Avoiding MM5 solely because of terrible Skins

[jsl]

Hi,

I'm a fan of MM in general and MM5, but I do everything I can in MM4 because the available skins are absolutely terrible.

I'm actually a little baffled that Ventis would put so much effort into the updates in the code but neglect to notice how nasty-looking the interface has become. It's like something circa 1995. We're not all so techie that we failed to notice this... are we?

Instead of waiting for some lone coder to figure out how to make a pleasant skin in the new platform, could you folks please do it yourselves? You're the ones who know the code and what is required. Honestly: This is a major lapse.

For reference, I've been using the Glided skin for years and am still using it in MM4. Very nice on the eyes and easy to run lots of functions.

Thanks!

[Ludek]

Hi, the default MM5 skin is based on Material Design guidellines, it's not from 1995, but rather from 2014+ , see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_Design or https://material.io/

Some of the old fashioned "MM4 like" skins are available here: https://www.mediamonkey.com/addons/brow ... 1/skins-1/ to download and use them with MM5.
"Glided" was not ported to MM5 yet, but "Metro M", "Dark Monkey" or "Radon" looks more like MM4 skins.

[snowleopard]

Not to start a war here, but the first thing I noticed about the default MM5 "Dark" Skin is that it is bright pumpkin orange or school bus yellow.

How on earth is a "Dark" skin bright and blinding?

I also understand that developers have limited time and I am not skilled in CSS, XML, Python and other stuff to make my own skins, But as much as I like MM4 and MM5, I really miss Winamp. That was skinning on steriods and the add-ins / plug in's were great.

I mean really developed skinning, Add-in's like Stereo Tools, Visualizations (There is literally nothing for MM5) or very limited options which should really be part of the base line design.

I see so many threads about variations of these feature requests and that everything has to be re-developed for MM5..... maybe we will have some standard features when MM6 or MM7 eventually comes out.

Or maybe they will really update Winamp and bring it back.

[drakinite]

Not to start a war here, but the first thing I noticed about the default MM5 "Dark" Skin is that it is bright pumpkin orange or school bus yellow.

How on earth is a "Dark" skin bright and blinding?

It's difficult to please everyone with design and color choices. Might I suggest Code Monkey (https://www.mediamonkey.com/addons/brow ... de-monkey/) or Shades of Grey (https://www.mediamonkey.com/addons/brow ... lackcat12/)?

Alternatively, if you like the visual style of Material Design but don't like the colors, you can change them for yourself without much hassle.
Follow the steps I left in this guide: https://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewt ... 38#p479238
except ignore 4) and 5).
Instead, open skin/skin_base_add.less. Modify the three hex codes below:

Code: Select all

@materialDarkColor: #c25e00; // DARK PRIMARY COLOR 
@materialLightColor: #ffbd45; // LIGHT PRIMARY COLOR 
@materialColor: #fb8c00; // PRIMARY COLOR

For example, if you want a nice and dark purple, try this:

Code: Select all

@materialDarkColor: #331934; // DARK PRIMARY COLOR 
@materialLightColor: #bc52cc; // LIGHT PRIMARY COLOR 
@materialColor: #482c4f; // PRIMARY COLOR

http://hexpicker.com is a nice way to get the hex codes of any color you want.

I mean really developed skinning, Add-in's like Stereo Tools, Visualizations (There is literally nothing for MM5) or very limited options which should really be part of the base line design.

I see so many threads about variations of these feature requests and that everything has to be re-developed for MM5..... maybe we will have some standard features when MM6 or MM7 eventually comes out.

MM5 is still relatively young, but I am confident that more addons and tools will come with time. We've already got some nice progress in that direction.

[jsl]

I really appreciate everyone's replies here. I will be working on all of these suggestions and seeing if I can customize a bit. Sorry I didn't check the thread in the last few weeks.

I felt like a bit of a jerk making the complaint because MM is basically my favorite desktop app and I have nothing but respect for the developers - I have absolutely no programming talent or I would be part of the solution instead of just whining... It doesn't help that now that I'm over 50, my eyes are getting worse... Anyway I'll circle back if any of the customizations work for me!

[Peke]

Anyway I'll circle back if any of the customization work for me!

We can start with few screenshots of MM ui you got used to and what you sort of managed to make out MM5 ui, so that we can point you to right direction and save you some time. Feel be free to directly point to missing parts. It was proven several times that MM5 can look very close to MM4.

[crawdad63]

Hi, the default MM5 skin is based on Material Design guidellines, it's not from 1995, but rather from 2014+ , see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_Design or https://material.io/

The Default skin is ugly. That is not being rude nor is it hyperbole. It is truth. It looks like candy corn vomit. What I'd like to see is Monkey Groove with a dark background option instead of just white or maybe a color adjuster for that as well.

[Peke]

The Default skin is ugly. That is not being rude nor is it hyperbole. It is truth. It looks like candy corn vomit. What I'd like to see is Monkey Groove with a dark background option instead of just white or maybe a color adjuster for that as well.

Have you tried Metro M (Classic) Skin?

[dypsis]

I use the Black Monkey skin. But more choices will eventually come along.

[crawdad63]

Of course I have. What I'm trying to say is that what you use as your default skin is garish and horrible. If you want to use the Material Design model then use your light skin. Just my thoughts as someone who has invested his money in this program.

[crawdad63]

I use the Black Monkey skin. But more choices will eventually come along.

It's now called Dark Monkey. It's my normal skin of choice also. What I'd like to see is a dark background version of Monkey Groove. By the way a little bit of editing and the album flow thingy make great Facebook wallpapers


as do the home screens:


These give your friends a window into your musical taste whether they like it or not.

[crawdad63]

Not to start a war here, but the first thing I noticed about the default MM5 "Dark" Skin is that it is bright pumpkin orange or school bus yellow.
How on earth is a "Dark" skin bright and blinding?

That is actually an accomplishment in and of itself. I think the person who chose this may be color blind or at least have terrible color matching skills or a big fan of Candy Corn

It's difficult to please everyone with design and color choices.

The colors clash tremendously and whom ever chose and/or approved this as the default skin should lose their jobs. Seriously if your users and potential customers over this; the default skin needs to be reexamined.

[crawdad63]

When someone downloads MM5 the first thing they are not going to do is change the skin. Give them something a little more pleasant to see once they download it.
It's like making sure your yard looks nice when you're trying to sell the house. You want to leave a great first impression. Your current default skin is not doing that.

[YetAnotherLondonder]

I agree with the OP. I have just upgraded from MM4 to MM5 and my first thought was: "OMG what the hell is this, my Pentium 486 Windows 3.1 PC had better graphics" !!!!

I get it that it's hard to please everyone, but it's also hard to displease everyone! I use MediaMonkey to manage my library and create playlists, but to actually play music I mostly use Roon. Have a look at that, or even only at something like KDE's Amarok, to get a feeling for what a better interface might look like

In the skins page https://www.mediamonkey.com/addons/brow ... 1/skins-1/ you can't even enlarge the pictures, so it's impossible to make out fonts and details; you need to click "support", but that's not immediately clear, and it only works for some skins

CodeMonkey is incredibly bland and anonymous

DarkMonkey and MaterialDesign will burn your retinas with that odd combination of black and orange which reminds me of Barcelona's taxis

Dr Sol's Perpetual looks like a Windows 3.1 interface, and it's with Times New Roman; a font with serif for this kind of interface?????

MetroClassic seems the same as CodeMonkey but with a different font

MonkeyGroove seems like a 20-year old interface but at least it lets you change the main colour