[narticus]

Well winamp was my main music listening program since for ages until I imported all my music into Itunes a couple months back. I LOVED itunes. It's great how you can drop multiple folders in and (if they're tracked correctly) they are organized into whichever directory you choose as the default itunes directory. That was my main draw toward itunes in the first place.

After a while though, my music collection started nearing the 100 GB mark, and itunes bagan slowing down DRASTICALLY. It would take about 10 seconds to select a different album while another is playing. My PC has a 2.8Ghz P4 with Hyperthreading and 2.5 GB of RAM, so there's nothing lacking on that end.

I tried uninstalling it, then reinstalling just to see if that worked, and it didn't. So, I tried downloading Foobar after hearing so much about it, but couldn't really figure out how to use it. My next choice was MediaMonkey, which I actually like, but still isn't as neat and organized as itunes was/is. So now, when I want to put a folder of mp3's into MediaMonkey I have to manually put it into the directory through Windows Explorer.

My question is: where can i find a media player that can store and organize files like itunes does, but doesn't slow down once my collection reaches 100GB?

 

[Bones13]

I recently went thru what you are looking at now. Moving to some HiFi cans and using an amp. I still run iTunes to fill my iPod with. But to listen to the FLAC files, and run a leaner, faster system than iTunes became a desire/need. I started with Foobar2K as most suggest here, and was frustrated like you are. I also tried trial versions of Media Monkey and Winamp. Ultimately I wanted to Kernal Stream, so WinAmp was out. I just did not like Media Monkey, and went back to studying and reading the forums about Foobar2K. After getting over the hump of the learning curve, I am really liking Foobar2K.

Tips.

1)Stick with the non beta version
2) find and install the correct version of foo_ui_columns.dll This add on is the key to the look of the other folks foobar screens.
3) from the "display" entry in the foobar preferences choose Column UI as the default (this step is what eluded me, just installing the add on is not enough)
4) if you wand different colors look for folks published .fcs downloads. You "import" the .fcs file in the columns entry in the preferences tree, last tab. This brings in a color screen.
5) under menu "playlist" - "sort by" try this string :

$if2(%album artist%,%artist%) - $if2(%venue%,%album%) - %__codec% - %disc% - $tracknumber() - $if2(%title%,%_filename_ext%)

this brings you up to date with my learning process, and provides a foobar screen that is readable, pleasant colors, and very organized. Using the "playlist" - "add directory" is how I usually add songs to my list.

What I am still working on :

1) actually creating and utilizing play lists (and creating a part of the screen to view/organize them
2) I like the album art display I see on many screens, I want to learn how to do that and put it on my display.

Hopefully this is enough to get you to look at Foobar2K again. I think the real reason folks like it is the Kernal Streaming ( which I did get to work with MediaMonkey) , the very small size of Foobar (it runs well behind things like games and such) and the wide variety of configurations that are available.

Beware, all of these programs will choke the first time you present them with your large library. I find Foobar to be very quick after it digests it the first time.

 

[kin0kin]

foobar's my first choice and I have no problem using it. itunes come next and the organization feature is pretty handy...but it is also the thing that made me switched to foobar. due to my own carelessness, itunes duplicated bunch of my albums and gave me a hard time fixing and deleting the stuff.

I dun think it's itunes' fault for the slowdown though.....if you have a large lump sum partition...it's kinda slow when it is filled... I usually keep my partitions at 40 gb each (maximum)

or dude.....just get 2 X 74gb raptor and raid them.....w00t

 

[jiiteepee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by narticus Well winamp was my main music listening program since for ages until I imported all my music into Itunes a couple months back. I LOVED itunes. It's great how you can drop multiple folders in and (if they're tracked correctly) they are organized into whichever directory you choose as the default itunes directory. That was my main draw toward itunes in the first place. After a while though, my music collection started nearing the 100 GB mark, and itunes bagan slowing down DRASTICALLY. It would take about 10 seconds to select a different album while another is playing. My PC has a 2.8Ghz P4 with Hyperthreading and 2.5 GB of RAM, so there's nothing lacking on that end. I tried uninstalling it, then reinstalling just to see if that worked, and it didn't. So, I tried downloading Foobar after hearing so much about it, but couldn't really figure out how to use it. My next choice was MediaMonkey, which I actually like, but still isn't as neat and organized as itunes was/is. So now, when I want to put a folder of mp3's into MediaMonkey I have to manually put it into the directory through Windows Explorer. My question is: where can i find a media player that can store and organize files like itunes does, but doesn't slow down once my collection reaches 100GB?

Steinberg MYMP3PRO 5.0 has really fast SQL based database.
Here is how it looks out. I do not know if player is still available (maybe @ Pinnacle).

jiitee

 

[kenchi1983]

I have foobar and itunes, but I much prefer Mediamonkey with the mad.dll audio plugin. I don't particularly like foobar because of its "shrillness".

Mediamonkey is quick and indexes all your music, similar to itunes.

 

[thomaspf]

Have a look at Jriver Media Center. Very flexible UI, secure ripping options, support for many portable media players with transcoding on the fly, support for UPnP renderers, native ASIO support, multiple zones, and remote servers, ...

They have a 30 day trial download and with ASIO provide easy bit perfect playback.

Cheers

Thomas

 

[technobarbie]

I second Jriver Media Player. I've been using for about four years now.

 

[Sparky191]

I haven't one I like either. Currently using media Monkey. Might try Foorbar again (must be on my 3rd or 4th try), never get to grips with it.

 

[Sparky191]

Where do you get foo_ui_columns.dll ?

 

[Twombly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kenchi1983 II don't particularly like foobar because of its "shrillness".

*dies and is dead*

 

[narticus]

thanks for all of your suggestions folks! very helpful.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kenchi1983 I have foobar and itunes, but I much prefer Mediamonkey with the mad.dll audio plugin. I don't particularly like foobar because of its "shrillness". Mediamonkey is quick and indexes all your music, similar to itunes.

what's this mad.dll audio plugin? where do i find it, and what does it do?

I've been using Mediamonkey for a few days, and i'm growing fond of it. I like how if you keep it open while organizing files and folders, it recognizes everything and corresponds to whatever you're doing. It also notes any ID3 tag changes while open. Even if you're using another program for that.

I'll give JRiver a try also. Just looked into that, and it looks interesting.

As for Foobar, I'm probably going to hold out until it's official post-beta release.

 

[narticus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kin0kin foobar's my first choice and I have no problem using it. itunes come next and the organization feature is pretty handy...but it is also the thing that made me switched to foobar. due to my own carelessness, itunes duplicated bunch of my albums and gave me a hard time fixing and deleting the stuff. I dun think it's itunes' fault for the slowdown though.....if you have a large lump sum partition...it's kinda slow when it is filled... I usually keep my partitions at 40 gb each (maximum) or dude.....just get 2 X 74gb raptor and raid them.....w00t

What if i used a high speed IDE drive for Windows/Aps, but still kept my library on my SATA drive? Do you think that would speed things up?

 

[smeggy]

media monkey here too

 

[axion]

Foobar is hands down the best, however you should spend at least 2 or 3 days just reading through their forums and learning everything you can - because there is a lot of information on their forums.

When I first started to customise it it took basically a solid day getting everything set up nicely. Just recently though it crashed I rebooted my comp and it came back with just default settings had to redo everythig again and found I got it to basically how I like it within about 10-20mins which is nice.

 

[saturnine]

Foobar is great, but can be very daunting to the average user. Winamp does almost everything Foobar can do, and it's GUI is easy to work with. I don't know about the 100gb playlist slowdown, I'm only at 84gb