Maybe at the weekend when I'm stuck in some horrible airport for Hours and Hours with the new "enhanced Security" systems -- i.e a pat on the bum -- but I nver get the nice ladies however.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Wishmaster]

Thanks jimbo45.

I was actually quite interested in everyones info/opinions on both quite honestly.

As far for playback, Ive found Media monkey to be my first choice.
Just a bit easier for me to find things. Might give Winamp another try, haven't used it in a long time. But, theres always stuff out there Ive never heard of that sometimes is alot better. my main reason for this thread See what everyone else is recommending/tried etc.

Just curious, what do use or suggest as the best flac ripper?

Most of my stuff is in MP3 and Im considering deleting it all and re-ripping as flac. At least most of it.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

I use WINAMP for ripping to FLAC with its built in flac ripper as it includes all the ID tags and retrieves album info from Gracenote which IMO is usually better than Freedb - especially for Classical Music.

It gives you reasonable choices in track / file / artist labelling as well and the rips can include playlists if you want them.

EAC is anther good one but you need to install the separate FLAC encoder which runs as a DOS application after the EAC has made a temporary WAV file so its not as fast (by miles).

Winamp will give you fast speeds as well if you get the pro version -- the FREE version is limited to 8x rips I think. My typical CD ripping speeds are around 20 - 25X.

I don't bother with all the other features such as letting it manage media libraries etc -- I use it simply for ripping and playing .

I find also a Squeezebox radio device a great system for playing FLAC directly from the computer as well -- this is a "Streamed device" from Logitech and can play FLAC directly. Sound is more than adequate for listening casually.

Got one of these from Santa this year and loving it.

Logitech Squeezebox Radio review -- Engadget


I like FLAC as I can re-create the audio CD's if I need to from the flac files - or make new compilations of audio CD's which will play perfectly on a CD system and being LOSSLESS i can of course use the files to convert to anything else if newer systems come along.

Discs are CHEEEEEEEEEEAP these days -- 500GB small usb WD passport drive - 65 GBP / 90 USD (inc tax) will hold around 2300 complete CD equivalent's in FLAC format of around 65 mins per CD.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[tika]

I have a rather large library with 60K+ files. I gave up on Winamp as it was getting too slow after my library got to 30K+ files, plus I never liked AOL. I never liked WMP either, as it messed my tags.

I now use foobar200, with the UI_colums extension. The UI takes a little time to configure, but you can pretty much set it up as you like, almost everything can be configured to your liking. The loading/search/filtering response is fast, and the UI_colums interface displays album covers faster than WMP.

Foobar also includes intuitive tagging, automatic file naming/moving with advanced scripting options.

I recommend it to anyone.