I often collect DJ “mixes”. The MP3 files are named obviously, but mostly don’t carry embedded metadata. I want to be able to import a folder of such files into Roon and save them in (or have them form) a Playlist.
Before using Roon I used iTunes and this was a trivial process: you would drag a folder containing the files onto the “New Playlist” icon and it would form a new Playlist of those files (or you could create a new Playlist and drag the file contents of a folder into that Playlist en masse). This was good enough for me, and with just the name of the file in the Playlist I’m perfectly happy.
When I started using Roon I obviously migrated my iTunes library to Roon, and all my Playlists of such files came across, which is great. I have subsequently got rid of my iTunes library as it isn’t used or maintained any more - Roon is better on most accounts.
But how do I achieve the same goal using Roon alone, that of importing a folder of files (untagged MP3s) as a Playlist? Some of these files I have made myself from recording Twitch streams, so they can be up to 7 hours long and in no way are easily taggable, and neither do I want to have to use another piece of software to tag them first. I just want them to be in a Roon Playlist, which I can search for, and start playing.
I don’t want to have to import files individually into Roon and add them manually one-by-one into a Playlist - that would take too long for the quantity I have.
I apologise if this question has been asked elsewhere but it is a legitimate question and concern for a piece of software as capable (and expensive) as Roon.
That is bad for Roon. Roon’s music recognition is based on releases (a.k.a.albums). Single tracks may therefore end-up all over the place as single track albums.
Why are they not easily taggable? Just add the same album artist and album title tag to all of them, that’s possibly enough. I at least would try that, but don’t know if it is enough for Roon. Try it out and report back your findings.
Then forget about playlists at all. Use a folder basedbookmark or tag them all as part of the same album instead (the tracks of an album already form sort of a playlist).
I think Roon recognises m3u playlists (I had a whole bunch of albums with this file I had to delete), so create a playlist file for each folder and Roon should import them.
If they are all in the same location, then you can go to the Tracks screen, add Path as one of the filtering options. Filter to get the path will all the tracks. Select All. Add to Playlist.
Album artist = “Various Artists”, Album title = “My recordings from Twitch” for all the mp3 files. Many tagging software is capable of doing that in a single batch.
Note: Roon’s track limit per unique album is 250 IIRC.
Something you don’t seem to care about or you would have split the single recordings into tracks and tagged them meticulously to satisfy any possible OCD, creating an individual album for each hours long recording. I don’t see what Roon could do about this at all otherwise.
Thank you for not reporting back your findings or is it already enough for Roon if they are all in the same folder?
Does not exactly match the track list of the directory the M3U is stored in – if you have a playlist stored in a folder with an album, and that playlist is simply a listing of the album’s tracks, it will be skipped
