Similar to Mike_O_Niell, I’ve used J River for a long time, and augmented it with the Musichi Tagger. I’ve had a Roon subscription for a year now, and find Classical to be problematic in similar ways. My take on ways to make it better, take it FWIW:
Mike’s list of canonical fields (Composer, Conductor, Orchestra, Genre, Work) is pretty good, but you also need Performer and Ensemble. When browsing Concerti, I’m interested in Argerich, not Chailly. String Quartets are Composer->Work->Ensemble. You could probably combine Performer, Ensemble, and maybe Conductor into a single navigation filter.
Being able to filter a Works list by Genre, rather than by typing, would be nice. The Genres are listed right there in the works browser under Composer, but selecting them takes me to a generic description of the Genre itself. I already know what a Symphony is, thanks though
Importantly, you simply must allow Work to be user editable. Nothing is more frustrating than to have a Work file tag populated with the correct work description, and that same data embedded in the track title, only to have Roon choose poorly groomed data from AMG with no way to change it. For instance, my list of Mahler works shows separate works for Symphony No. 2, Symphony No. 2 in C minor, and Symphony No. 2 in C minor (“Resurrection”), despite all my file tags using the latter construction. I’d guess a third of all entries in my works lists are duplicates of this type.
The issue I find with using Focus to navigate is that the filter chain in a specific Focus is “hard coded”. If I could create a “Smart Focus” that would capture a navigation pattern, or allow a specific selection to be made generic, it would solve most of the navigation problem Mike describes. For instance, being able to say I want to navigate by Composer->Genre->Work->Performer, and display the results by Performance. Then invoking that Navigation bookmark would present those browser screens in order. And I could “hard code” any of those selections along the way - I could have a Beethoven Concertos navigation where the composer and genre were hard coded, and the rest of the selections done by browser.
I continue to find Roon very promising and look forward to the changes in 1.3.
That’s not what I meant… and I think @andybob answered this nicely earlier: “…some explanation after release as to how Roon uses tags in various contexts in 1.3 would also be very helpful.”
As a developer myself I see it quite logically (hopefully)
Each Genre will expect an set of tags specific to that Genre
eg
For a Concerto [Artist] = Pianist (Argerich); Conductor = Du Toit; Orchestra = Montreal Symphony etc)
For Symphonies [Artist] = Conductor = Karajan; Orchestra = Berlin Phil etc
For Piano Solo [Artist] = Argerich the rest empty
Chamber works [Artist] = Beaux Arts etc Rest Empty (same as Ensemble I guess but it keeps Artists populated in all cases even if its a String Quartet etc hence simplifies search queries.)
For multiple artists like Cello Sonata Artist = Richter; Rostropovich (I am not sure how Roon handles multiple artists JRiver allows a semi colon delimited list as a Collection then each artist shows up separately it duplicates what it shows but it allows a complete view of contributions of that artist)
It needs a set of rules but they aren’t really complex from a code context as long as the Tags are clearly defined. Each Genre will have a rule set maybe . That’s really how MusiCHI is doing it , he insist on Composer , Album Artist and Composition being correct for any track.
As an aside …
The “Work” or “Composition” tag is a constructed custom tag and has to editable otherwise the Mahler 2 comment above happens. You need to be able to make all Mahler’s 2nd say the same thing so that they group together. Trying to navigate to all Mahlers 2nd recordings if thay have a different Work tag would be a nightmare.
I did follow your suggestion but I did have to type and add to that not all of the versions showed up for selection.
I don’t know how Roon derives the “work” but I wonder if the Various names of tracks in various languages and abbreviations may be missed , eg I have one version that has track names Sym No 5 I - xxx etc others in English others again in German.
My trial has now expired , even the extension the Roon guys kindly gave me so I cannot repeat the exercise.
I love the way Roon displays info but my experience so far with Classical navigation stays my hand from going further at this stage.
I had a thread along these lines when I first paid my lifetime dues, and they recur like the seasons as the newly joined discover the same shortcomings.
Nothing has significantly improved since then, and I am hunkered down living with it as it is (because it still ain’t bad, lest we forget) with big hopes for 1.3.
Expect a positive deluge of threads if that seriously disappoints. No pressure, lads.
I agree Simon , its a very flash piece of software , I simply all that info at my fingertips but for a lifetime license (the only one that makes sense) I don’t want to finish up fighting the software that should be making my life a pleasure.
I agree its far and away the best around but …
I’ll wait until 1.3 sounds like its not long a coming
