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I've just bought an iPod Nano and am surveying music management software to replace MusicMatch, which I've been using up to now. dbPowerAMP's MMC window seems almost ideal, since it doesn't include all the bulk of the video and online store support that I have no interest in, except for a couple of issues. I've tried both r2 and r3b6, and in the following regards they are identical:
1. Vertical resize of MMC window is not handled well:
If I shrink the MMC window in the vertical direction, the list pane size remains fixed, while the bottom pane gets smaller until it is competely gone, then the horizontal scrollbar of the list pane disappears. This makes it difficult or impossible to use the MMC window if I want it to take up less than about 3/4 of the vertical space on my screen.
The behavior I expected (and would like to see) is that the bottom pane size is adjustable by dragging the splitter bar between it and the list pane. Once set, however, it would remain constant as the MMC window as a whole is resized. When the MMC window as a whole is resized, the list pane should grow and shrink accordingly, keeping its horizontal scroll bar visible as long as there is enough room for it between the title bar and the bottom pane.
2. Need filtering and/or outline view in MMC list pane.
A flat list is too unwieldy for a large collection (I have over 2300 tracks so far, and I've only ripped about 2/3's of my collection). To make browsing and management of a large collection feasible, one needs to be able to narrow down what is displayed in the list.
MusicMatch supports an outline-style view that allows one to expand and collapse groups of tracks by a selectable category (artist, genre, album, etc.). iTunes allows one to filter down what is displayed in the list by genre then artist within the genre. Of these, I prefer the MusicMatch approach, since I can choose what attribute to group tracks by, and I can expand and view the tracks in two or more groups at the same time (e.g. group by artist and expand the entries for U2 and Aerosmith at the same time).
Neither of them handles grouping tracks from compilation albums to my satisfaction, though iTunes at least tries. For example, I have a the 5 CD set Rock Instrumental Classics published by Rhino. There are 90 tracks in it, all by different artists from the 50's through the 70's. When sorting or grouping by artist, these tracks are scattered all over the place. Ideally, one would have the option of treating compilations specially when sorting by artist, and somehow group all the tracks by compilation together.
Anyway, if the above two issues were addressed somehow in r3 of MMC, it would be just about perfect. I really like the ability to have a single track belong to multiple genres so I can categorize tracks by mood or other criteria, and auto-generate playlists using those criteria.
Keep up the good work! :smile2:
1. Vertical resize of MMC window is not handled well:
If I shrink the MMC window in the vertical direction, the list pane size remains fixed, while the bottom pane gets smaller until it is competely gone, then the horizontal scrollbar of the list pane disappears. This makes it difficult or impossible to use the MMC window if I want it to take up less than about 3/4 of the vertical space on my screen.
The behavior I expected (and would like to see) is that the bottom pane size is adjustable by dragging the splitter bar between it and the list pane. Once set, however, it would remain constant as the MMC window as a whole is resized. When the MMC window as a whole is resized, the list pane should grow and shrink accordingly, keeping its horizontal scroll bar visible as long as there is enough room for it between the title bar and the bottom pane.
2. Need filtering and/or outline view in MMC list pane.
A flat list is too unwieldy for a large collection (I have over 2300 tracks so far, and I've only ripped about 2/3's of my collection). To make browsing and management of a large collection feasible, one needs to be able to narrow down what is displayed in the list.
MusicMatch supports an outline-style view that allows one to expand and collapse groups of tracks by a selectable category (artist, genre, album, etc.). iTunes allows one to filter down what is displayed in the list by genre then artist within the genre. Of these, I prefer the MusicMatch approach, since I can choose what attribute to group tracks by, and I can expand and view the tracks in two or more groups at the same time (e.g. group by artist and expand the entries for U2 and Aerosmith at the same time).
Neither of them handles grouping tracks from compilation albums to my satisfaction, though iTunes at least tries. For example, I have a the 5 CD set Rock Instrumental Classics published by Rhino. There are 90 tracks in it, all by different artists from the 50's through the 70's. When sorting or grouping by artist, these tracks are scattered all over the place. Ideally, one would have the option of treating compilations specially when sorting by artist, and somehow group all the tracks by compilation together.
Anyway, if the above two issues were addressed somehow in r3 of MMC, it would be just about perfect. I really like the ability to have a single track belong to multiple genres so I can categorize tracks by mood or other criteria, and auto-generate playlists using those criteria.
Keep up the good work! :smile2:
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