Musicmatch Jukebox users needed - get your name in a book:-)

[DennyA]

I'm currently cowriting a book on Musicmatch Jukebox with a friend, and one of the elements the publishers want is "voices from the community." On other words, quotes on various aspects of the program.

Hoping to find a few Musicmatch users here who wouldn't mind talking briefly about various features. I'd rather quote you guys that go out into the vast Musicmatch discussion board universe!

If you'd be interested -- we're talking maybe a paragraph or so on a few major features -- either PM me here, reply in this topic, or drop me an email at denny (at) datkin.net.

Thanks in advance!

(Posting this here and on GamerDad...)

[Kalle]

Musicmatch Jukebox is a crash-prone piece of shit. Feel free to quote me on that.

[DennyA]

Thanks, Kalle, big help there. :-)

No longer true, either. I have it installed on three computers for various book testing, screen shots, etc. and I have no problems.

They even replaced the encoder so that VBR doesn't sound like crap anymore.

Not long ago (version 7.0, in fact), I'd have agreed with you. Damn thing would lock up on load, and their tech support couldn't help me. But in my experience, they've gotten their crap together with v8.2.

[Stroker Ace]

Kalle's hate lasts for decades - speak not of new versions.

[chet]

Fuckers screwed me for registering with them for lifetime upgrades by changing the names of their software, and having one of the upgrades wipe my old version and then saddle me with a crippled version with no way back.

I know my first paragraph is too long for a cover quote, so i created a second one to hopefully condense my view into something suitable for the cover.

Fuck musicmatch!

Chet

[DennyA]

K... Perhaps I should reactivate my AOL account if I want to find some current Musicmatch users... :-/

[quatoria]

Musicmatch came with my first ipod. It was the worst, most obnoxious, most irritating, most crash-prone piece of shit jukebox I'd ever used in my life. Musicmatch jukebox drove me to scour the web for an open-source solution for ipod management, and almost made me quit using a two hundred dollar piece of hardware.

FUCK MusicMatch.

[FlamingSheep]

It's convenient to rip CDs with, and easier to use than the old version I tinkered with years ago.

Other than that, I don't use it much.

Not much of a quotable, but I had to throw some support for the program. Generally, I like it.

[Warning]

I use it to convert audiobook CD's to MP3Pro format. 22 CD's of Dark Tower V compressed to under 800 megs and sounds great on my mp3 player when I go jogging.

Other than that I use Media Jukebox. Don't know if that helps.

[Kalle]

Kalle's hate lasts for decades - speak not of new versions.

I don't feel like rewarding stupidity. Fool me once, etc... I've used Music Match versions 5, 6 and 7, for various reasons, the last one because it was more or less forced upon me, and they all sucked. So excuse me if I'm not all that eager to try out their latest and greatest. As far as I'm concerned they have put me through enough shit to lose me as a potential customer forever.

If I want to rip CD's, I use CDex. Works better, and it's completely free. For everything else Winamp works fine.

[Derek Meister]

While my 40GB RCA Lyra Jukebox has almost none of the extra features other mp3 players have, the one that I love the most is the fact that it actually acts as a simple removable harddrive under WinXP when attached to through USB. That means I was able to simply through the Musicmatch CD-Rom they included away and instead use explorer to drag and drop files straight into the device. Playlists created using Winamp can be transfered and used as well.

Prior to that, I owned two Diamond Rio smart media mp3 players which I found some great open-source programs to manage file transfers to the hardware.

I've tried a number of Musicmatch releases, and it's always been a slow, bloated, ugly program, when I could do nearly everything just as easily by using CDEx (http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/) to create the mp3s, and Winamp to create playlists for the Lyra.

[Brian Rubin]

Sorry, Denny, but I too have used MisicMatch and I also don't like it. I found it slow, bloated, and kind of annoying to use. I haven't used it in about a year, so it might've improved, and feel free to try and convince me that it's worth installing now. :) For now I'll stick with QCD.

[DennyA]

Well, I didn't write the damn program. :-) A friend of mine had signed to write this book, and then asked me if I wanted to cowrite. So your hate is wasted on me. Wasted, I say!!!!

In my day-to-day, I typically use EAC to rip and WinAMP to play. But the kind of person who doesn't mind futzing with programs like EAC doesn't typically buy books on programs like Musicmatch, anyway.

But I use Musicmatch to handle the library and to rip stuff like my kid's CDs... No probs at all with V8.

[Brian Rubin]

I think we know you didn't write it, I myself was just apologizing for not being any help. ;) I'll try it out if you really need a guinea pig, though. :)

[steve]

Fool me once, etc...
"Shame on me... won't get fooled again."

[markv]

I got musicmatch when I purchased my audiotron about 2 years ago. Tried it for about 20 minutes, then uninstalled it and rolled over the cd with my chair to ensure I never installed it again out of sheer curiosity.

[chet]

Denny, I know you didn't push for the idea behind the book - and if the opportunity presents itself, of course you take the paying gig.

But a book on musicmatch? Who is the target audience?
Someone tech savvy enough to buy a program to rip/play mp3s, but not savvy enough to hit F1? Are you dedicating a whole chapter to the equalizer? The play button? I don't envy you padding this one out past a one-sided sheet of paper. This book is only slightly more needed than a strategy guide for Minesweeper.


Chet

[DennyA]

Well, they have marketing departments that figure this kind of stuff out... There are books on iTunes that have sold very well, and a chimp could use that program.

I think there are just some casual users who want to have a manual for any program they use very much...

[Midnight Son]

Hey, I can't wait for the Realplayer book! :wink:

[chet]

Windows Media Player Unleashed?

Chet