THERE IS NO MAGIC WAND

Users of MPFreaker exchange tips and comments.
Post Reply
powermixx
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Dec 11, 2005 2:26 pm

THERE IS NO MAGIC WAND

Post by powermixx » Mon Dec 12, 2005 4:47 am

Before using this application, I have spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours cleaning my iTunes data. My iTunes data is accurate; however, incomplete (year, genre and artwork on tracks). That is whay I purchased this software. All of my library (over 16,000 songs) came from the original CD's and legal downloads from iTunes.

As I used this software in the last 2 days, I notice it does populate some data correctly. My findings are roughly this:

Non-compilation music - it finds roughly 3 out of 10 songs
Of that 3, one will be totally inaccurate - either with a wrong graphic image, or the year 1900 or 3000, or...well you get the point. I do not think an application that mostly litters a clean database should be for purchase.

BOTTOM LINE:
If you value the integrity of your iTunes data (for it's accuracy), DO NOT USE THIS APPLICATION. It's a great idea, but it's gathering junk data. And I tried several adjustments to try and get correct data, but it just imports too much wrong stuff. I'd rather have a database that is accurate (yet incomplete) rather than one that is populated with BAD DATA AND IMAGES. I'll stick to manually entering my data.

I DEMAND A REFUND AS I HAVE DELETED THIS JOKE OF A SOFTWARE APP from (haha) LIARWARE.

Thank God for backups.
AMF!
--
Thanks!
Bobby Steele
User avatar
beastie
Posts: 443
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2004 6:51 am
Contact:

No magic wand indeed.

Post by beastie » Mon Dec 12, 2005 3:07 pm

You did try it out before you bought it, right? Only modifying three songs at a time is restrictive, but I would have expected that you'd certainly notice such poor results in a short time.

That said, I can confidently say that your appraisal of only a 20% correct data rate -- and worse, a 10% outright incorrect rate -- is far from representative of the results most users experience. Your comments lead me to believe that:
  • 1. perhaps you turned on "Allow partial matches" or "Deep search" before unleashing MPFreaker on your entire library, and/or

    2. much of your library consists of unusual music, and/or

    3. you have exaggerated the stated results.
You be the judge if any of the above three are the case. I would certainly agree with your statement that MPFreaker is not a "magic wand" you can simply wave to make your iTunes library complete without any work on your own part. Instead, MPFreaker is intended to be a unique, helpful tool which helps speed up the drudgery of tidying up your library.

In any case, we'd be happy to refund the purchase price, and you don't even need to "demand" it.

Leon
powermixx
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Dec 11, 2005 2:26 pm

Re: No magic wand indeed.

Post by powermixx » Wed Dec 14, 2005 11:14 am

Yes I tried it before I purchased it. I tried it twice - 2 imports of 3 songs each. One time it imported 2 of the 3 songs, the other only 1. I forget the songs I chose, some country music. I was only looking to populate the year, artwork and genre. I figured it would popluate SOME of my needed data - So I thought it was worthy of a purchase.

Partial matches was off. I never changed that setting from the default.

My music library is music from 1950s to present day - pop, rock, motown, oldies - U.S. radio play material, not abscure imports or anything. I have thousands of titles from compilations (Promo Only, remixes, etc.). I did NOT try to use MPFreaker on those titles.

I wish I was exagerating my results, but I have no reason to do that. I reviewed the options available and made adjustments and retried - all with the same results - some good & some bad data. I was hoping this application was going to HELP in populating my database with valid data, not fill my database with some accurate and some inaccurate information. Some of the album art was just flat wrong. And the albums were artist catalog released too, not compilations. And some year data was getting the year 3000 or 1900 or the like. I am basing many of my iTunes playlists on the year data, so that fields' data integrity is critical. It's just too much of a hit in the bad data column to justify its use. I wish it was otherwise. I can compliment you on the GUI, it was easy to read and use.

In closing, I thank you for the refund. Sorry to be so blunt in my posting, but that's the findings I got in using the app. I was just disappointed it wasn't what I expected.

I'll keep an eye on future releases and hopefully try it again sometime.

Regards,
Robert



beastie wrote:You did try it out before you bought it, right? Only modifying three songs at a time is restrictive, but I would have expected that you'd certainly notice such poor results in a short time.

That said, I can confidently say that your appraisal of only a 20% correct data rate -- and worse, a 10% outright incorrect rate -- is far from representative of the results most users experience. Your comments lead me to believe that:
  • 1. perhaps you turned on "Allow partial matches" or "Deep search" before unleashing MPFreaker on your entire library, and/or

    2. much of your library consists of unusual music, and/or

    3. you have exaggerated the stated results.
You be the judge if any of the above three are the case. I would certainly agree with your statement that MPFreaker is not a "magic wand" you can simply wave to make your iTunes library complete without any work on your own part. Instead, MPFreaker is intended to be a unique, helpful tool which helps speed up the drudgery of tidying up your library.

In any case, we'd be happy to refund the purchase price, and you don't even need to "demand" it.

Leon
--
Thanks!
Bobby Steele
Guest

Not my experience

Post by Guest » Sun Dec 18, 2005 1:22 pm

The complaint above doesn't mirror my experience. I suspect the user was indeed seeking a magic wand. Instead, like every other tagging/renaming software, this requires careful selecting of preferences, careful choosing of files and options, and an understanding that it won't find or fix everything.

I have more than 33,000 audio tracks. I'd estimate that on fewer than 0.5% do I have any problems when using MPFreaker--and those problems don't leave the audio tracks any worse off than they were, since those files are ones with incomplete info anyway. It's also not a problem because I never use "overwrite" unless I am specifially checking a smart playlist that includes, say, only songs with an album name of "unknown" or "untitled" or nothing at all, in which case I'll let it overwrite album name only. Same for artist, track name, genre, etc.: one field at a time is permitted to get overwritten.

The main problems are:

--Like the user above, wrong dates being entered. Year 3000 seems to be a favorite. Fortunately, it's easy to create a smart playlist to find all such titles and change them all to "no date" all at once. The wrong date is almost always for audio tracks for which I have only one piece of information: just song title, just artist, just album--tracks that are less than perfect already. I never use the date for any of my playlists, so this does not affect my listening experience.

--Wrong cover art. Seems to want to put a purple Duran Duran cover on some titles. It does occasionally do it for songs that have almost complete information, but because I don't overwrite the album art, this is not ever a problem. Also the purple cover is easy to look for, so I can easily fix those tracks.

--It's slow. Probably a combination of the large number of songs I have and the processor speed of my computer. Still, a lot faster than IEatBrainz.

First I'm setting up a bunch of smart playlists: one each for artist, track name, album, genre, etc. where the field is empty; one each for those with untitled, "track 01," unknown in each of the fields. Then I use MPFreaker to fill in missing info where possible and where it is certain, and then whatever files still have problems I'll try to fix with IEatBrainz.

All in all, it's the closest an obsessive-compulsive can come to perfection without doing everything completely manually.
powermixx
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Dec 11, 2005 2:26 pm

Post by powermixx » Sun Dec 18, 2005 2:00 pm

We are all entitled to our opinions. My finding are honest and accurate. I wish I had better results. I am glad to no have received my refund. In my experience, it's nothing more than an automated way to populate a clean database with junk data. You shouldn't have to come behind it and clean it up. As for me, I found much better sucess using this FREE app:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12083

No longer watching this post, so flam me all you want. I'm happy without this app. I hope it improves.
Post Reply