CNET Editors' review
Despite a glut of free player/encoders, it's tough to find one that meets our expectations. Formerly known as Sound DB, MediaMonkey has excellent library-management tools that keep the largest digital music collections well organized. Stir that up with integrated CD and DVD burning, a stellar interface, a full-featured encoder, and the ability to sync with portable audio devices such as the iPod, and you have a pretty compelling product.
Upon first launch, the program scans your drive for supported digital media files to add to the library. Files are sorted based on their ID3 tags, and the helpful Auto-Rename and Auto-Tag From Filename features keep untagged tracks from falling through the cracks. Party mode locks down your library while still allowing people to request songs. Auto DJ plays selections from your library even when there are no requests in the queue. Third-party plug-ins are available from the site if you want to tinker with the playback and encoding engine or add additional sound-processing effects. The interface is well designed, with clean, colorful icons throughout.
Considering the overall polish of this application, you'll be hard-pressed to find anything you don't like. Although it's definitely geared toward managing extensive collections, just about anyone will appreciate the comprehensive feature set. For $20, MediaMonkey Gold adds advanced features such as sleep, scripting, previewing, and on-the-fly file conversion when syncing with a portable device.
Publisher's Description
From Ventis Media:
MediaMonkey is a music manager and jukebox for serious music collectors and iPod users. It catalogs your CDs, OGG, WMA, MPC, FLAC, APE, WAV and MP3 audio files. It offers an intelligent tag editor which looks up missing Album Art and track information via Freedb and the web, and an automated file and directory renamer to organize your music library. It includes a CD ripper, CD/DVD Burner, and audio converter for saving music, and manual or automated playlist editors for creating music mixes. Its player automatically adjusts volume levels so that you don't have continually fiddle with the volume control and supports hundreds of Winamp plug-ins and visualizations; or if you prefer, it can use Winamp as the default player. It also includes portable audio device synchronization that allows you to quickly synch tracks and playlists with iPods, MP3 Phones, and other portable audio devices.
Version 2.5.5 adds support for iTunes phones, improves iPod and MTP device synchronization, improves FLAC support.
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All versions:
4.0 starsout of 1,268 votes
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Current version:
4.1 starsout of 245 votes
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My rating:
Write review
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"Disappointing"
Version: MediaMonkey Standard 2.5.5.998
Pros
OK for pop music
Cons
Failed to detect any classical tracks, whether MP3 or WMA. Did not matter if the tags were custom-edited or downloaded from central databases that had classical CD info. Tried rescanning several times, and forcing it to scan the folders that contained the classical cuts, no results. Useless for people with mixed pop and classical libraries.
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"Great little player/manager that does most everything"
Version: MediaMonkey Standard 2.5.5.998
Pros
No complaints this thing is great and handy. Good job Dev crew. You know what music listener really want.
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"ruined my ipod"
Version: MediaMonkey Standard 2.5.5.998
Pros
ha!
Cons
erased everything, screwed up my ipod. really, you're better off with a program that mass renames files, and ID3 seperately and using your media player of choice.
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"Good"
Version: MediaMonkey Standard 2.5.5.998
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"functional"
Version: MediaMonkey Standard 2.5.5.998
Pros
easy player interface, fairly good editing (library)
Cons
Doesnt support 7.1 sound. Would be nice to have a Library editing program to take care of doubles and partials
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"Very good music player/organizer."
Version: MediaMonkey Standard 2.5.5.998
Pros
I used this version for a long time, then updated to version 3 (at Softpedia) and split the cost of Media Monkey Gold with a friend. Complaints about nag screen never bothered me and with the Gold version they stopped. Both this and version 3 work fine on both my hard drives (Vista and Win XP Pro), In fact v3 is so good it's set as my default music player. Easy to use and create play lists. burn etc.
Cons
This version needs to be updated at this web site. As to the program I'm using, no cons at all. Once you purchase the Gold version, your key is good for life.
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"Wow..."
Version: MediaMonkey Standard 2.5.5.998
Pros
Until tonight I never really gave much thought as to one player sounding better than another...I tell ya what...There's a HUGE difference in the way this player sounds when compared to WMP 11...It's truly night and day...This player is superior...I've been using WMP 11 for years but I actually tried this software about 3 years ago...Paid for it and lost all my info of course...Found my key from 2005 in 2 seconds on their site...Great company...Paid for Music Match in like 99 and they lost all my info within a week....
Cons
I still prefer ther WMP 11 interface and the fact that it thumbnails the 100's of movies I have on here...But I'll play with this for sure...We'll see if it syncs as well to my Creative Zen Xtra....
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"Great Player"
Version: MediaMonkey Standard 2.5.5.998
Pros
Layouts can be customized. You can pick what shows, where it goes, and how big you want it.
You can show or hide album art, now playing list, and the player which has a skip, play, pause, stop, or an open file/url button.
You can move the album art or the player to the side or under the song lists if you want.
Can add more than one image in the album art section and choose which one shows. Also choose the image type. Whether it's the album cover, the artist, band logo, and illistration, or even a video sreen capture.
Easily able to add new tracks to the library.
Always displays total files in the library, total size, total play time at the bottom, total selected tracks (if any), total size of the selected tracks, and the total play time for the selected tracks.
Can move and copy to a folder directly from Media Monkey.
Can supposedly erase a disc or burn a cd or dvd directly. I haven't tried it yet.
Cons
The continous playback button doesn't work.
The file monitor only works if you've upgraded to gold. So that means it won't locate moved or missing tracks.
Lack of skin choice. Only 3 or so skins to choose from. Default is blue.
The player can't stretch the full length of window. It always stays the same size.
Can't open the file locaion from Media Monkey and is Windows Media Player which I personally miss the most.
Sleep setting only for gold.
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"Ok, does the job"
Version: MediaMonkey Standard 2.5.5.998
Cons
But flaws in operational use
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"This Monkey Rocks!"
Version: MediaMonkey Standard 2.5.5.998
Pros
I have been trying to create a catalog of the Christmas songs that I have downloaded - or ripped. I tried several other products; however, they were either memory hogs - or - they had interfaces that were incomprehensible. This Monkey created a catalog of all my Christmas songs in less than 2 minutes.
MediaMonkey allows you to edit the MP3 info on the fly, by album and artist (simply highlight and change a field) or by genre.
I am in love.
This is such GREAT software that I bought the "premium license" ($20) immediately.
Buy it, you won't go wrong.
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