Currently, there does not seem to be a good way to be able to browse your compilations. If I browse by “Arists”, then “various artists” does not appear within this. If I browse by “Albums”, then it shows all of my albums rather than just the compilations.
I realise that there might be a way to focus the view down to show compilations only (I haven’t looked in to this), but I think that such a basic feature would do well to be an option in the main “Collection” menu/tree.
Why is this necessary you may ask? The way I see it, compilations are a completely different format to albums (and to works - which ARE listed in the collection menu). I think that it’s great to have “works” in the menu, but I think that “compilations” would actually be more relevant for most users (i.e. have both).
Or just another thought - maybe allow the user to customise this tree! So we could remove collections we didn’t use, and add ones specific to our needs. For example, the user could add a collection “45s” or “record crate” or “picture discs” or whatever. I realise that the user can use tags to this effect and the focus feature, but the collections menu is so quick and easy that this feature would be great. But if only one more item could be added to the collections menu, it should be “Compilations”
Then Save the result as a Bookmark, so that it is quickly accesible from the Bookmark icon in the top right hand corner of every screen…which essentially means 2 clicks from any screen gets you to your Compilations Only albums
IMHO, the Focus system…and then the ability to Bookmark the result for future easy access…are two of the most ‘powerful’ aspects of Roon. Time spent looking at the Focus options is really well spent to determine what options in there can be used to ‘filter’ your library down to a particular subset
Thanks for the feedback here @extracampine – we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about our handling of compilations, so we love to hear feedback and ideas.
I agree that there is more we can do, especially to help users find similar compilations. This is an area where labels and performers are often really interesting.
I’m a big collector of compilations, and I have thousands in my library, so one of the things we focused on was how do we make these kinds of albums easy to find in a large library. By default, we sort Various Artist albums to their album name, so if you want to jump to Pulp Fiction or Now That’s What I Call Music, you can just type in the first few letters, as opposed to sifting through hundreds of albums under “Various”.
This behavior is also configurable on the Settings screen, where you can choose to have your compilations sorted to Various Artists if you prefer.
I think Ronnie is on the right track also – for the moment we plan to keep the main navigation menu relatively simple, since the bookmarks feature is infinitely customizable and just as easy to access.
Thanks for the feedback @extracampine – I think I may go make a compilations bookmark right now!
I tend to agree about keeping the main navigation menu as simple as possible - once you start sliding it’s a slippery slope.
Ronnie is absolutely spot on about the Focus/Bookmark double-act. I find it absolutely superb for creating one-click (well, technically two!! ) Go-To scenarios. Very powerful, but so easy to implement once you’ve done it once and seen it in action.
I second the idea of putting Compilations in the Collections. Yes I know that I can filter and set a bookmark, but that is hardly user-friendly, especially for users who don’t know how to navigate in Roon, like for instance wife and children.
Please don’t take such a principal standpoint on this. Just put Compilations in the navigation tree or give users a setting where we can choose to do this or not.
I gave the “bookmark method” as suggested (by Ronnie) a try and while it does work I would still prefer to have “Compilations” as a main category on the left main menu. And for what it’s worth, I don’t use the “Composers” or “Compositions” that are there and it would be nice if there were a choice as to what is included or not included.
As HerbertGoat said, It is indeed simple, but of the limited number that are there I don’t use two of them at all so it’d be nice to choose what it displayed.
