Since as far back as I can remember, I've enjoyed writing. I don't know who you are, dear reader, but I realistically expect that you're someone I already know and have a reasonable expectation of what it is I might write. You'll likely have an impression of who I am as a person, and having read this far, you're likely either family or a friend.
In high school, I used to write with my grandmother as my intended audience. It put all kinds of filters in place and forced my brain to re-think my grammar, but also my explanations of things. I wrote as though it was a letter to be sent to her.
Now, I write with my wife in mind. She's a peer, fairly tech-savvy, knows me well, and is tired of my old, stale jokes. The filters are a little different, obviously. All of that is anecdotal and came into my consciousness as I was thinking about how great it is to be a music fan right now. I know - it's some leap.
This morning, the USB drive I had left in my work PC overnight was ready. I started a process that analyzed all 2200 songs on it and leveled the volume on each and every track. My wife, I imagine, has already rolled her eyes. (This seemed like it was heading somewhere interesting, but now it's about software. Ugh.)
The USB drive has a distillation of roughly 200 favorite albums on it and I leave it in my car. I got a new car a couple years ago with a USB port connected to the stereo. I've been listening to the music on the drive since I got the car, and have had to adjust the volume with each song, almost every day. This might not seem like a big deal, but it's a lot of adjusting.
A few years earlier, I did an informal poll of friends of mine who care about this kind of stuff (as well as MP3 tagging, ripping CDs, etc.) and was turned on to MediaMonkey. I used it a lot right away - so much so that I plunked down $25 for a lifetime upgrade license.
Fast-forward to yesterday. I plugged the drive into my work PC and let it process the volume leveling function in the background while I worked. It finished up over night, and this morning it is done. I'm listening to the music on the drive and Bad Brains is even with Mute Math! Even better, there's an "auto DJ" algorithm that's choosing what might sound good next to other things and fading in/out from song to song.
Rarely do I spend money on software and think "I got more than I expected here" but that's certainly the case for MediaMonkey. If you listen to music regularly and have acquired files from various different sources in the past (including ripping them yourself), I highly recommend MediaMonkey. Lifehacker agrees, mostly. (Their biggest gripe can be addressed here: http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.php/DreadM's_Skins)The Gold license is also worth it if you plan to do any manual cleanup of files or tags. For me, the volume leveling feature was worth the price.
And so, to wrap up, I will now be able to drive around with my music blaring and without having to adjust the volume each time the song changes. Well, until I take it in to have the motor replaced, but that's a post for a different day.
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