If I play an album or a playlist, after it’s finished, “Radio” starts. I know this mainly because I’ve been told that on these forums. The app itself does little to keep me apprised. If I click on the quarter note symbol (with the horizontal lines), I’m told that “Radio starts in X:XX”–when the current song is over. But RADIO HAS ALREADY STARTED. THAT’S WHAT I’M LISTENING TO."
Furthermore, the “page” I’m on, still indicates the album or playlist I was previously listening to, except for the (what do you call that? A status bar?) at the bottom.
It’s clear what ought to happen: When the album or playlist is over, the page should refresh to indicate that I’m now listening to radio, with details as to the nature of the radio “station”. (Could be simply “based on” whatever I was playing before.) The playlist of the album I was listening to before should be replaced by recent history, with, perhaps, what’s coming.
I wanted to explain the existing Queue and History functionality. If you’ve got suggestions arising from that, this is the right place for them.
Browsing albums or tracks is undisturbed by playback. If you browse to an album and hit “Play Album” you will send that album to the Queue but stay browsing where you are. That is by design so that users can continue exploring while listening to selected tracks.
Playback is managed in the Queue which is reached via the stave icon or by clicking any clear space in the playback bar.
The “Radio starts in #” continues to appear when a Radio selected track is playing. There is a potential for confusion, it might be better if it read “Radio playing in #”. The album/track under that text shows the next Radio selection. Let’s ask @brian2 whether he agrees.
You can guide Radio selection using the thumb up/down icons under the album. Thumb up will add that selection to the Queue and force a new selection, thumb down will skip it and force a new selection.
You can re-order the Queue by drag n drop with the bars icon on the right of a track. The transport controls will skip through the Queue and can back up into the History.
If you click a track in the Queue you get a popup to Play Now, Play From Here or Go To Album.
Settings/History contains a full playlist history, tracks can be group selected and sent to the Queue or a playlist.
Andrew, thanks much for this. While you’ve covered some of what I was trying to address, I’m afraid that perhaps I wasn’t as clear as I should have been.
I do understand the queue, history, etc., as it currently works. My usability concern is about what happens when the radio kicks in after (eg) an album is played. Please correct (or ignore) me if I’m wrong–I’d need to play a whole album to verify, and it’s late–but I believe that once the album is over and radio clicks in, NOTHING is displayed in the cue, and over on the right, it still says “Radio starts in X:xx”–and it keeps saying that long after radio has already started.
Try looking at this from the standpoint of a casual user. If Radio has been playing for the last half hour, I don’t expect to see “Radio will start in …”. I expect, rather, that the whole interface will somehow have shifted over into radio mode, and that everything I see (future playlist, past history) would reflect that.
It has been a while, but I’ve written code in my day. I understand inertia–how the current approach can so powerfully seem the right one because it’s familiar. But if you step outside what you’re accustomed to seeing and think of it from the standpoint of an uninformed (hence, objective) user, I think you’ll see what I’m talking about.
The issue ( if it even is an issue ) could be resolved by the text saying radio continues in x minutes.
I like the way it currently works as once radio starts I thumb up and thumb down to give myself a playlist for a set amount of time and then I usually select radio to off.
The only is I have with radio is I think its a alogarithm could be improved, it does seem to focus on a small number of albums and personally I would like it not to include the current artist. For example the other day I radioed for songs like Bell bottom blues from Layla, by Derek and the Dominos, only to have fed up several other Derek and the Dominos tracks. I’m hoping to find connections and items in my collection that I might not otherwise. I kinda get the idea that Derek and the Dominos sound like Derek and the Dominos.
The great thing about Roon is it’s evolving all the time so I know it won’t be long until this is improved.
Yeah I agree. There were some changes made to the Radio algorithim, but lately it is feeling narrow again. I’ll see if I can find out if there’s a way of testing whether it’s performing as expected.
Agree with others: Radio could be enhanced and clarified, as mentioned before. Radio appears to have become more narrow over time (even with many times more tracks/artists added as favorites).
Improvements should include:
Include or Exclude artist listened to before Radio (via user selection);
Provide user control from “wide to narrow” Radio- that is, how much artist discovery is desired.
Include Tidal tracks NOT in current user library as essential part of artist discovery if user selected.
Again, like Roon and look forward to continued improvement.
I like the Radio feature and use it often. Most of the time Roon plays in the background. By the time the album or playlist finishes my screensavers have kicked in and the device may need to be logged back into.
What I would like is some kind of audio identifier, a benign guitar or piano chord change or cue tone that alerts me that Roon is about to start using the Radio. Or an option that would allow the user to select a track that always plays when Radio is about to begin. I could record my own voice saying, “You’re listening to the music library of XXXX as selected by Roon” and have that announcement play just before Radio starts. (Half kidding but still.) Perhaps every three tracks or so.
Sometimes the artist selected by Radio is very similar to what I’ve been listening to and I mistakenly assume my album or playlist is still playing. The demarcation of a user selectable track or 1/4 volume tone sequence would alert me. (I’m not talking about that audio blast when the weather service does an alert test, but rather those soft cues that used to be played on FM Radio back in the day when whole album sides were being broadcast and the cue signaled the listener to begin or end recording.)
Of course, I guess I could do that on my own and add the track or tone to the end of my queue every time I select a group of music to play but I thought since we’re spitballing ideas here…
If this has been suggested elsewhere in this sprawling forum I apologize.
Thats a great idea - maybe even an audible intro… remember those occassional Laser 558 links back in the 80’s pirate radio days Radio Roon to some signature sound would be nice when it started.
Personally I don’t want Roon to make any noise except music. If I’m listening to an album and want to hear only the album, I turn Radio off. If I wonder whether a particular song was on an album I selected or not, I look at the History.
It appears unless I choose Mozart that Raido offers me up the Pretenders and Talking Heads. Please please please Roon have a look at this, it has the capability to be a great feature but it seems to be unnecessarily restrictive.
Radio Roon to some signature sound would be nice when it started.