Thinkpad E590, i7, 512GB SSD, 2TB HDD, Windows 10, roon v. 1.6/416
Network Details (Including networking gear model/manufacturer and if on WiFi/Ethernet)
WiFi
Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)
Chromcast Audio to Eximus DPI (Optical)
Description Of Issue
Does anyone know how to exclude specific albums from a genre “focus” so that I can shuffle what remains. For example, I have added about 50 contemporary French Pop/Rock albums from Qobuz which usually gets tagged with the genre “French Pop”. But I have also added some complilations and box sets which include both “French Pop” and more traditional “Chanson”. I would like to exclude those compilations from the shuffle.
But is there no way of excluding a few albums from each shuffle on demand? The scenario is that all my genres overlap one way or another. So on one shuffle I might want to exclude a few albums I know don’t really “fit” the mood, but the next time I shuffle the same group of albums I might want to exclude different albums or none at all. For example, I will often use genre as a very crude first filter and maybe early in the day want to exclude some “uptempo” albums. Later in the evening I may want to do the opposite and exclude the “downtempo” albums.
But I don’t want to permenantly exclude any albums from a shuffle. TBH I have no real idea what “ban” does. I just assume it means that I will never see the album again so I have never used it. I have never used favorites either as I assume that roon will just keep playing stuff to death. Have I missunderstood?
Heres a suggestion.
After focussing on a genre, you could add a further focus for compilations, and then reverse that (tap to change the + to a minus) to exclude the compilations. Similarly you could use disc count to exclude box sets.
To be more precise would entail you tagging your albums as ‘uptempo’ or ‘downtempo’ and adjusting focus as desired.
Having done a few of these to match required moods, you can bookmark each one (early day, or late in the evening etc) to bring it up again easily.
On an ad hoc basis, you can Select all on one of the focus results, then click or tap odd albums to remove them, then hit shuffle.
That’s all I want to do. But I cannot see how, that’s the reason for the post.
For example, if I focus on a genre, select all and then on an ad hoc basis de-select several albums, then shuffle still shuffles the original focus including the albums I de-selected. I cannot see what step I am missing.
One thing to note is where you’re starting playback from. For example, I’ve selected 3 albums in the screenshot below:
If you click Shuffle here, that’s not a control for the selection, but rather for the page. If you click Play Now next to X Selected, and then shuffle these, that will play only from your selection.
Thanks Dylan. That would never have occured to me. There is a shuffle on the next page (I was looking for it on the first page). But it still just shuffles the entire focus including the exclusions.
There’s always more than one way of skinning a cat.
If you know the genre in advance I would use focus > genres route because that shows the albums straightaway ready for selection.
Either way, once you’ve got your selection, then use the little drop down arrow (shown just to the right of the Play Now in Dylan’s screenshot. Shuffle should show as an option (if it has been selected as one of the play acfions for albums in settings)
This allows you to save the result of your focussing, but not the result of your selection. To do that, perhaps a playlist might help, which you could shuffle each time?
I had no idea these play buttons were configurable. By default there is no “shuffle” on the selection.
Instead you have to make the mental leap from text cues like “shuffle” to symbolic queues and infact click first on the queue symbol and when you get to the queue click on the shuffle symbol.
That’s the reason for my convoluted method. But I have to say I find none of this at all intuitive and usually just give up. This is an exception as a poorly focussed shuffle is so annoying.
Yes. I make playlists when I am concentrating. I was just hoping there was a quick way of bookmarking a shuffle that was working instead of going to the queue and being sober enough to highlight 600 tracks and make a playlist without pressing the wrong button and killing the queue.
The final piece of the jigsaw. I would just never have thought of any of this. Much appreciated.
I must say the roon UX workflows seem to be very tightly coupled to the underlying systems architecture workflows. I get why the necessary functionality from a systems perspective would be scattered around different parts of the architecture but I don’t really undestand why the UX should be scattered around in the same way. If you don’t come from an IT background or happen to think in that way, it makes roon very difficult to navigate.
