I am looking for an all-in-one audio application for Windows with the following features:

1. CD-ripping capabilities with support for MP3, Ogg Vorbis and if possible mp3PRO and MPC.

2. High quality audio player with support for several audio formats, mainly MP3 and Ogg Vorbis, with equaliser, amplifier etc.

3. Playlist and audio file management.

Any suggestions ?

Media Jukebox:
http://www.musicex.com/mediajukebox/

I also Use MediaJukebox supports all the files you want except MP3PRO, also a DSP studio with various effects try MediaJukebox or the new MediaCenter 9 also from JRiver

yup...


CDex.. (perhaps. with F2K implementation instead..would be nice..(as mediaplayer option))


(not to shure about mp3pro.. tough.. in either of them..)

Thanks for the suggestions! Media Jukebox looks like an attractive solution. Still, I am also considering Virtuosa and Blaze Media Pro. Does anyone have any comments about these packages?

Advice, try yourself the programs and then take conclusions

yup...


i agree with chicoselfs..
but i want to add. that formy mobo. blaze was some of the
worst resource hogs.. i ever had installed..

You might want to check out DJ2000 by 215software:

DJ2000 Media Player

It doesn't rip/burn - only playback, but its lean and you can specify an external player to decode the audio (Foobar2000 anyone?!)

I personally would rather rip/encode using something like EAC and LAME than use the unknown quality of an all in one application because rip/encode is much more important to sound quality than the playback decoder (IMHO).

I second the recommendation to download trial versions and decide for yourself.

Media Jukebox handles most formats except FLAC (hopefully someone might write a plug-in for it soon), MP3pro and AAC/MP4. It has a secure ripping mode. It's internal MP3 encoder plug-in is "based on LAME", but you can also configure the external encoder option to use lame.exe (or oggenc.exe or mppenc.exe).

Rob

Just wondering: Why do you want an all-in-one application?

CD-ripping ......ummmh dBpowerAMP http://www.dbpoweramp.com/ or http://www.dbpoweramp.net/

For encoding mp3PRO, MUSICMATCH, I don't think you will like this player

I think better choise is combination of Exact Audio Copy with encoders you need, Winamp2 and MPEG Audio Collection. Not all in one solution but this combination really rules.

error 400: Bad Request

Die angegebene URL ist syntaktisch nicht korrekt.

That MPEG link does not work -at least for me.

The MPEG Audio Collection link is valid, site seems to be under construction or something like that. Meanwhile you can find the software from a Hitsquad page found here.

Thanks for all the replies!

I followed your advice and downloaded some software to try them out.

Media Jukebox - I like the fact that it supports a lot of different audio formats but it crashed many times on my PC. I also don't like its interface very much.

Blaze Media Pro - Rather simple for my taste. Not many options for setting the encoding parameters for all available formats.

Virtuosa - More attention is paid to the looks and skins rather than functionality and performance. It's slow on my PC and its interface is somewhat confusing.

Musicmatch Jukebox - This is the best all-to-one software in my opinion but unfortunately the audio formats it supports is limited. MP3, mp3PRO and WMA. No Ogg Vorbis, MPC etc and no third-party plugins for additional audio formats. Still, I think it is a very well made package.

I'll try other packages as well. Thanks for the help!

This is to answer some questions regarding the use of a separate ripper/player e.g. EAC and Foobar:

This is what I am currently doing (EAC and Winamp3) but I prefer to have a single good quality software which allows me to simultaneously rip, encode, listen to music and manage playlists and files. I find this solution more attractive and easier, that's all!

Try dBpowerAMP Audio Player and dBpowerAMP Music Converter it is the only one that supports all the formats you listed (including mp3PRO)...

www.dbpoweramp.com

I tried two more packages:

DJ2000 - Too simple.

dBpowerAMP - Is this supposed to be an all-in-one solution? Anyway, I don't like it because I find it too fragmented. As for its "mp3PRO encoding support" it's basically a joke because it uses the free THOMSON player/encoder and therefore encodes only at 64 Kbps! Musicmatch Jukebox has a full mp3PRo/MP3 encoder.

So far, Musicmatch Jukebox is the one I like most but it does not support Ogg Vorbis and this is a problem...

Well it will Rip a CD, automatically create playlists, add the audio to a music collection (for rating / selective play), from the music collection you could select music, and burn an audio/mp3 CD. Also from the collection, select audio and send to a large range of supported portable mp3 players (converting audio as required). I would say it is pretty much all in one, just not all in one download.

As for mp3PRO above 64Kbps, I really don't see the point in paying $20,000 USD per year to create mp3PRO files with higher bitrates, that is not the point of mp3PRO.

My advice is to try out dbpoweramp some more, it may feel 'fragmented' to you now but its free, does everything you want (except what a $20,000 encoder can) the support on Spoon's site is first rate and you'll get an answer same day on most occassions, did I also mention its free? (although I believe Mpc requires the powerpack, I could be wrong)

If then you still dont like it you can consider paying out thr folding stuff for something else, why pay for something when a free product does the same thing?

Well let's see how much the free dBpower package actually costs:

dMC Power Pack - $19.00 (required for this limited 64 Kbps mp3PRO encoding option
and other command line encoders like MPC).

CD Writer - $14.00

-------------------------
Total: $33.00

On the other hand Musicmatch Jukebox Plus costs $19.99 and has a full mp3PRO/MP3 encoder and integrated CD burner. Also, Media Jukebox costs
$24.98 and it supports all audio formats (except encoding in mp3PRO) with
a CD writer and a wave editor in an integrated package. So...

I was told that Steinberg's my MP3 pro 4.0 is a good product but unfortunately there is no demo version available for download. It supports full mp3PRO, MP3 (choice of Fraunhofer or LAME encoder) and Ogg Vorbis and therefore it covers all the audio formats I am mostly interested in. Still, I heard that some people have experienced problems when playing CDs.

Any comments on this package?

I have Steinbergs myMp3Pro 3 and 4 and I have extensively tried just about every other "All in One". I found that Steinbergs myMp3Pro 4 was easily the best. Yes it will do Ogg and mp3 with Frau or Lame. It is supposed to do mp3Pro but for some reason this option is "Greyed" out in my version.

What I really liked about Steinbergs media player is that it fully supported m3u playlists and would blow a CD in either mp3 data or audio format. None of the others would do this or would not do it witout producing coasters..

However, a far better solution I have found is to use QCD with a plug-in called Elephant which allows you to call external programs from within QCD. This gives you one click to the best applications available, i.e. EAC, mp3Gain, etc. all from within an extremely good media player.

A bit more info on Steinbergs myMp3Pro 4. I just found out that the option to encode in mp3Pro becomes available if you select mp3 bit rates less than 112. The documentation with it says that you can encode up to 20 mp3Pro files then you need to buy an update from Steinberg. God bless them.

Matt (the MA guy) works for MJ, which is probably why. Supposedly the Winamp2 plugin works though.

Josh

And does your MMJB support --alt-preset command line encoding?
Does it allow for encoding into Ogg Vorbis format? (not to mention .mpc, lame mp3,blade mp3, gogo,mp2,vqf,voc,dat,(vcd),ra,snd,au,aif,aac,shn,ofr,ape)
Is it also light on resources?
Do you get efficient support with a developer that you can question directly?

hmmm its an attractive package your MMJB isn't it?


ps I'd like to just add that I dont even use dbpoweramp or its other tools, I have them installed, they are fine products, its just I prefer one tool for one job and so use a variety of specialist applications for individual tasks.

Media Jukebox accepts the Winamp 2 plugins as audio input plugins and therefore it can play all widely used audio formats. Actually, during my testing, I installed the THOMSON mp3PRO plugin for Winamp 2 and MJ automatically disabled the builtin MP3 decoder for all files with *.mp3 extension. As a result, using this plugin MJ played both MP3 and mp3PRO files without any problems! I did the same for FLAC and AAC (FAAD2) without any problems.

I've used Steinbergs player and wasn't impressed, and as for Media Jukebox, although its a good package I feel the problem with registered users getting reminders to register and being told their trial is up needs sorting out, I know Jim does a great job but something seems amiss.

Apparently, Steinberg's My mp3 PRO 4.0 software comes with the mp3PRO encoding option enabled for only 20 recordings and one has to buy the license through Internet for the full version! Why not include the license in the price of the package? Why is this package more expensive than My MP3 4.0 software? For the license to make 20 mp3PRO recordings? This is unbelievable! You basically buy a software which does not do what it is supposed to do, that is to allow you to make mp3PRO encodings!

I was also informed that the full mp3PRO license comes with some kind of license server running on the PC which locks the operation of the codec on a particular PC. All this trouble for a 10 Euro license? Amazing...

I finally bought Musicmatch Jukebox and I started encoding in mp3PRO using 100% VBR which produces audio files with bitrates between 0-160 Kbps. The quality of the encoded files is simply superb!

Thanks for the advice and help!


P.S.

I also tried MAGIX Mp3 Maker Platinum (light) and apparently it has the same weird "buy mp3PRO codec in separate" policy as Steinberg. In any case, this program cannot see my external USB Plextor CD writer and play/burn CDs so...

Yes, of course Monkey's works great in MJ, but it's always nice to have a choice. And there are occasional requests for FLAC support at the MJ user forum.

You can get playback functionality of FLAC in MJ using the Winamp2 plug-in, but no tagging. Well, you can "tag" FLAC files in MJ, but the "tags" are only saved to MJs library, not to the actual files. Although, I noticed that the Winamp 2 plug-in (in_flac.dll v1.05-beta1) didn't seem to recognize the tag that was written by FLAC Fronted/Tag either. Also, MJs Replay Gain tool won't analyze FLAC files.

Anyway, I don't think that the MJ developers are going to write a plug-in. I'm sure they have other more pressing issues on their plate, just as you do, but I doubt they would be opposed to someone else writing one (which is how MPC support was added to MJ, I believe).

Thanks,

Rob

This is what I use and I am very pleased with it. It forwards any file I select to winamp. The library is accessed alphabetically, but will sort by artist, title, etc plus it has a nice search function.

It cost me 20 american but I have never regretted buying it.

Tried a few other demos and warez progs that were not nearly as good.

Have you tried jetAudio 5.0? It's one of the best sounding audio players in quite some time. It does all that you've mentioned and it even burns audio CDs. Try it. You will search no more. You can visit www.jetaudio.com

For that bitrate range, standard mp3 (as created by Lame with one of the VBR presets) should give better results.

Ogg certainly will beat mp3PRO.

Congratulations. You just bought the most buggy and bloated audio software available.

You would have been far better off with separate programs, i.e. EAC for ripping, LAME for encoding, Winamp or foobar for playing, and Nero for burning. It wouldn't have cost you a penny, and the quality of your audio files would have been considerably higher.

MusicMatch can do a bit of everything, but there's absolutely nothing it actually does well.

Oh by the way, does anyone know if MP3Gain also works on mp3Pro files?

I just thought I could use this thread for a little update on latest news from JetAudio 5.0 official release version. On Jan 8, 2003 they announced that an extension package for MP3 and mp3PRO support is ready (not for free of course). The page isn't very clear about who/what users can actually use this package (only v4.7x?) and what it will cost, but at least this is somehow an answer to the main flaws mentioned in the recent thread in "Validated News".

http://www.jetaudio.com/news/details_19.html

As far as I've understood their informations, JetAudio is also for ripping and burning CDs, so it should be worth a try for anyone who looks for an all-in-one app. MPC is not supported yet, and MP4 playback seems to need an installed QuickTime 6 player.

The extension upgrade to JetAudio5 makes no sense whatsoever. Is it for v4.7 or v5 and do you have to pay for it? I don't know. Has anyone ever created an mp3 or mp3Pro file using JetAudio 5? Their support and communication skills leave a lot to be desired and I think anyone who pays good money to buy into that is taking a big risk.

Anyway, I have to agree with volcano's post. MusicMatch can be pretty buggy. Their support people gave up with my own lengthy MusicMatch problems, i.e. MM would not correctly read some mp3 files that read perfectly well in other players such as Winamp2, and the CD burning was very unreliable - they conceded that it "just didn't work with systems" even though it worked perfectlt on all other CD burning packages I have tried. I notice that the latest MusicMatch does not support iPod anymore. You have to use the old 7.1 version for that and that is not good news for windows iPod users.

But you just can beat using the best available and free applications that are out there. I don't really understand why "All in One" players have such appeal.

Regarding JetAudio 5.0, I downloaded the Basic release version a few days ago but I had some problems with the graphics interface i.e. some buttons on the player were... empty holes with no graphics content! I think that this could be a problem related to the fact that I have installed DirectX 9.0 on my PC and there could be some incompatibilities. Has anyone else experienced the same problem. In order to satisfy my curiosity, I will install this software on a PC without DirectX 9.0...