CD Ripping Via ROCK

Roon Software Discussion ROCK
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Hi! I’m wondering if I can use ROCK solely for the purposes of disc ripping.

Here’s the use case:

I prefer the ease of ripping cds with my ROCK core and storing to external HDD, but I have another core that I prefer to use for listening.

Is there a way to switch cores, disabling my primary Roon Core / Listening device while I use my old ROCK for ripping? Then just switching back afterward.

Would this cause any issues? Could I simply use one core at a time with my license and execute these functions?

Thanks for any assistance

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Yes you can do things this way.

You’ll just have to switch your active Roon Server to the other each time, whilst moving the USB storage device at the same time.

Another way, and I forget if this is possible, is to leave the USB storage device connected to your preferred ripping Roon Rock server and select it as a network attached storage on your preferred Roon Server for listening. I recall the SMB share is still active on a Roon Rock Server when your subscription is active on another.

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Um. Would you also need to synchronise the library/database?

I’m guessing this might be more trouble than it worth…

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Yes you would otherwise the 2nd server would never identify the ripped music.

This is something I would never suggest. Have you looked to see what the files look like after you rip them from Rock?

There is no data, no album title and yhe tracks are just track1,track2. All info is held in the database. You’d have to rip then export the music to get that information inserted. Best to do it on a pc using dbpoweramp.

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In the past, I’ve had discs that are recognized immediately by Roon and catalogued. Then, when transferring to a new Core, I had to go through and manually identify them. It wasn’t the most pleasant experience, but doable.

I’m not transferring hundreds of old discs, I’m building a collection from new/used purchases. So I only add one every couple of weeks.

The problem is that despite the fact that I love Roon, I don’t really operate from a computer. So I don’t have a desktop/laptop. But I have a Roon ROCK sitting stagnant and a Grimm MU2. I do everything from my phone. By choice, I try to interact as little as possible with tech

Maybe I should just use the NUC + dbpoweramp to do these tasks, bypassing or even uninstalling the ROCK functions?

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There are probably many ways to minimise the tech, but I suspect the simplest option might be to just buy a laptop with an optical drive (noting that many ‘modern’ laptops don’t have one… ) and use that to rip your CDs, then copy to your external drive as now. Dbpoweramp is maybe the default choice, but there are others. I use EAC.

If the Grimm has an internal drive fitted, you could (assuming it works the way I would expect… ) copy rips to that.

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You can do what you want but the process would be specific and a bit onerous. But, before I get to that, let me show you what ROCK does when it rips a CD. First, it puts the ripped CDs in a different location than the rest of music you may have copied over to your ROCK NUC.

It puts it in the subdirectory as marked.

save1

I have ripped a couple of CDs, and when you go into the CD-Rips directory this is what you would see (with different date/times).

save2

Notice they are not grouped under any artist, nor is the album name used, it is just the date and time to the second for each disk ripped.

If you go under any of those disks, this is what you see…

cd 3

No track name but at least a track number. No metadata is stored in any of these tracks, which means if you move them without first transferring the database between the servers, the new server would find them all looking like this.

afassd
afassd330×714 24.6 KB

When Roon rips a CD all the metadata is only contained in the database. If you wanted to move them to a new RoonServer, then, after you finished for the day, you would make a new database backup, copy it to the 2nd Roon Server and Restore the Database. Then, you would move the CD rips from the CD Rips directory of one server to the CD-Rips directory on the second server.

At that point, Roon hopefully picks up on the rips and all is well. There are a couple of other options…

Option 2:

Or, you use dbPoweramp to rip the cds. when you are done you copy them over the network to the storage location on the second server and Roon then scans and adds them to the library.

Option 3:

Or, you could rip the CDs on ROCK, export them to a USB drive, and either then, move that USB drive to the other server and let the other server load them into it’s library which means you would always be using this one external drive to serve as both the transport and storage media, or, if you wanted the exported files loaded on the second server’s internal drive, you would need to connect the “transport” drive to a computer and then copy the files from that drive to the ROCK NUC over the network.

I hope that helps and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Fellow user by the way, not official Roon staff.

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Thanks! This is comprehensive. The dbpoweramp will be the way to go, I believe

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