Tired of inconsistent
volume, messed-up
metadata, and missing
album art? Here’s how
to fix all three.
First, download and install
MediaMonkey ( http://www.mediamonkey.com ).
You might be enticed to pay $20 for the
full version, but for our purposes, thefree version gets the job done. We used
MediaMonkey 2.5, though at press time
a 3.0 version was in beta testing.I
f your digital-music library is more than a few years old, chances are
it contains songs from a variety of sources: ripped CDs, peer-to-peer
services, online music stores, good-hearted friends, and so on. The
only problem with such an eclectic collection is that nothing’s consistent:
Volume levels jump up and down from one song to the next, album art
shows up sporadically, and the ID3 tags—well, let’s just say the band that
sings “American Idiot” isn’t named Greene Dye. Thankfully, these are easy
problems to fix, if you have the right tools. We’ll show you how to change
tags and find album art as well as tweak volume levels using freeware apps.Clean up Your MP3 Library
WHAT YOU NEED
MEDIAMONKEY
Free, http://www.mediamonkey.com
MP3GAIN
Free, mp3gain.sourceforge.netDownload MediaMonkey
1BY RICK BROIDA66 MAXIMUMPC OCTOBER 2007
how (^2) IMPROVING YOUR PC EXPERIENCE, ONE STEP AT A TIME
TIME HOURS:MINUTES
04:00
Add Your Tracks
2
The fi rst time you run MediaMonkey,
it will scan your hard drives for audio
fi les. You can let it scan everything or
only the folders you choose. You can
also specify what fi le types you want it
to add (the program sup-
ports just about every format under
the sun, from FLAC to WMA). Want
MediaMonkey to check for duplicate
tracks? Click the Options button and
enable the appropriate checkbox.
Get Organized
3
The easiest way to fi x
album art and ID3 tags (aka
metadata) is to sort your
library by album, which will
allow you to apply changes
and updates to multiple
tracks at once. You’ll have
to attend to singles individually, but
Album view still provides the most effi -
cient means of making changes.
In MediaMonkey’s navigation tree,
click Album. You’ll see your songs
in the track list (the main window)
sorted by the album name listed in the
metadata. This is where things can
get a bit tricky because if you have
missing or inaccurate tags, the list
itself won’t be accurate. Fortunately,
you can spot-check songs as you go,
examining track title, artist, and other
tags—along with the actual fi le name,
which is usually correct.
Start by choosing the folders that
contain your music collection.
For optimal sorting of your song library,
choose Album View.