MediaMonkey Review: Is It a Complete Media Library Manager?

为什么相信我的这篇评论？

我的名字是 Thomas Boldt，几乎自从这个概念被发明以来，我就一直在我的家用电脑上使用数字媒体。 通过拨号互联网连接下载媒体文件是一个非常缓慢的过程，但这也是我开始收集媒体的原因。

Over the years since then, I’ve only grown my collection, which has given me a clear understanding of how the world of digital media has evolved. As part of my later training as a graphic designer, I spent a long time learning the ins and outs of user interface and experience design, which makes it easy for me to spot the differences between a well-designed program and one that needs some work.

MediaMonkey 没有向我提供他们软件的免费副本以换取这次审查，他们没有编辑输入或对内容的控制。 这篇评论中表达的所有观点都是我自己的。

此外，可能值得注意的是，我们实际上是根据自己的预算购买了该程序（收据下方），以便进行此审查。 这使我能够访问和测试所有高级功能。

MediaMonkey Gold的详细评论

注意：首先，我不得不说，这个程序比我能适应审查的要多。 我已将软件的主要功能分解为几个主要部分，但还有更多 这 this software can do.

图书馆管理

最初，界面看起来有点裸露。 该软件中几乎没有什么有用的说明，这是少数需要改进的地方之一。 但是，轻按“插入”按钮或访问“文件”菜单，您就可以开始将媒体导入您的媒体库。

对于这篇评论，我已经分离出我个人媒体库的一部分进行测试。 很长一段时间以来，我一直想清理它——对于某些文件，已经有将近 20 年的时间了——但我一直没有解决它。

The program supports an impressive range of files, from the extremely common but aging MP3 standard that kickstarted the digital music revolution to the audiophile’s favorite lossless format FLAC. All of my files are MP3s, but most are files that I ripped myself during the early 2000s, long before the days of online databases integrated into every program so there are large gaps in the tag data.

The import process went smoothly enough, and I was able to configure MediaMonkey to constantly monitor my Media folder for changes, but you can already see that poor lonely Rage Against the Machine MP3 that has lost the rest of its album in the first library screenshot. There are a few other issues that I’d like to clear up, including missing track numbers and other hassles that are a pain to fix manually.

I also added in a few audiobooks to test how well the program handled different audio types – you wouldn’t want to be playing your collection on shuffle only to suddenly be dropped into the middle of a book. While MediaMonkey supports audiobooks, the collection isn’t enabled by default.

After a bit of searching, I found that it’s possible to enable the collection separately – but not all of my audiobooks were tagged properly.

有趣的是，此部分还允许您完全控制对集合进行分段的方式。 例如，我可以创建一个 Chillout Music 合集，它只播放标记为 Downtempo 或 Trip-hop 类型的音乐文件，BPM 低于 60，然后全部交叉淡化播放。

Whenever I added new media to my general library, the custom collection would automatically update. The possibilities are only limited by the amount of configuration you’re willing to do, but it’s also only available in the Gold version of the software. This same degree of control can be used to generate playlists based on any criteria, but again only in the Gold version.

MediaMonkey Gold 中最强大的工具之一是自动组织器。 它可以根据与每个文件关联的标签信息完全重构您的文件夹系统。 通常，它们是围绕艺术家姓名和专辑名称进行组织的，但您可以根据您想要的几乎任何标准将它们分开到新文件夹中。

In this example, I’ve configured it to restructure the library based on the year the music was released, but I could start with genre, speed, or any of the other taggable aspects of my media files.

This is something to be extremely careful with, in case you accidentally wind up making a giant mess of your folders. While you can always correct it again with the same tool, it will take a little while to process a large library with tens of thousands of files. This makes it extremely important to have all of your media files tagged properly, so it’s time to move on to my favorite feature of the program.

Automatic Tagging

这确实是 MediaMonkey 最省时的工具：智能自动控制媒体文件的标记——至少，只要它工作正常。 因为大多数图书馆浏览功能都假定您的图书馆已经正确标记，所以它无法正确分类哪些文件需要标记。

I could try updating them all at once, but that might be a bit ambitious and slow down my review process.

Since everything is correctly organized in my file system, however, I can search them out that way and see how well the program identifies the files. Here’s a version of Rage Against the Machine’s self-titled debut that I never got around to tagging with the album name or proper track numbers, which makes it frustrating to listen to since most players just default to alphabetical order when they have no other info to work from.

虽然起初这有点令人困惑，但最终很明显黄色突出显示了将对我的文件进行的更改 – 程序甚至为我找到了专辑封面的副本并下载了歌词（除了第 5 轨，显然是由于一些许可问题）。

单击“自动标记”以确认更改，一秒钟后，所有内容都已更新为正确的专辑名称和曲目编号。

I’m quite pleased with this result, especially when you consider how long it would take me to do by hand – finding the correct tracklist, selecting each file, opening tag properties, adding the number, saving, repeat 8 times – all for a single album.

我需要纠正的所有其他专辑都运行得同样顺利，这将为我节省大量时间来处理我的完整媒体库。

设备管理

No modern media manager would be complete without the ability to work with your mobile devices, and MediaMonkey immediately recognized and functioned with both my Samsung Galaxy S7 (and its SD Card) and my aging Apple iPhone 4. Transferring files to my iPhone was as fast and easy as using iTunes, and was a refreshingly simple way to copy files to my S7.

I never use automatic syncing features because my library has always been larger than the available space on my mobile devices, but the option is there for those who prefer to work with smaller libraries.

Regardless, one of the most interesting Gold features can be found in the mobile device management section. When working with a media library on a computer, it’s a relatively simple thing to download additional codecs that expand your computer’s ability to play different file types – but it’s not so easy on a mobile device.

Instead, MediaMonkey offers you the ability to automatically convert files to a compatible format while transferring to your device. You can even change the sampling rate to reduce file size for media files like podcasts or audiobooks, since you don’t really need CD-quality audio for speech content.

This allows you to dramatically increase the amount of those files you can fit into the limited space available on your mobile devices, and is another feature that’s only available in the Gold edition.

不幸的是，使用我的 Galaxy S7 是我唯一一次遇到 MediaMonkey 的错误。 我担心我不小心触发了媒体库的同步，所以我迅速拔掉了它——但是当我重新插入时，即使 Windows 没有问题，程序也拒绝识别它。

Luckily, all I had to do was close the program and restart it, and everything was back in working order.

媒体播放器

All of this media management is extremely useful, but only once it’s combined with a solid media player. MediaMonkey has a well-designed player system that integrates with the rest of the library management tools, and can play any file that the rest of the software is capable of reading. It has all the equalizers, queuing tools and other playlist controls you’d expect from a great media player, and it has a few extras as well such as volume leveling, beat visualization and party mode.

If you’re fiercely territorial about keeping control of your music during parties, you can even password protect party mode in the options to stop anyone else from mucking around with your settings or even put it into total lockdown mode – though I do not recommend that, the best parties usually shift and change organically as they go on!

如果您晚上使用电脑玩自己睡觉，您甚至可以启用仅在黄金版中提供的高度可配置的睡眠定时器。 一旦您的预设时间过去，它甚至可以关闭计算机或使其进入睡眠状态！

我的评分背后的原因

有效性：5/5

该程序在媒体方面确实做到了一切，并且做得很好。 作为媒体管理器和播放器，我的任何文件都没有问题。 我一直在寻找一个可靠的 iTunes 替代品，它提供我需要的那种高级用户选项，而 MediaMonkey 是解决这个问题的完美解决方案。

If you need a feature that this software doesn’t provide built-in, it’s entirely possible that someone from the community has already written a free extension or script for the program to expand its capabilities.

价格：4.5 / 5

由于第 4 版已经完成了我想要的一切，因此无需购买最昂贵的许可证，而且 25 美元购买如此强大的工具是一个很小的代价。 如果您不需要 Gold 中的任何更高级的功能，那么免费版本应该绰绰有余，并且应该以 5/5 的价格获得它。

易用性：3.5/5

This is one thing that MediaMonkey could really use some work on. Since it’s designed for power users who are willing to learn complex tools, it doesn’t really need to be filled with tutorials – but even power users can appreciate a well-designed user interface. The entire interface can be customized and re-skinned, but that doesn’t necessarily make the program easier to use – sometimes, quite the opposite.

支持：4.5/5

The official website is a trove of useful support information, from a knowledge base with lots of articles to an active community forum of other users. You can also easily submit a support ticket to the developers of the software, and it’s quite easy to do – although the program is so well-coded that I never ran into a single bug.

MediaMonkey Gold Alternatives

Foobar2000 (Windows / iOS / Android, Free)

I never really liked 富巴, but I have friends who have been using it for years and swear by it. It actually makes MediaMonkey look like it’s a well-designed, easy-to-use program, but that may just be because whenever I saw it, the user interface had been completely customized. It offers decent media library management, but none of the advanced tagging and organization features that make MediaMonkey so useful.

MusicBee（Windows，免费）

MusicBee 可能是 MediaMonkey 的最佳竞争对手，但它也恰好是我首先尝试并最终离开的那个。 它具有高度可定制的用户界面和比 MediaMonkey 更吸引人的布局，但它的标记和组织功能没有那么强大。 它还具有一些奇怪的 UI 选择，这些选择是为了优先考虑样式而不是可用性，这几乎不是正确的设计决策。

您还可以阅读我们的指南 best iPhone management software 为更多的选择。

总结

If you’re a power-user who knows exactly what they want and who is willing to spend some time learning how to accomplish it, MediaMonkey is the perfect solution that checks all the right boxes. It’s definitely not aimed at the general or casual user, although it provides a lot of the functionality found in simpler programs as well.

The automatic tagging feature alone is going to save me countless hours cleaning up my own media library’s gaps, and I’m looking forwards to having a properly organized collection for the first time in… well, since it began!

So, do you find this MediaMonkey review helpful? Leave a comment below.