I am considering downloading the free 14 day Roon trial.
I have nearly 2,000 CDs as flac files on my hard drive which Roon would need to identify and catalogue.
If Roon attempts to catalogue all the 2,000 CDs which are in two folders Non Classical and Classical in one scan it would be extremely difficult to check if there are any missing files or other errors.
Would it be better to create a copy of each folder which could contain say 200 CDs each, carry out the Roon scan for the smaller number of CDs, check for any errors and then add additional CDs to each folder in batches of say 25 CDs at a time for Roon to scan automatically?
It would be far easier to check if any errors had occurred if only a small number of the CDâs flac music files would need to be checked.
Is it possible to select which Folder containing music CDs is to be scanned of does Roon just scan the entire Hard Drive?
If possible to select which folder containing CDs is to be scanned can a selection be made of which CDs are to be scanned in that folder?
You can add different folders that donât have to be at the top drive/root level. If you have 2 distinctive folders try that but if you have other breakdowns below that then depending on how many you can add them individually. The number of folders might get cumbersome to administer tho if there are too many
The reality of what you are worried about is that you intend to check every CD anyway, so it makes no real difference whether you add them in batches of 200 or whatever, or all in one go.
Main causes of errors on import seem to be classical music and box sets/multi-disc sets. One other major problem could be caused if you have been editing your metadata in a non standard manner, which can confuse Roonâs identification process.
In your situation, I would import one top level folder at a time, starting with the non classical folder. Review that after import and go from there.
@john_thornton Why donât you select a subset of your current library, say 200 albums, copy them to a folder and add just that folder, or you could add the folder empty and copy 1 album at a time to it and check Roon before adding anotherâŚ
My experience with Classical is to use very small batches. Otherwise it is just too difficult to keep track of any manual changes you need/want to make after a first Id attempt by roon. Just to get to a critical mass I used to do no more that 10/15 at a time. Boxes I would do all at once (another story). These days I upload one at a time.
Other genres tend to be much more forgiving and roon does a pretty good job of identifying unless you have very specialist tastes.
On the other hand, I just went for a full import of my 1,000+ albums (440 classical), and then asked Roon to show me just the albums that it could not identify (using the Focus feature). Those albums I just worked through making manual edits where required.
On balance, I vote with Geoff. Whatâs the worst that can happen? Nothing will be modified when you tell Roon to watch your music, so THE worst is Roon returning a bunch of goo to you. On the other hand, thatâs good information if not welcome.
I decided to go slow, imported 4 albums at first, Roon rejected 3. I freaked. Turned out that a Mac is much friendlier toward certain characters in file names than is the Roon system. But, it too was a valuable lesson.
You canât really go wrong either way⌠Do you like your bad news in doses, or all at once? (I assume you can handle good news either way.)
There are a lot of reasons why I migrate with the smallest possible batch but one is to guard against false positives. I canât imagine I am the only one that has this but I only realised when I started merging compositions from the composition page. I like to do do this with favorite covers of pop and jazz, not just classical.
What I was finding was that roon was mixing up the titles in some albums. So when I was shuffling a âcoversâ session I was sometimes getting a mix of songs rather than a mix of the same cover. It is very obvious if you have set up a listening session this way.
What I tracked it down to was the labels habit of endlessly re-bundling and repackaging their content. Deluxe versions, super deluxe, that sort of thing. Often though they also change the running order of the songs. So this creates the potential for a false positive where roon has made a match on the wrong version of the album and mixes up the track titles. It is also an easy mistake to make yourself when you do a manual match and roon complains about discrepancies in the track times. You need to look more closely because sometimes you will see that the reason is you are trying to match on a version of the album with a different running order.
I have found this on a handful of occasions in classical, where the labels might reverse the running order of some symphonies or concertos in new releases. Its unfortuante because this is usually for core albums from the repertoire rather than more specialst ones with limited print runs. But mostly it happens on core albums from the pop repertoire. I had a lot of trouble with âThrillerâ for example. I would also add EP singles, many of which come in an endless variety of re-mixes and running orders if that is your bag.
This is usually easily fixed by âpreferring file titlesâ. But I do not want to set that globally as I usually prefer roon and just want to use my own custom titles where roon isnât working like this.
Geoff, how are using using Focus to find NOT identified? I see âIdentifiedâ in the Inspector options but have yet to figure out how to show the inverse of identified.
I am overwhelmed by the amount of help provided by members of this forum to answer my questions, thanks to everyone who took the time to provided their advice.
It would appear the best method would be to start to catalogue my CDs in very small batches.
Obviously using Roon will enable me to gain a better knowledge of how the program works and fully understand all of the advice provided.