d00ban Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 Am I the only one looking at this thinking they want Steve's music collection? lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Psychedelic Schizophrenic Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 Steve I'm a long time Mediamonkey user is it worth switching over? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 Steve I'm a long time Mediamonkey user is it worth switching over? That's what I switched from, but that was quite a long time ago now so I can't really say how they compare currently. I switched because I reported a couple of bugs in MediaMonkey to the developers, and made a feature request, but the bugs weren't fixed and the feature request was ignored. Conversely with MusicBee, the developer is super-responsive, even though it was created and is maintained by just 1 person. Any bugs I've reported have been fixed quickly, and I've requested 2 or 3 features, all of which have been implemented. All I can suggest is to give it a try and see what you think. It has a TON of customisation options though, so maybe try it for a week or two before you decide which one to stick with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest petesasqwax Posted April 23, 2016 Share Posted April 23, 2016 I do like this as an idea. I've never really got into organising mp3s like this - I twnd to do it all manually going through folders in explorer. I guess I'd never really even considered using a media library. I'd still need itunes to load shit onto my ipod, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted April 23, 2016 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 I do like this as an idea. I've never really got into organising mp3s like this - I twnd to do it all manually going through folders in explorer. I guess I'd never really even considered using a media library. I'd still need itunes to load shit onto my ipod, right? That's how I used to do things back when I used Winamp. I'd just manually browse to the shit I wanted to play in Windows. Honestly though, if you can be bothered to tag all of your files - and MusicBee has an auto-tag feature that can pull in metadata from a bunch of different sources - then you'll wonder why you never did it sooner. As far as iPod compatibility goes, I'm not sure about the current status of that. I know in the past, Apple blocked MusicBee and the developer fixed it, then they blocked it again, and so on, but right now I'm not sure what the deal is. With DVS, you can export your library in an iTunes XML format, so Serato, Traktor and what not can still sync with your music library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest petesasqwax Posted April 23, 2016 Share Posted April 23, 2016 Yeah, I'm still using Winamp and honestly I feel like my methods are a bit caveman. The itunes thing is no great concern - I have no DVS needs so all I actually use itunes for is managing my ipod and iPhones. It's no hassle to do that through itunes. Will download Music Bee and give it a go I reckon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Psychedelic Schizophrenic Posted April 27, 2016 Share Posted April 27, 2016 That's what I switched from, but that was quite a long time ago now so I can't really say how they compare currently.I switched because I reported a couple of bugs in MediaMonkey to the developers, and made a feature request, but the bugs weren't fixed and the feature request was ignored. Conversely with MusicBee, the developer is super-responsive, even though it was created and is maintained by just 1 person. Any bugs I've reported have been fixed quickly, and I've requested 2 or 3 features, all of which have been implemented. All I can suggest is to give it a try and see what you think. It has a TON of customisation options though, so maybe try it for a week or two before you decide which one to stick with. I started out in 2010 ish on version 3.2.2 or something like that, mediamonkey were very lackadaisical on there approach to updating, beta testing and feature requests. But IMO they have come on leaps and bounds since they released MM4 in 2011. Since then they have released 17 updates and have bug fixed, improved and implemented over 1,100 issues, currently have 4.1.12 in beta testing and rumours of MM5 some point in the foreseeable future too. Currently using Mediamonkey 4.1.11, I've just downloaded and installed Music Bee 2.5 so I'm going to compare the different models side by side. You never know Music Bee might impress me enough to switch permanently Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted April 29, 2016 Author Share Posted April 29, 2016 A new version of MusicBee is put out almost every day. I've never seen a more responsive developer. Obviously, you don't have to update it every day and full new versions are only released once every few months like most other software, but if you report a bug on the forums, chances are the dev will fix it inside a week - and sometimes inside 24 hours. I liked MediaMonkey enough to buy a gold license for it, but the developer's lack of response to bug reports pissed me off. I tried MusicBee and found that it was basically MediaMonkey but with a nicer interface (IMO) and a super-responsive developer. Feature-wise, I don't know how the 2 compare now, but I can't think of a feature I want that MusicBee doesn't have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Psychedelic Schizophrenic Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 So after a long delay I eventually got round to installing MusicBee 3.0.5965 last night. I’ve only about spent about an hour on it and noticed the following: Visually - MusicBee trumps MediaMonkey 4 in the skinning department hands down. Even the default skin is so much nicer then the horrible brown/black metro style skin that MM4 come bundled with. Looking through the skins available I’m currently loving the Midnight Metro one at the moment. It nice to see MusicBee forum community still hard at it making skins as the MediaMonkey skinning community has been non existent in recent years and I’m currently using a skin called 7on which came out in 2010. Also noticed you can install custom windows 10 MusicBee icons which look so cool Layout – Love the factor nearly everything in the layout is customizable unlike MM4. Also the auto-hide feature for the right column is an excellent feature as this gives me more real estate for the main panel as well as the left column on auto-hide allows me to browse through genre, artist, album etc. with ease. I also have found MusicBee a breeze to use as it is so much like MM in terms of layout and keyboard shoutcuts. Codec - Another nice touch IMO is that MusicBee supports encoding to AAC and ALAC out the box with the quick and simple codec install. Unfortunately in MM encoding to either AAC or ALAC formats require you to purchase there codec pack which is nearly 11 quid to encode directly in MM otherwise you have to install an additional software to encode outside MM like I have been doing then rescan it back into your music library to tag, scan etc. So this is a major benefit on its own compared to MM. I haven’t got round to delving into the advanced features, encoding any files from lossless format into lossy, tagging any files, tagging artwork or moving files, installing any scripts or syncing my music library, iPod etc yet but I’m very impressed so far at the basics. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted May 6, 2016 Author Share Posted May 6, 2016 Cool man, glad you're liking it so far! As you're already on version 3, you can keep it up to date by periodically downloading this zip file and unzipping the contents to the MusicBee installation directory (while MusicBee is closed of course), overwriting the files that are already there: - http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V3_0/MusicBee3_Patched.zip The link is always the same. It gets updated most days. 3.0.5969 is the current version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Psychedelic Schizophrenic Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 Thanks for the link I will keep it bookmarked, also thanks for putting me onto this dope music manger When you created your new library mate did you set it up in the MB folder that's located in the my music system folder or did you create a separate folder outside of the MB folder? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted May 6, 2016 Author Share Posted May 6, 2016 I left the settings at their defaults, so the library database and settings files are in C:\Users\steve\Music\MusicBee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Psychedelic Schizophrenic Posted May 9, 2016 Share Posted May 9, 2016 So four days in to using MusicBee which I’ve been really impressed with it so far I’ve officially found my first complaint about it. I really hate how cluttered the my music system folder feels and looks in MusicBee compared to MediaMonkey Here is how MusicBee looks Compared to MediaMonkey In MediaMonkey the playlist, podcasts, libaray settings etc are stored in the app data folder out of sight as nothing is stored in my music system folder apart from music and artwork. Maybe I’ve got OCD or something but I prefer the clean minimal MediaMonkey approach, this is the only thing holding me back from switching completely if I’m being perfectly honest. Maybe worth me shooting this a feature request to the developer? I’ve installed some plugins for MusicBee Discogs Tagger, iPod & iPhone driver and the additional tagging and reporting tools plugin. Is there any other plugins you can recommended Steve? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted May 9, 2016 Author Share Posted May 9, 2016 You don't have to have your actual folders of music in that MusicBee folder. You can have them in Music\Mark's Music if you prefer (or anywhere else on your system) and you can move the MusicBee library folder using the "Move" option in Library Preferences. Have a look here: - http://musicbee.wikia.com/wiki/Library_Preferences As for plugins, I don't use any. But yeah, if you get stuck with the organisation/folder thing, ask on the MusicBee forums and someone will help you sort it so it looks like you want it to look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Psychedelic Schizophrenic Posted May 11, 2016 Share Posted May 11, 2016 Nice one Steve, asked on the musicbee forum and got it sorted I went a bit too mad with the dashes 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted May 12, 2016 Author Share Posted May 12, 2016 Nice one man! Glad you got it sorted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Psychedelic Schizophrenic Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 Loving it Steve officially Mediamonkey free now 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted July 15, 2016 Author Share Posted July 15, 2016 Cool man. Glad you like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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