Managing Music Collection

[scampbell]

Does anyone have experience with programs that rip (in CD quality) and manage extensive music collections? I know that there are a ton of programs out there, and don't mind spending a few bucks, but I want to ensure that I am going to get my moneys worth.

Any comments/suggestions are apprecited?

Thanks!

[Bob Collins]

I have been using MusicMatch Jukebox since version 2 I think. I really like it. The latest version interface is not all that user friendly in my opinion though. I am holding at an older release.

The nicest thing, in my opinion, is that you can move the library, and if you know where to look, you can edit the files that tell MMJB where the music is. The library actually uses old-style text files to tell MMJB"where" the music lives on your system. For example, if you move your music from a server to local, all you have to do is update the files that show, for example, music was at m:\music\<artist>\<album>\track now to now D:\music\<artist>\<album>\track. Simply edit the files from M:\ to D:\ and all is well.

You can of course use the library tools, but for old timers like myself the text mod is much faster. I think the player/ripper/recorder is quite nice. At the time I purchased it, the cost was $29 USD for lifetime upgrades. I have upgraded until the last, which as noted, was/is too busy and `integrated' to me. I like a cleaner simpler interface. I like the player visible and track list only, I don't want the library/online stuff/etc visible all times.

FWIW, I never felt WinAMP or Windows media player were all that intuitive.

[monty cantsin]

Does anyone have experience with programs that rip (in CD quality) and manage extensive music collections? I know that there are a ton of programs out there, and don't mind spending a few bucks, but I want to ensure that I am going to get my moneys worth.

Any comments/suggestions are apprecited?

I don't know what you mean with "extensive music collections" and I'm also not really one of those stereo fanatics out there, so they might disagree, but I find Apple's iTunes quite good. Has a clean look (much better than Microsoft's Media Player, for example, the latest version 10 included), broad functionality and I particularly like the quality of its AAC encoder, especially at lower bitrates. Also features lossless encoding (like in Windows Media Player) at half of the size of uncompressed audio files if you prefer that. And if you feel annoyed by Apple's commercial aspirations, you can even remove the music store thing completely from the user interface (in Microsoft's Media Player, you have to live with it whether you like it or not).

http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/9217

http://www.rjamorim.com/test/aac128v2/results.html