PlexAmp has many different ways to discover your library. Sonic analysis is one piece of the puzzle. Artist radio, track radio, Mood mixes, Mix Builder, etc. Having Smart Fades alone makes Roon feel like a very high quality, but staid music player by comparison.
As a present day DJ and have been for 21 years and holder of lifetime subs to both Plex and Roon I can tell you that Roon presents the quality of audio in a magnificent way. PlexAmp has been offering increasing quality and more bells & whistlers than Roon (for my tastes anyway).
Hi, i’m a new Roon user (on trial).
Yesterday i tested PlexAmp, specificaly for this Supersonic feature.
While the “sonically similar” feature is good, i was way more excited by the smooth transitions between tracks, which were not based on a fixed crossfading number of seconds, but clearly based on their algorithm and all the related things (bpm, silence, sound color, fading ends and beginnings…)
It was not always on spot, and still perfectible, but i found this feature pretty unique. (but maybe it exists somewhere else ?)
I thought i would find the same here on Roon.
But no way for me to move on Plex, that’s the only thing appealing for me in their app.
I put this in as a separate feature request, but for those who like the way Plexamp “radio” works (which is different than the underlying analysis), I thought this might be interesting. I agree the data model is great, but the interface is what got me excited - even if Roon doesn’t do any more analysis than what it already has. Would be interested in your thoughts (and votes, if you agree!)
Do I understand correctly that Plex Sonic Analysis only analyses tracks in your local library AND then only identifies sonic matches across tracks in your local library?
Just spent some time with it, expecting it to be a dream-come-true discovery method in combo with Tidal… only to be sorely disappointed.
Unless I misunderstood the feature completely, it seems useful mainly to those who:
Love automatic playlists or other kind of “focused radio” playback
Do not know their own library by heart (too many tracks / albums / artists)
Do not have their own library sonically interlinked (e.g. by customized genres or tags)
… I unfortunately do not fall into any of the above categories. But maybe I am still missing something important here? Many people seem hyping the Sonic feature…
NOTE: The TOUCHDOWN promo code for 1-month free Plex Pass still seem to work.
So the one time I thought it was amazing was when I used it with my source set to Tidal instead of my own library. Then it was amazing. On my library it’s decidedly so-so.
Johnny I think that when you set the source to Tidal it is using a different radio type as Sonic analysis only runs on local files.
I had great success with PlexAmp radio based on my library after Sonic analysis, but for now I am focusing on ARC for remote use.
It’s been a long time since this has been discussed. I’m wondering whether the concept of sonic similarity is being considered. For me (i) the capability and (ii) the interface of navigating upcoming songs through “looking forward” and adding sonically similar and related songs are what bring me back to PlexAmp for on-the-go, even though I love ARC, smart downloads, etc. Wondering if @mike you guys have thought about anything similar here. I know for sure that you don’t disclose roadmap, nor should you, and I appreciate all the work on stability, smart playlists, etc. But would love to know if you’ve taken a look at a more expansive view on how to build the queue with a “lean forward” (meaning I’m participating in what’s upcoming and able to shape more/less related through a suggestions vs. just selecting) approach. Now that I have endpoints that I can cast PlexAmp too and not just Roon, sometimes I sacrifice (Roon’s) sound quality & library management & metadata/information for (PlexAmp’s) queue management, and man I wish I could have both in one package.
100% agree and I have just put out a couple of additional Ropieee devices attached to DACS around the house so I can add PlexAmp and LMS as additional playback solutions.
If I want radio type playlists (which I occasionally do) then PlexAmp is my first stop and it does an amazing job. The Sonic analysis was a huge step forward when that was introduced
Does your Ropiee-to-DAC solution allow you to bridge as an endpoint for both?
I would still love to see Roon offer ‘sonic similarity’ for local libraries.
I’m conscious that offline processing might be expensive, but wonder if this were implemented as a ‘toggle’- default off, and switch on just for those who want it.
Could chomp on some of the ever-increasing redundancy on high-powered Roon servers when idle?
My goodness, Plexamp is great for my local collection… for these ‘related reasons’ on first impressions, plus many others unrelated: 1. sonic similarity as an extensive discovery toolkit 2. sonic adventures with crossfades- music just flows 3. sonic similarity for playlist automation
Especially for mobile, plexamp plus qobuz makes ARC redundant for me- plexamp even seems to buffer a lot of the cued playlist over wifi before I leave the house.
And the Guest DJ functions make Roon Radio feel rather limited, quaint even…
