I’m migrating to Roon in about a week. I have >500 ripped CDs with very well groomed metadata set up with Naim’s Uniti Core. But it’s not entirely compatible with Roon’s way of doing it. I’d like to get it ideally groomed for Roon BEFORE I introduce it to Roon because I want to minimize editing after I convert to Roon. Reason: I can’t comfortably sit. Roon requires Windows or Mac software which requires sitting. Whereas the Naim editor is on an IOS app on my iPad and I don’t have to sit to edit.
With that in mind, I’ve already edited all my artist metadata to conform to Roon convention so all my artists are semi-colon deliminated instead of space delimited. I’m told,that will force Roon to tag each artist in my string of semicolon delimited Artists.
How can I best edit Composer and Album Title to suit Naim?
All of my music is Albums. Most of my music is classical and opera. When Naim assigned metadata it combined Composer and Album Title in most cases, so I’ve edited all my data to that convention. The Album Title fields look like this:
Puccini: Madame Butterfly or Beethoven: Fidelio or Mahler: Symphony No. 8
Is there anything I can do or should do to groom the Album Title field to force Roon to tag the name in front of the colon as the Composer?
Thanks for replies, much appreciated, but … I don’t fully understand them. For example, I don’t even know what WORK and PART mean. And even if I did, I don’t yet have access to Roon’s Tag names. And I don’t have the equivalents in my present metadata app. As I said, I’ll be moving to Roon next week.
I am told that when ROON first imports my metadata, it will have its way with my file of over 500 CDs and that AFTER its first round I can insist it use my metadata. I already had one trial of Roon that lasted a few days so I know it got about half my albums wrong in all sorts of ways. I’m trying to vet my data ahead of time hoping that when I flag Roon to use my data on the second try, the results will be better. On my first Roon trial, I didn’t know I had the option to flag Roon and tell it to use my metadata.
I have only a few fields on my present system I can edit, Cover Art, Album, Artist and Tracks. My Cover Art is 100% right, Roon got a LOT wrong. If I can force it to use my Cover Art, I’ll be happy with that part. My tracks are 100% right; I figure when I tell Roon to use my track data, I’ll be fine with the results.
It’s Album ID and Artist where I’m not as confident about what will happen. Again, I hope to minimize any editing after what I call Round 2 when I plan to tell Roon to use my metadata.
I’ve already re-edited all my metadata in the Artist field. I’ve changed it from space delimited to semicolon delimited. I’m told Roon understands the semicolon. I’m hoping Roon will tag all those artist names correctly and I won’t have to force it to use my metadata in the Artist field.
I’m trying to set the Album ID in my present metadata in such a way it makes sense to Roon, and I won’t be handicapped by forcing it to use my metadata.
But, heck, I don’t really know what I’m doing because I don’t yet have Roon. Just hoping my second try with Roon will turn out better than my first try.
I have, though it is fairly opaque when it tries to describe how Roon does it differently. It would be nice to see examples so a reader could better wrap their mind around these concepts.
One thing that might be pertinent for me was the part about standardizing composer names to First Name, Middle Name, Last Name. I am using only composer Last Name followed by Album Title. Would it would be helpful to re-edit all my Album Titles to use the full name of the composer?
As I said in my first message, by convention all of my Album Title metadata is standardized to:
Composer Last Name : Album Title Mahler: Symphony No. 8
Should I edit all my Album titles to include the full name of the composer?
Janet, I think you’re conflating a couple of things here. In that article, in the section about composer names, it is referring to the format of the name in the COMPOSER metadata field. You’re talking about how you should tackle the composer name in the TITLE metadata field - a completely different thing.
Personally, I would leave the contents of the TITLE field exactly as they are. Roon uses a variety of techniques to try and identify albums, so it usually doesn’t need to have an exact match of the track title as it appears in the Rovi database (which is one of the sources that Roon uses)
Geoff, you’re absolutely right, and thanks. After I wrote that I reread the suggested documentation again and realized Composer is a separate field. So, I agree, I think it’s be best to leave my metadata in the Album Title field as is.
In my Naim app, there is no separate field for Composer. So I get confused/worried about what Roon will do for Composer, especially if I try to force it to use my metadata.
It didn’t do a good job of identifying my music on my aborted first trial. It’s most obvious error was Cover Art which it frequently got wrong. I couldn’t seem to find my music by eyeball or by search.
Is there just one global option for telling Roon to use my metadata? Or can I control I control it by flagging Field tags?
There’s both the global option ( in the Settings / Library / Import Settings screen), and a setting at the album(s) level. Go to the Album browser, select one or more albums, choose “Edit” from the “3 dots” menu, and you get to the Album editor. This has three tabs on the screen; the centre one being Metadata Preference. Choose that and you get to tell Roon which metadata fields you want it to use. Set them up, click Save, and Roon will follow your preference for the selected album(s).
That’s only because most people add the Watched folders for the importing to happen BEFORE changing the default global import settings. If you were to select your preferred settings first before adding the top level folder of your music collection, then Roon will follow your settings the first time around…
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That’s only because most people add the Watched folders for the importing to happen BEFORE changing the default global import settings. If you were to select your preferred settings first before adding the top level folder of your music collection, then Roon will follow your settings the first time around…
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Uh oh, another new term. I looked up Watched Folders and they are described below.
FAQ: What’s a watched folder?
You add your local music to Roon via “watched” folders. These are folders that will be monitored by Roon for new music. Your files are left in the folder and won’t be copied or modified in any way, unless you explicitly choose to add or delete them from your library. The folders can be configured from the Storage tab of the Settings screen.
Watched Folders
When you set up a watched folder, Roon will scan the folder and add any music it finds to your library without moving or changing the files at all. Roon will also monitor the folder for changes, so any music you add later will automatically be imported.
Local vs Network Drives
Watched folders can be located on local or network drives, and you can add multiple watched folders. Note that on OS X, networked folders must be mounted using SMB, not AFP.
The documentation says how they are used, but doesn’t go into whether I would have to set it (or them) up and why. Do I have to set them up myself? And put all my music in one? Or is just for a new piece of music I would want to add?
When we say “import” we mean; let Roon show you your music , notlet Roon copy, edit, delete and move around your audio files without you knowing . That’s why when you import music into Roon, you do so via a “Watched Folder” – Roon looks at what’s in the folder and shows it to you.
I am not familiar with the Naim Uniti Core device - I don’t know whether it is possible to view the contents of the music store over the network as though it is a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device. If so, you could point Roon at the entry point of your music store using the Uniti’s NAS address on the network, and that would be your “Watched folder” in Roon.
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I am not familiar with the Naim Uniti Core device - I don’t know whether it is possible to view the contents of the music store over the network as though it is a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device. If so, you could point Roon at the entry point of your music store using the Uniti’s NAS address on the network, and that would be your “Watched folder” in Roon.
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The Naim Uniti Core is a ripper and holds the contents of all the ripped music on an internal hard drive, in my case an SSD. It is entirely controlled by an app, in my case an iOS app. It is connected to my router with an Ethernet cable, making it a network file, and guided by my choices in the app, delivers music to the DAC in my main audio system. Roon will make it largely irrelevant, which is unfortunate because it is good at what it does.
I’m beginning to think I’ve done all I can to get ready for moving to Roon. Much (much!) appreciate the hand holding. All that remains is to await the receipt of a recently purchased Sonic Transporter, which should be here at the end of the coming week. Then I’ll transfer my music files to the Sonic Transporter and presumably it will become a Watched Folder when I press “go” on Roon.
Janet, I’m a little confused by your last reply. First you say that the Uniti Core will become a Watched Folder, but then later you talk about transferring your files to the Sonic Transporter.
Which are you intending to do?
Leave the files on the Uniti Core, and set up the Sonic Transporter to access the Uniti Core as a NAS “Watched Folder”, or
transfer your files to internal storage on the Sonic Transporter, and use the default “Music” folder in the Sonic Transporter as your “Watched Folder”?