Customized Multi-Disc or Box Set Management

Hi, I plan to purchase Roon to use in a new PC build to use with HQP outputting to NAA. So, I have been reading up on the software.

Based on the FAQ here: How to ensure multi-disc sets and box sets are indentified properly? Roon seems to treat multiple disc sets generically and in an archaic manner.

It is it possible to force Roon to recognize and properly display the file structure and tagging I have used with my files?

Examples:

For certain double-albums I have manually re-numbered and re-named the files and placed all the files in one folder.

Linda Ronstadt/
'Round Midnight with Nelson Riddle…/
01 Linda Ronstadt - What’s New.flac
…
32 Linda Ronstadt - Straigten up and Fly Right.flac

For certain box sets, I have treated each disc within the set as a separate album based on subject or name as it appears on the packaging.

Van Morrison/
Moondance (Deluxe Edition) (192kHz-24Bit)
Moondance (Deluxe Edition-More Sessions)
Moondance (Deluxe Edition-Sessions, Alternates & Mixes)
Moondance (Deluxe Edition-The Sessions)

The above are just two examples of the way I treat multi-disc sets. Depending on the type of music, or the size of the set, I will treat each differently.

The above customized method seems to conflict with the way Roon wants to see a folder for a multi-album set.

I usually manually re-structure, and tag my files using dbPoweramp.

Also, if a parent folder is “Watched”, can I assume all sub-folders will be updated in the Roon database if I make changes (both to the file structure on the drive or metadata tags) after I have already imported the files?

Thanks.

Better box set or collection handling is something I’ve been asking for for a while. See items 4 & 5 of my top feature requests:

I think multi disc sets are handled much better in 1.2, editing is much easier.

If I’m understanding you correctly and your Linda Ronstat is 2x cd which you have tagged as 1 x cd Room will show your metadata but obviously won’t be able to "match " it to any rich metadata source, so you won’t have a review etc. This is what I think will happen but sometimes you’ve got to suck and see.

In your second example a lot will depend on how the 1of 4, 1 of 3 field is filled in the metadata.

Your best bet is to download the trial and have a play with some multidisc albums. It really is much easier to do than explain.

SJB

Yeah. Scratching my head on how to approach this.

I’ll probably create a test environment with a few folders to see how things work before fully importing all my music.

Honestly though, the idea of “CD1, CD2, etc” or “Disc 1, Disc 2” is meaningless in the age of downloads and hard drives.

But, to be clear: in my approach I not only change the metadata tags, but also the actual file names and folders on the hard drive within each parent folder.

So, I would rather not undo all of my work.

Thanks for the replies!



You hear this here a bit but honestly I can’t agree, below is the best way to show a 5 CD set IMHO





I



EDIT just noticed I've forgotten to rip CD6!

second EDIT, disc 6 is a DVD!
SJB

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Hmmm, you do make a compelling argument with that screen shot.

And It would be easier for me to rip my collections and just leave the folders and files as is.

Coming from JRiver where I liked a clean album view, without duplicate album covers, I’m going to have to re-think my method.

Thanks again.

In quite a few ways Roon does not work the way you expect coming from programs like JRiver and iTunes. It is definitely worth giving Roon time and exploring and understanding the way it works as in the end many of us find it much better.

But don’t be afraid to keep asking your questions, there are many people here who are willing to help you understand and enjoy Roon.

Also the Roon team are active here and if you have good ideas that make sense they are steadily rolling out improvements.

I went through the pain of transitioning from multiple disc sets I’d simply numbered as sequential tracks to having to rework my filenames and track numbers to ease Roon identification. If you have a large collection it’s worthwhile, otherwise just manually identify them as you’re listening and encounter unidentified albums.

The best shot you’ve got at automated identification is to do the following:

  • Add a discnumber tag to all multi-disc sets
  • Restart track numbering at 1 for every change in discnumber
  • Start filenames with discnumber-track or file each disc in a folder cdX where X is the discnumber.

I can’t agree with this either - the whole point of Roon is to get away from the “digital download” era and re-create the imagery of the original physical media. A lot of our music is pre-2000s and pre download era!

Just had an idea for how Roon could implement better box set management.

I think that Roon should have an additional “grouping” feature - the ability to group albums together under some common category - either on the albums view, or within a specific artist.

There could be 3 “levels” of grouping. These could be, going from the strongest grouping to the weakest:

  1. Box set - this is where the particular items were specifically released or re-released together as part of a box set or collection.

  2. Series - this is where the particular items are part of a series of releases - this often applies to compilation albums where they begin with “volume 1” and continue on often for many volumes. They aren’t typically released together as a box set, and tend to be released over years, though nonetheless form part of a common series.

  3. User grouping - this is where the user wishes to group together particular items that share some other commonality, though this is likely a looser link that the above 2 examples. For example, the user may wish to group together all early cassette-only releases of an artist; anything is possible.

This system should not be confused with the categorisation of releases on the artist page (currently albums, singles & Eps, with various artists and appearances), which should remain. This categorisation system should be improved also, as I have mentioned on a separate thread (e.g. into albums, singles and EPs, compilations, bootlegs, with various artists, appearances):

Keen to hear what the devs feel about the grouping idea described above.

Hiya @extracampine, unless you sent them a PM, you can get the devs to take a quicker look by @joel, who I think is currently leading the meta=data charge.

Thanks Daniel - how do I get @joel - just by mentioning his name here?

Yup – his icon will be ablaze with mentions the next time he visits the community… :wink:

Something like that…

Better handling of box sets is something very much on my plate, but it’s not an easy thing to “fix” when (a) everyone wants something different and (b) box set metadata is far from ideal. That said, I appreciate the suggestions.

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Yes, when you use an @ followed by the user name, it will highlight the comment for the user in their “Inbox”(?) for lack of a better descriptor.

Disappointed to hear from @joel that a grouping feature including box sets is not yet completed (or not yet nearing completion, from the sounds of it). Good to hear that it is on the plate though :slight_smile: Seems to be to be a very important feature that has been repeatedly asked about.

Oh, something I forgot to mention in my description of the Roon grouping feature mentioned above. Each “group” would have it’s own page, with a description of the group, some form of banner art and of course the group items listed - kind of like an artist’s page, but for a grouping. The description and art would of course have to be added by the user.

For example, take the “Cafe Del Mar” series of compilation albums (I have quite a few). They would be grouped as a single item on the “albums” list, which when clicked, opens up the Cafe Del Mar page with the above information. Take a look at the Cafe Del Mar website:

http://www.cafedelmarmusic.com

As a rough guide it could look something like that, with the user adding a personalised background/banner image and some text at the top (like Roon does for artists and albums) describing what the series is and what it is about.

Another example might be that the Roon user may wish to group together various manifestations of a band. So rather than having “Mr Blobby”, “Mr Blobby & the Blobmasters”, “Mr Blobby with Mrs Blob” etc listed as separate artists (and hence cluttering up the artists view), they could be grouped together by the user into a group name of their choosing (e.g. “Mr Blobby”) which, when opened, would contain all the various manifestations and permutations.

@joel

There’s no silver bullet here, but there are a few principles that can be followed.

  • accept that there’s no consistent metadata for these and that user intervention is generally going to be necessary as far as tagging is concerned, e.g. Rovi tend to (more often than not) ignore disc numbers and number the tracks 1 to n where n is the number of tracks across all discs. Discogs and Musicbrainz tend to do a better job keeping the discs within the set discrete.

  • anticipate and cater for artwork for the box set and the individual discs. If there’s a folder.jpg or whatever other files Roon considers cover art in the root folder, use it for the box set and each disc. If individual disc subfolders have a folder.jpg or equivalent of their own, use that file as the cover art for that specific disc.

  • respect discsubtitle when it exists in a user’s metadata. Rovi has the terrible habit of taking box sets comprising numerous albums in an artist’s canon and considering it a single album, thus losing the individual album names. Where box sets comprise individual albums users should be able to identify an album by name within the boxset and play it. Perhaps discsubtitle can be displayed underneath disc1, disc2 etc. as each disc is selected.

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A post was split to a new topic: Multi-part Works show “Untitled Track” for parts

Trying to rip this set: https://www.amazon.com/Vaughan-Williams-Complete-Symphonies-CDs/dp/B0015RSPCM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1476853008&sr=8-1&keywords=boult+decca+vaughan

Every attempt to simplify the metadata (using “Tag” on Mac to edit) STILL results in the first 3 tracks of CD 1 being split into 3 separate albums. Within the folder for the set it is “CD 01” and lableled in metadata as disc 1 of 5. I’ve tried to tell Roon to read everything from the “file”, tried to re-identify, taken it out of the watched folder, put it back after further metadata editing. Why is there no way to merge misidentified albums such as this? I must admit this is one of a number of such multi-disc problems I’ve been having and I would love to have a solution to further possible recurrences, rather than the hours of head-scratching.

Thanks