Good audio manager?

[m^(2)]

Currently I'm using Media Monkey. Has great features and I've been using it for a quarter and I even considered buying a pro version for some time, but it's good that I didn't. Why? Because it crashed (happens to it sometimes) and corrupted own database. Didn't seem like a big deal, I deleted it and it created a new one, play counts are not important to me. But I noticed a huge problem: Some of my tags were saved only in the database, not in the files.
It seems totally random, I had some fields missing in some files like an album fully tagged, except for songs 3,6,7 missing track number, total ~15-20% files were affected. Took me a few hours to correct (except for the ones that look right, but are again in the database only) and I really don't want to get through it again.
Also, WavPack tags always landed in the database, I didn't correct it at all yet.

Can you suggest me a replacement?
I need a tool that lets mi automate metadata menagement as much as possible, portable (can be with a launcher), preferably though not necessarily free.
TIA for all helpful comments.

[freakazoid]

Hmm... have you tried Foobar?

I don't often use a media manager, but when I do I use Tag 'n Rename (not portable and free I'm afraid).

[m^(2)]

It's one of 3 (?) good programs that I never used because of how terrible they look, but as I need more than my XMPlay, I'll take a deeper look, thanks.

[freakazoid]

XMPlay rules!

The only problem I have with it is I can't edit ID3 tags in it natively.
And I don't want to use an external mp3 plugin to do it!

[m^(2)]

I'm not happy with it, but foobar fits my needs...actually even better than Media Monkey. The only problem is that I'll have to invest several hours on extending and configuring it and additionally some time to change my naming scheme to something Foobar tagger understands, but since I have it clean it's just a matter of writing one script...
Why is it that all programs that are important to me are DYI stuff like this one?
The only thing I miss is online tag edition in the playlist.

Thanks again for this suggestion.

[freakazoid]

I remember when Foobar used to suck because you needed an elitist-level learning curve in order to get things the way you wanted it.
But the latest releases are quite decent, I just haven't played around with it or (like you) dedicated any time to configure everything.

[ashghost]

m^(2)

I love foobar2000, but I use MediaMonkey for heavy duty tagging and management. It's actually pretty simple to get your database tags saved to the files: choose Tools -> Advanced Tag Management -> Synchronize tags..., or just hit Ctrl+S.

The menu is misleading: since it's a list of options for id3v1 vs id3v2 tags, most people would assume it synchronizes those. When you use it, however, a dialog pops up asking you to confirm that you want to write changes in the database to your files.

While you still might prefer to use a tool that doesn't have this extra step, it is a nice failsafe. Without it, if you destroy your tags with a script, you've lost everything. With it, you can just "Clear library" and re-add the files.

It's too bad the developers can't make it more transparent - I had to figure it out the hard way, too.

[m^(2)]

m^(2)

I love foobar2000, but I use MediaMonkey for heavy duty tagging and management. It's actually pretty simple to get your database tags saved to the files: choose Tools -> Advanced Tag Management -> Synchronize tags..., or just hit Ctrl+S.

The menu is misleading: since it's a list of options for id3v1 vs id3v2 tags, most people would assume it synchronizes those. When you use it, however, a dialog pops up asking you to confirm that you want to write changes in the database to your files.

While you still might prefer to use a tool that doesn't have this extra step, it is a nice failsafe. Without it, if you destroy your tags with a script, you've lost everything. With it, you can just "Clear library" and re-add the files.

It's too bad the developers can't make it more transparent - I had to figure it out the hard way, too.

Thanks a lot!
I was worried about unsaved tags that I discover (and correct manually) sometimes in foobar.
BTW I found Columns UI plugin and now foobar looks pretty well. Scriptinig is less powerful than in MM and I'll have to use some helper perl scripts, but way way simpler and therefore much better for most uses. And unlike MM's, it's documented.
I'm starting to like foobar.

[taotra]

You can try Jaangle. It's portable.

Overview
Jaangle (formerly Teen Spirit) is a free music player and organizer software. It categorizes your mp3, ogg, wma, avi etc collection and displays it in easy to browse, user interface. It has a quality audio - video player and also an integrated tag editor.

http://www.jaangle.com/

[m^(2)]

You can try Jaangle. It's portable.

Overview
Jaangle (formerly Teen Spirit) is a free music player and organizer software. It categorizes your mp3, ogg, wma, avi etc collection and displays it in easy to browse, user interface. It has a quality audio - video player and also an integrated tag editor.

http://www.jaangle.com/

Very cool player. I won't use it, because it lacks configurability, but I'll add it to my list of recommendations. Automatic content retrieval from the web is really nice, though glitches happen:



Thanks for this suggestion. If it's really portable, it's definitely worth adding to the database.

[m^(2)]

Damn, I just learned that all advanced configuration of user interface is done via scripting and that's writing / modifying hundreds kilobytes of code in various places.
It is extremely flexible, but I don't need *THAT* much flexibility and just hate amount of time needed to do it.
Now I'm thinking about what should I do: Start with a preconfigured foobar (1 problem: I didn't see a good one that's not black. And I don't like back ones. And changing it would need a lot of time, during which has to be taken in one part as foobar would be unusable if I had it half done) and adjust it to my needs or make my own from scratch, first simple, but growing as I learn it and have time.

[zikarus]

Hmh m^2 - why don't you use aimp2 which is already included in TCUP?

The best Music Manager though - alas not portable (yet) - seems to be Helium btw.

Br
z

[m^(2)]

Hmh m^2 - why don't you use aimp2 which is already included in TCUP?

AIMP is not even nearly good enough for me. And BTW, I don't use TC UP.

[/quote]The best Music Manager though - alas not portable (yet) - seems to be Helium btw.

Br
z[/quote]
Nice to know, but for me it's not an option.

[garbanzo]

foobar and mediamonkey are the best of the best for advanced media management. i think mediamonkey has better features for initial organization, but once you have your main library in good shape, definitely switch to foobar. there are so many plugins, and the entire UI is cutomizable to the point that it can become the perfect media player for your needs.

i'm not sure why you want to start with someone else's config. i assume you're still using ColumnsUI? i think the default UI is more than enough. go find an addon called Facets, that will give you a lot more flexibility. another called FooTextDisplay or something similar will let you show track info and lyrics. just enter Layout Editing Mode and in a few minutes you can shuffle things around to your liking.

also, have a look at their forum, they have a thread full of DefaultUI screenshots where you can get ideas about how to organize.

my current config

[m^(2)]

foobar and mediamonkey are the best of the best for advanced media management. i think mediamonkey has better features for initial organization, but once you have your main library in good shape, definitely switch to foobar. there are so many plugins, and the entire UI is cutomizable to the point that it can become the perfect media player for your needs.

i'm not sure why you want to start with someone else's config. i assume you're still using ColumnsUI? i think the default UI is more than enough. go find an addon called Facets, that will give you a lot more flexibility. another called FooTextDisplay or something similar will let you show track info and lyrics. just enter Layout Editing Mode and in a few minutes you can shuffle things around to your liking.

also, have a look at their forum, they have a thread full of DefaultUI screenshots where you can get ideas about how to organize.

my current config

Facets work with ColumnsUI? I had both for a while but Facets didn't appear in "Add panel" menu...
Besides this, I've got all these things. And I found Explorer panel to be really comfortable.

Why someone else's?

1. It's easier to modify existing thing than to make my own. This is the main reason.
2. Standard ColumnsUI doesn't look good. It's not as bad as Panels, but not good either. FooNight that I use now is looking very well (except that it's black ). I'm not much into looks, but I spend a lot of time in a media player, so it's nice to like the way it looks.

After sleeping with it, I think that FooNight is the way to go. First I have to remove some bling that reduces readability. Then remove spectrogram and put lyrics where it is. Then remove lyrics from where they are already. Then search the foobar forum (and ask if needed), cause I won't find how to do it myself: it doesn't have inline tag editing. Then add Explorer panel.
When it's done, I can use it comfortably. Changing colour and totally changing info displayed in several places can be done later.

P.S. While trying to add url to FooNight, I discovered that in the older version there was FooDay too.
I'll ask the author to update it.