Programs for File management - HELP

In my opinion the best program is Mpeg audio collection (MAC), it is an incredible program that can do all of the organization for you, in addition it is also free, I am using it to organize my few thousand albums.

http://mac.sourceforge.net/

It is worth to give it a try..

Gararddunn, I'll get back to you on that question. I know an expert that I can ask. Basically you want to make sure that the ID tag info remains formulated the same in itunes as it does for foobar or media monkey, for example. if it does then the question becomes whether or not your playlists can be exported properly from one program to another. If so, then any playback program is fine because you can always switch. The only thing then to make sure of is that the cds are tagged properly when you burn them onto your hard drives.

There is a book called something like 'iPod and iTunes for dummies.' With that kind of support it's going to be hard to beat. Foobar has the most flexibility for customization but it's difficult to learn how to customize it. there are programmer sites that have screen captures of what their personal foobar interfaces look like and it's very interesting - those are the coolest looking interfaces i've seen.

Media monkey is what I am using (so is the expert I know) and it's easy to use right from the start. for now it's all I need.

But again, the question is about reading ID tags and exporting playlists. I would not want to create interesting playlists for different types of jazz and different types of rock, etc from a 1000+ cd catalogue and then have to redo it when i changed playback programs.

Kublakhan;
You truly understand my concern. Although for now, whatever program I choose will be fine, I am most concerned about the future. I guess I should stop worrying so much, and make some decisions. I will give media monkey a shot. I will let you know what my thoughts are after I get up and running. Let me know what your expert contact thinks as well. Warmest regards and have a great weekend! Gerry

G, here's the deal. There should be no reason for one player program to sound better than the next...they all access the same music file on your hard drive. You can change players any time and bring over your playlists and ID tags like genre, etc. The expert I know uses Media Monkey because it's the most convenient for him. I use it and also find it to be pretty simple.

Bottom line is that the only thing to concern yourself with is burning the cd properly. If you set up EAC correctly you're fine. So, like you said, just make a few decisions and start enjoying your music.

Good luck.

Interesting thread. It sounds like people here haven't discovered tagging software. There is never a need to rerip a disc as Kublakhan seems to be suggesting. I would suggest Tag & Rename, it supports id3, ape, flac and multiple other tagging formats. I believe it costs a few bucks, but you will likely find that you use this program frequently. It has a gentle learning curve and is frankly invaluable when it comes to maintaining a digital library.

Kublakhan is correct when he states that it really doesn't matter which playback software you use in terms of sound (asuming asio or directsound v2.5 or something similar is being used). However, not all players are created equal when it comes to leaving your tags alone. Windows Media Player and the newest version of foobar are currently the worst offenders in this category usurping itunes old spot (although itunes now has plenty of options to turn tag screwing options off). However, it's all really a matter of preference--feel free to use whatever floats your boat. Just make sure to write protect your audio files before chucking them into some player's library.

As far as ripping is concerned, EAC is your only option if you care about audio at all.

As far as a library for managing and browsing your collection is concerned. 1000 cd's isn't large enough to pose a problem for any library that I'm aware of. Eventually, as your collection grows, you'll want to find a library that doesn't search via tag (as most do) but rather cache's the database to a text file and then searches that instead. It is much much faster, but at this stage of the game, largely irrelavant. I'm currently at just over 6,000 albums in FLAC--I ended up having to write a separate program to meet my browsing needs.