MediaMonkey Gold 3.2 ~ Hard and Software Plus

MediaMonkey is a music management program that contains a long list of desirable features. According to the publisher, MediaMonkey will “help you manage and play very large music collections, consisting of a variety music formats (MP3, WMA, AAC/M4A/M4P, OGG, APE, FLAC, MPC, VQF, WAV files) and/or audio CDs.”

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The default, free version of this MP3 software contains a significant amount of coveted elements, but there are two Gold full free version that provide access to the entire suite.

Standout Features

Auto lookup, tag, and album art
Sync with iPods and other MP3 players
Complete control over sound quality
DJ and Party mode
Comprehensive file converting

Interface:

MediaMonkey has one of the most aesthetically pleasing and professional-looking skins of any MP3 software program. The default skin is a sleek, dark gray theme with lots of gradients for added depth.

The left pane contains branching nodes, structured much like a folder/tree diagram. The first node is the Library, which is used to view your collection according to different metadata attributes. For example, the Album node lists all albums in your library, while the Composer node does the same, respective to the song's composer.

In that same pane, users can manage playlists, podcast subscriptions, view their CD drive, use the Net Radio function (discussed later), and even browse the web.

The main panel contains all the tracks/albums/what-have-you, sorted by the criteria chosen in the left panel (Album, Composer, etc.). Apart from just listing the track name, album, and artist, it also has an elaborate list of other categories (e.g. Album Volume).

All those categories allow for precise sorting, which is especially helpful with large collections.

On the right hand side of the window is Now Playing, which displays the active playlist.

At the very bottom is the Player, which, naturally, plays the selected track(s). Right above that is an Album Art box.

The toolbar at the top has buttons for different actions (e.g. rip a CD) and sorting options, along with a Search field.

Displaying that amount of information within one window could result in crammed content, but this isn't the case with Media Monkey. Everything is proportioned efficiently and cleanly.

Music Management:

The first time you launch the player, it will scan your drive(s) for supported file formats, and then add compatible files to the library, sorting them based on the files' ID3 tags. Two helpful functions occur during this process: Auto-Rename and Auto-Tag, which can pull tags from websites like Amazon.com. These two features also keep untagged files from being ignored.

A large amount of filters exist for precise sorting. For example, if you want to set up a playlist for your children, you can display tracks within only the Kids genre by applying a filter, and then selecting those and creating a new playlist containing said tracks.

To add additional content, users can rescan their drive for new additions. Re-scanning a drive does not take a lot of time (it's simply a matter of going to File → Add/Rescan Tracks to the Library).

When scanning, users have options to specify things like which file types MediaMonkey will search for, whether it will scan CDs or a drive, and even the option to import missing ratings, play count, and last played data associated with tracks associated with Windows Media Player, iTunes, or Winamp database.

An automatic updating function (called the File Monitor) easily manages your library based on folders that frequently update. This is especially helpful, because manually rescanning can become tedious, specifically if your library constantly expands to fit new music.

Once files are within the library, MediaMonkey allows users to edit them to their heart's content. Users can change whichever attributes they wish, regardless of whether the new attributes are correctly labeled. Of course, MediaMonkey automatically fills these fields through a variety of means, including downloading information off the web and using the preexisting ID3 tags when inserting tracks into the library. You can simultaneously edit as many files as you wish.

Additionally, you can add tags to not only MP3 files, but also for AAC, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, APE and WAV.

After importing files, some may appear as “synchronized”, which means some tag attributes differ from MediaMonkey to the hard drive. In that case, the program has a few functions that resolve this issue: “Clean Tags” and “Edit Unsynchronized Tags”. The two latter features are rare in music suites and greatly appreciated.

For missing album art—a common and frustrating issue—MediaMonkey has the Auto-Tag from Web tool, which will search the internet for any relevant information, including album artwork, and apply it to the corresponding track/album.

You can also manually delete duplicate tracks after prompting Monkey to scan the library for them.

Even if you don't bother ripping a CD's contents to your hard drive, MediaMonkey can still catalog CDs (Audio CDs or data CDs containing compressed audio Tracks).

The final feature I'll mention is “Preview.” It permits users to create small samples of songs as opposed to the entire track. While this doesn't sound great on the surface, MediaMonkey has a few suggestions for its implementation: You can show your new favorite band to a friend without sitting through all 45 minutes of the album; or you can play “Name That Tune”.

Music Player:

As you'd expect with a full music suite, MediaMonkey possesses a large collection of features for playing music. The regular options for Shuffling and Continuous/Repeating playing are there, of course. You can create your own playlists, and even export them as an .m3u file, which many other media players handle just fine.

Apart from the regular playing capabilities, MediaMonkey possesses a handy “Party” mode, which is ideal for playing music during large social gatherings. Everything will play normally, but all editing, additions, or deletions are disabled. This keeps anyone with the wrong idea from messing with your library. It can also be used as a jukebox or a shared DJ console.

MediaMonkey also has an Equalizer for the audiophiles and a Visualizer for the visually-oriented listeners.

The Podcast Subscriptions node is well executed, providing intensive control over podcasts. MediaMonkey provides two well-known podcast distributors (“Digital Podcast” and “podcast.com”), which you can browse and choose podcasts depending on genres.

You can also import your iTunes podcast subscriptions, which is helpful because you won't have to re-subscribe to every podcast already within iTunes.

A few complications arose when trying to use the Podcast Subscriptions function, however. Sometimes the wrong format will be attributed to the feed, for instance. This is only a minor inconvenience because the files can be manually edited to correct mistakes.

If you tire of your existing collection, you can use MediaMonkey's “Net Radio” software to listen to streaming audio. Two directories exist within the Net Radio node: Shoutcast and Icecast, both of which provide ample sources for listening to radio over the internet.

Shoutcast comes with its own Mini player, which you use, but MediaMonkey also permits users to listen to the station with their own program. The program that opens, however, depends on how your operating system is configured. For example, if Winamp is selected as the default device for playing streaming audio, Winamp will open and play the station. To choose a different program, you must reset the default configurations within your OS.

Additional Features:

Because MediaMonkey is a music suite (as opposed to programs like SoundTaxi, which is used almost exclusively for conversion purposes), Monkey's list of additional features is laudable. It contains virtually every feature one would ask from a music suite.

The look of MediaMonkey is highly customizable. You can alternate skins (some come with the program), and customize the entire layout, including the Now Playing pane, main window, columns, the layout of tracks and album artwork, and specify the features listed in the Toolbar.

The program also contains a long list of Add-Ons (or Plug-Ins) that increase functionality in a variety of ways, from how audio plays to how the Visualizer looks. Many of the plugins are compatible with Winamp 2 and above.

Extensions, slightly different than Plug-Ins, though found in the same place (the Addon section of Monkey's website), also alter and improve MediaMonkey. A bunch of scripts are available that, according to the help section, “add a variety of different functions, such as looking up metadata & Album Art, playing music automatically based on last-fm preferences, switching metadata fields, playing random whole albums, etc.” Especially notable within that list of scripts is the one that incorporates Last-FM preferences.

You can also find new skins, different languages, and plugins that change how audio plays.

Of course MediaMonkey has CD Burning/Ripping software. It also has DVD burning capability. With CD burning, you can even select how the tracks will be burned to the CD, meaning you can specify a playlist for burning, and the resulting CD will structure the tracks based on the order of the playlist. A Wizard guides users through the process, which is convenient.

It even has a feature that allows complete volume normalization for all your tracks. The normalization transfers to other devices too, so if you sync tracks to your iPod that you edited within MediaMonkey, said track will retain Monkey's normalization data.

In case you wish to fall asleep while still listening to music, MediaMonkey lets users go to Play ->Sleep, which places your computer in Sleep mode, but lets the music continue playing.

For converting software, an Auto-Conversion feature is particularly beneficial. It can automatically alter the bitrate of a converted song for users with limited hard drive space and also level out the volume of all converted tracks.

An internal web browser exists, and it's helpful in a few circumstances, such as browsing the links within the Help contents. You'll find a few other links embedded within the player (right-clicking a track and choosing Buy, for instance) that take you to an external browser.

The gigantic amount of mp3 encoding settings allows users to have extreme control over the converted file's sound. You can opt for studio quality (ABR, 256 kbps; huge files) or a regular, 128kbps for average listening. The former setting is meant for audiophiles with highly defined ears that can distinguish very subtle discrepancies in sound.

Ease of Use:

Once users become familiar with the program, MediaMonkey is extremely efficient and intuitive. In fact, we rarely needed the help contents (though this may be different for the average user).

Apart from scanning a drive with a huge list of files, nothing takes very long, including ripping and burning CDs.

Help & Support:

A huge forum contains a wealth of information, and the members are eager to help and usually have the solution at their fingertips. Apart from the obligatory tech support sections, the forum has sections where users can list features they want in the future (“Wishlist”), “Addons” for those developing for the program, and “Artwork” for those contributing skins and the like.

The knowledge base (mediamonkey.com/support) on their website is deep and highly useful. It's supported by eSupport, meaning it has a Wiki section, Knowledgebase for FAQ purposes, Downloads for archived files, etc.

You can even submit a ticket for personal assistance.

Summary:

MediaMonkey is definitely one of the top music suites on the market. It has nearly every feature users could ask for, from CD ripping/burning to playlist management to highly customizable conversions to multiple skins to auto-tagging to file editing to... you get the picture.

The interface is sleek and unobtrusive, resulting in an easy, flowing experience when using the program.

Rarely do any problems arise, and if they do, the Support and Forum section of MediaMonkey.com probably has the solution.

All-in-All, it's worth the extra money to purchase the “Gold” Lifetime License to have access to all future versions of the software.

A few notes: Here's what users will get with a “Gold” package (some of which are already mentioned in the review): multiple music collections, automatic file organization, advanced auto playlists, auto-conversion and leveling, encode unlimited MP3s, a sleep timer, previews, and more.

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