Overview

MediaMonkey is a Windows-based audio librarian program with features useful for tango music collectors:

• excellent performance on libraries of over 10,000 tracks
• powerful browse and search facilities e.g. CTRL+F Canaro Vals
• multi-artist support e.g. the Artists list can show a track under both Miguel Caló and Raúl Berón
• highly configurable display e.g. filter-in tracks rated three stars or more
• good user support from the user community
• a responsive and responsible development team

Shortcomings include:

• many bugs, some major - some listed below
• user documentation is poor (albeit better than average for Windows audio librarian programs)
• accessibility is poor - the program cannot be all operated by keyboard

The program is available from http://www.mediamonkey.com.

Configuration

The installation-default configuration may not be as you want it. Consider the following adjustments:

• Switch to a more Windows-standard (and less colourful) program appearence
  • At Tools | Options | Skins, set [X] Override Skin theme with Windows System theme (requires restart)
• Disable the crossfade that occurs on switching tracks, the end-of-track silence removal that causes playback's track transition to lose gaps, and the fade-in/out that misleads and slows play operations:
  • Click Tools | Options | Output plug-ins, select MediaMonkey DirectSound output, click Configure
    • uncheck Crossfade tracks
    • uncheck Remove silence at the beginning / end of track
      • Note: This won't get you gaps where none exist in the track files e.g. where a CDs last track has no terminal silence
    • uncheck Smooth pause, Smooth seek and Smooth stop
    • screen shot
• Change the Windows Regional and Language Settings Date to international standard yyyy-mm-dd - MediaMonkey does respect this setting for its own date display (except for this).
• Disable the storage of non-ASCII characters in WAV files that causes garbage appearence in e.g. WinAmp, GoldWave, Windows Media Player
  • Follow this workaround - note: that article is otherwise factually incorrect.
• Change Date information storage in MP3 files to the correct format such that it displays in compliant programs such as WinAmp (may cause incompatibility with iTunes)
  • Follow this
• Change the quick search to search only Title, Artist, Album, Album Artist and Genre (not e.g. lyrics)
  • Follow this
• For DJing, set double-clicking or pressing ENTER on library track(s) to have the effect of queuing those tracks for playing:
  • Click Tools | Options | Player
    • Set When playback is stopped to Play Last
    • Set When tracks are playing to Play Last
    • screenshot

Problems

• V3.1 1282 Autosync truncates playlist names at dot
  • Problem: http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=6261
• V3.1.1 Multiple MSC device profiles can suffer settings corruption
  • Problem: http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=5828
• V3.0.1190/1209 WMA tag write fails on vanilla Win XP SP2!
  • Problem and workaround: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=199831#p199831
• V3.0.?.1107-?1228? Add/Rescan fails to rescan M3Us i.e. to update changed playlists already in 'Imported m3u playlists', or to restore references to deleted and restored tracks in same, or (most seriously) to restore playlists deleted from 'Imported m3u playlists'.
  • Problem and workaround: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=78121#p78121
• V3.0.6.1190? Volume analysis can sliently discard tag edits
  • Problem http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=186376#p186376
• V3.0.5.1187 All four ways of sending multiple playlists to a device in one operation are broken
  • Problems: http://mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=28531#p144562
  • Partial fix: ???
  • Workaround for one: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=27857&p=171468#p171468
• V3.0.5.1187 1187 Conversion to WAV garbages non-ASCII chars
  • Problem: http://mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=33456
• V3.0.3.1183 Device config can revert to default Playlist path
  • Problem: http://mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=33368
• V3.0.3.1183 Same-named playlist causes loss upon sync
  • Problem: http://mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=33354
• V3.0.3.1183 Failure of Auto-sync to detect tag changes
  • Problem and partial workaround: http://mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=33369#p170610
• V3.0.3.1170 Blanking Artist can lose Album Artist value
  • Problem: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=29235&p=148639
• V3.0.3.1164 Generate device Playlists for Albums fails
  • Problem: http://mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=28800&p=146245&hilit=check+box#p146245
• V3.0.3.1164 Storage of illegal TDRC frame in MP3 ID3 V2.3 tags
  • Workaround: http://www.mediamonkey.com/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=62
• V3.0.3.1164 Muddling together of multiple albums with same title and artist
  • Problem and workaround: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23659
• V3.0.3.1164 Various failures to sync to portable device.
• V3.0.3.1164 "Intentional" failure of sync setting change to take effect
  • Problem and workaround: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=146499#146499
• V3.0.3.1164 Rescan of files fails to update library for deleted tags
  • Problem and workaround: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=146409#146409
• V3.0.3.1150 No Undo! This makes potentially disasterous a careless drag of tracks to the wrong album.
• V3.0.3.1148 Multiple artist support fails to comply with MP3 standard
  • Problem: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27934
  • Update: V3.0.3.1155 release reports a fix that may address this.
• V3.0.3.1148 Tags edits can cause messups on ';' character
  • Problem: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27942
• V3.0.3.1155 Playlist import can miss tracks
  • Problem: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28254
• V3.?.1187 d_USBMass1.dll auto-sync does redundant playlist copies
  • Problem http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=33471
• V3.0.3.1183 Delete from device shows Path on Device wrongly
  • Problem: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=29202&p=148485&hilit=Path+on+device#p148485
• V3.0.3.1148 Fails to show WMA Year tag values having non-digits e.g. 1941-03-14 (such as delivered by tango.info tagging).
  • Problem: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27627
• V? Reportedly by default can write faulty (i.e. non-compliant) Year in MP3.
  • Problem: http://mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23192
  • Workaround: http://www.mediamonkey.com/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=62&nav=0,9
• V3.0.3.1148 Leading dot on Artist/Album name can cause missing files on device sync
  • http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27926
• V3.0.3.1148 default config for Creative ZEN writes unusable playlists
  • Problem and workaround: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27789&highlight=My%20Playlists
• V3.0.3.1148 Playlists synced to Creative ZEN fail to show on ZEN Media Explorer
  • Problem: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=140583
• V3.0.3.1148 Multiple-used tracks can be lost from Creative ZEN playlists
  • Problem: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=125919#125919
  • Workaround: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=172656#p172656
• V3.0.3.1183 embolding of playing track causes displacement and possibly truncation
  • Problem: http://mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32115
• V3.0.5.1187 WMA lossless silence play position failure
  • Problem and fix: http://mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=33521&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a