Music Collections

[Scotsteve]

I own over 750Gb of Mp3's.
Files are already catogerised in folders - without it, there are so many diffferent bands it would be hard to find anything.
I want to create multiple collections eg. 60's, Blues, Country etc.
If i create '60's' collection and scan in all files in that folder, thats fine, but if i then create a new collection 'Blues' -
as soon as its created it is populated with the 60's stuff.
I can't find a 'MediaMonkey for Dummies' or anything else that is useful to guide me.
So, i have bought this software for 70£ and its completely useless to me,
what a waste of time and money.
Bye.

[nohitter151]

So, i have bought this software for 70£ and its completely useless to me,
what a waste of time and money.
Bye.

So are you asking for help, or just complaining...?

Collections can be created/edited at File > Manage collections.

Custom collections: http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.p ... _Rules/4.0

If you have a specific question, just ask.

[Lowlander]

Under Collections you'll need to add Criteria that are unique to the files you want in that Collections. This could be Genre for example (Genre = Blues would create a Collection with all Blues files), Path (from you explanation it seems you've separate things by Path on your PC) or nearly any other field. As long as the criteria exclude all you don't want you should get the results you want.

[Scotsteve]

This is a vast collection, collected from all over the world, many of the tags are missing or incomplete.
Several Languages.
It is much too big to go through and make sure all the genre values are intact, so to be sorted.
So, this software is very pretty but no better than windows exploxer, to me, im not complaining,
(nobody really cares that much anyway), and i wont be needing anymore help thanks.
A 'MediaMonkey for Dummies' might have been useful, but i have spent enough time testing this software,
and to get my collection anyway near useable with it, would take a lifetime to fix.
Hell, i'm a musician, i can just make my own music!
Done.

[nohitter151]

This is a vast collection, collected from all over the world, many of the tags are missing or incomplete.
Several Languages.
It is much too big to go through and make sure all the genre values are intact, so to be sorted.
So, this software is very pretty but no better than windows exploxer, to me, im not complaining,
(nobody really cares that much anyway), and i wont be needing anymore help thanks.
A 'MediaMonkey for Dummies' might have been useful, but i have spent enough time testing this software,
and to get my collection anyway near useable with it, would take a lifetime to fix.
Hell, i'm a musician, i can just make my own music!
Done.

So what exactly were you expecting when you bought it? And why buy it without trying the free version first?

[Scotsteve]

I expected something, somewhere near fit for purpose, and i did test the free version.
I also read the limited support info, that claimed by managing collections i could create separate
collections, but it doesnt work like that at all. A new collection inherits all previous imports, regardless
of whether they are part of a collection or not.
I don't have time to debug your software.

[nohitter151]

I expected something, somewhere near fit for purpose, and i did test the free version.
I also read the limited support info, that claimed by managing collections i could create separate
collections, but it doesnt work like that at all. A new collection inherits all previous imports, regardless
of whether they are part of a collection or not.

That's not true. You just aren't configuring it properly.

[rrfpacker]

I want to defend Media Monkey a bit. MM will only be able to use the information you give it...garbage in, garbage out. If your tags are not up to date, and I understand you have a lot of tracks, then I'm not sure what you expected MM to do?

I only have 200GB of music, and I know the time and effort it takes to get the tags correct. But once I did, MM works wonderfully to manage my music, and in ways I could never imagine when I bought it five years ago. Without up to date tags, I'm not sure any music manager can help.

If I were to offer a suggestion on your situation, it would be this, with the understanding that I don't know your situation completely.
Say you want Collections called 60's, Blues, Country. I assume you have those as folders. Do a search for the 60s folder using as a criteria the Path/Filename. Once you get the search results, highlight all the tracks and then use one of the custom fields and enter 60s. Then create a Collection with that custom field and 60s as it's criteria.

Do this over and over, you can use the same custom field, until you get all the collections you want/need. Once you have your collections, you can then create numerous playlists with existing collections as the criteria.

Hope this helps. MM is great.

[dtsig]

I hate to say this but I think you, rrfpacker, and nohitter151 are really wasting your time. This appears to be more a situation of someone being completely lost than anything to do with MM. Scotsteve looks to have a total of 3 posts ... all on this thread. No threads asking for help etc. Heck even a crazy wacko like me asks lots of questions ... much to nohitters sorrow

I don't think you can do anything to help someone who wont even put in the time to clean up their own collection.

[seed_or_die]

how can you expect media monkey to properly organize a library that has empty/wrong/missing tags. where is it supposed to get the information from lol!

[Red Maw]

I expected something, somewhere near fit for purpose, and i did test the free version.
I also read the limited support info, that claimed by managing collections i could create separate
collections, but it doesnt work like that at all. A new collection inherits all previous imports, regardless
of whether they are part of a collection or not.
I don't have time to debug your software.

After a about 5 minutes of messing with MM I figured out how to create a new collection with the criteria the songs reside in a specific folder. Yes the collection pulls files (only those that match your criteria) from the entire library (what you imported before) but I don't see that as a problem.

I'll admit the criteria constructor is not nearly as powerful/flexible as it could be but it will get the job done for what you need I think.