MediaMonkey is an all-in-one music application. This means you can play Internet music on your PC, organize all tracks, burn them to a CD or DVD disk, rip audio tracks from DVD, keep track of your CDs, and probably almost everything you will ever need in this topic.
There are some more applications of this sort out there, so I will focus on the differences. First of all, this is a very user-friendly application. After installation, there is no complex configuration or anything of that sort. You will be listening to your music right away. It even includes some clever details like removing silence between your songs. MediaMonkey will fade out a song while already starting the next one, allowing for a very “DJ-like” experience.
There are, as usual, several view modes: the micro (only an icon on the notification area), mini (as a graphically appealing, only essential buttons application) and the full mode. In the full mode you will have access to all the music in your library. Once more, all the controls are very intuitive. You have a search option, and different categories to list your audio files: by genre, by artist, by album year, classification, etc. After you get used to the basic functions, advanced configuration options are available to personalize the application to your preferences. The point here is that everything seems so well thought, that you only really be trimming it to your taste. For instance, in the mini mode, MediaMonley comes configured to automatically fade, while keeping on the top of other applications. When maximized, it will behave like any other application. Finally, you even get a “party mode”, in which the application will cover all the screen, but no changes will be saved, meaning your friends can choose their tunes without messing up your set preferences.
Ironically, the option to change modes is not at all intuitive so here is a little tip: party mode is in the view menu, but mini and micro mode can be activated from an almost invisible button just besides the minimize and maximize window buttons.
New in version 3.2 is the possibility to synchronize it with several iPod’s and other devices, integration with Windows 7, and monitoring of directories, besides several other small improvements. There is also a Gold (paid) version, with some more advanced options, like unlimited MP3 encoding and Advanced Auto Playlists.
In conclusion, this is a very complete application, which manages to be easy to use while keeping all advanced possibilities available if you need them.
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