Roon Rock, Roon Optimised Core Kit. Accessing via Windows 10 PC and Ipad.
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Naim Uniti Star
Description Of Issue
I have just started importing the Box set: Martha Argerich Collection 1
The first album is fine
The second album is partly okay. However, some compositions (with several movements) do not show the composer, although the files are labelled correctly with the composer specified. I have tried editing the Metadata preference to give the file info preference, to no avail. I can’t see any difference in the way the compositions which show the composer and those where the composer’s name is missing, are set up in my files’ metadata.
Do you mean the “composer” is in the file-name or the file itself? Historically, metadata was “embedded” in the file-name but there were never any agreed standards about how that is done so relying on metadata extraction from text strings in file names is extremely hit and miss. Some library managers will do better than others. Better are ID3 tags (including composer) embedded in the file itself. It sounds like you have few or no ID3 tags.
The other question is how exactly are you importing?
The original CD’s
Files from your Naim library
Download from an on-line store
If you are trying to 2) import files from Naim, this is a known issue with a lot of threads. Naim uses a proprietary tagging convention roon does not recognise. There are various work-arounds from using auto-taggers like Songkong to the slog of manually ID3 tagging yourself. Roon can often do a surprisingly good job of retrieving a lot of meta-data as long as there are a few basic ID3 tags in place to start with.
If you are using methods 1) or 3) then I am afraid that the tagging of Classical box-sets by the labels and meta-data suppliers is extremely hit and miss. Some have reported good results using auto-taggers lie Songkong which may save you a lot of time. Otherwise you need to invest in a good manual tagger like mp3tag (PC) or Yate (IOS) and do it yourself. I find that tagging certain field such as record labels and catalogue numbers means that roon will often make an identification without me having to laboriously tag everything.
You could also try making the “Show Composer Credits” (on the Settings > General page) set to “Always”. That works for me on this particular box set sourced from Qobuz.
Thanks Geoff
“Show Composer Credits” is already set to Always in my setup.
I’m now trying the recommended file structure from the user guide:
Miles Davis - The Complete Columbia Album Collection/
CD1/
01 Track.flac
02 Track.flac
…
CD2/
01 Track.flac
02 Track.flac
…
I’ll report back on how this works. 48 CDs take some time to rip!
Warren
Tony, thank you for your lengthy and helpful reply. I’ll reply to each of your points here:
I have “composer” embedded in the ID3 tags. But Roon ignores this, apparently, even when I edit the album to give preference to the file details.
I am ripping with Windows Media Player. I gave up on Naim some time ago, as many of my Cds were unrecognised.
As for ID3 editing, I do this in Windows by right-clicking on the file and selecting the “properties” tag. Composer etc fields can be entered here for Flac files.
I am importing from the original Box Set CDs.
Thanks again
Warren
I would say you will struggle to rip a 48 CD box with basic windows tools. Have you considered investing in something like dbPowerAmp? Many here use it. It will look up on-line the metadata and auto-populate the tags for you. That gives roon the best possible chance of making an identification and filling in any gaps in the metadata without much effort on your part. Other than feeding the CDs, of course.
That’s not my experience so there must be a reason.
I would say you will struggle to rip a 48 CD box with basic windows tools. Have you considered investing in something like dbPowerAmp? Many here use it. It will look up on-line the metadata and auto-populate the tags for you. That gives roon the best possible chance of making an identification and filling in any gaps in the metadata without much effort on your part. Other than feeding the CDs, of course.
I would echo Tony’s recommendation to move away from using Windows Media Player for ripping and Windows File Explorer for metadata editing and go for the dBpoweramp CD Ripper (part of the dBpoweramp Music Converter product), which will do the two functions in one.
Hi Tony
I have now ripped the 48 CDs with Windows Media Player, just as I have with the rest of my 500 or so CD collection. I find it works quite well. It identified all the CDs correctly. All I needed to do in Roon was to select all the CDs and Edit and merge, and everything is perfect. The issue I had with track naming was a bit of an error on my part because the CD in which the composer was not listed along with each composition was simply that for CDs with only one composer for all tracks, the composer was listed at the beginning of the CD listing, and not on the individual tracks.
Thanks again for the time you spent in supporting my efforts.
Thanks Geoff
Actually, after ripping with Windows Media Player, where the important metadata can be stipulated before ripping (i.e. any change to CD name and genre) I didn’t need to do any ID3 editing. There was enough info in the metadata to allow Roon to identify the albums correctly.