As I store my music on HD with each album numbered sequentially by acquisition date, i am starting to duplicate this structure using Tags, ie one album per tag, and tagging different versions of each album with unique tag.
I have around 10000 albums, so this will eventually mean some 10000 tags, if i don’t die first.
Question is, is there a limit to the number of tags, and / or will the system slow down appreciably with so many tags?
2nd question is folder view or “view by folder order” something in the pipeline?
Ive tagged around 300 albums thus far, and its pretty laborious so of course if I can see an alternative in the pipeline then it will save me countless hours longterm, even if it is a labour of love
I’d suggest you pause before continuing your current metadata model and reflect on what information is useful to you in order to search and retrieve your music in the way that you want.
I know nothing about your collection, but a consecutive number and acquisition date would tell me very little about my own. Can you describe your collection and tell us why acquisition date has such prominence for you ?
If Roon is able to identify music then most people find the Focus tools the easiest way to construct your own searches and filters. After you’ve created a particular filter you can save it as a bookmark and retrieve that search with a single click.
One of the first Focus tools is Added, which can be clicked on to define periods.
If you would like to use your existing acquisition date data within Roon as Date Added I would suggest the following:
If you don’t already have explicit IMPORTDATE tags then use external tag editing software (I use MP3tag) to write a little batch routine that parses your directory path and writes the acquisition date value from the path as an IMPORTDATE tag. Make sure you have a backup of your files before changing anything and test the batch process out on a selection of tracks until it’s working how you want. Then point it at all your music and let the computer do the work. Job done;
Edit Import Settings to use IMPORTDATE as Date Added and then use the Added tool to Focus on a date or range of music; bookmark the filters or ranges that you like.
I haven’t answered your questions sorry. That is because I don’t know. I suspect that 10,000 tags would make Roon slow but I know that it would make Tag management impossible.
As to folder view there is a longrunning thread in Feature Requests where this has been discussed. The devs have not announced any plans in this regard. There is a limited capacity to filter by storage location in the Focus/Inspector tool. Personally I would like to see that tool reach one directory level deeper as it would enable users with curated file structures an easier path to create tags based on their existing file structures.
Edit: In the above I assumed you had a directory structure with a date variable, but on rereading your post I see that you may just have a consecutive number. In that case you may find the file creation date a close map of acquisition date.
However, what you say about import tags may be a better solution. I dabbled with date modified tag using FOOBAR but it did not appear to change anything by changing the appropriate settings in Roon. Ill reconsider this using MP3TAG. However how can I consolidate multiple harddrives with different versions of the same albums? Eg I have HD versions and vanilla flac versions on different HDD’s.
Having messed around with file modification times/dates again for the last 3hrs (Roon’s not registering changes in these) and trying to set up a new Tag IMPORTDATE using MP3TAG which Roon will recognise, my head’s spinning. And how then to get sequential dates into the IMPORTDATE tag which will work across several hard drives?
Ill just chunk through adding a few hundred more Roon Tags. Thanks for help in any case.
We test with a reasonably high number of tags, but we don’t generally test with hundreds or thousands.
It might perform ok and if it doesn’t we might be able to look at doing better, but it’s really hard for me to make commitments here, especially if things seem to be working for 99.9% of people.
My advice would be similar to the above. Sorting your albums in the order you acquired them is already a first-class feature in Roon (Sort by Date Added), and I would recommend using the IMPORTDATE file tag mentioned here to do so.
It’s been a while since I spent lots of time editing tags, but I’m reasonably sure you can automate most of this in most tag editors. One tricky part is going to be turning your numbers into dates that Roon can sort by, but there are a few ways I can imagine doing that.
So far so good with over 300 tagged albums. No slowdown at all.
I’m going to plough on with this and will let you know if I run into issues.
I’ve tried modding the date modified tags and it just doesn’t seem to affect the Roon display. And I am selecting use date modified instead of Roon Timestamp.
As Evan said, I could write the folder path to a Tag of the files in each album, but then I can’t display the albums according to the field/tag a way round this would be to use composer tag for the name have the option for Roon to prefer file for composer in settings, and sort by composer in the sort by options in album view. I’m sure this would be useful for many punters, not just for my abstract use.
Back in my Foobar days I did use the composer tag to denote my album numbering system in fact
Ok, earlier today I tried to create a tag using MP3TAG called IMPORTDATE, as there is no IMPORTDATE tag in my files, but I have no real idea what I’m doing. It talks of Fields and such and to define criteria with the field which I don’t know what to do about. Even if I manage to creat the right combination, assumiung this is even right, how to i get the right dates into the tags is there some kind of sequential date creation software within MP3TAG to go down the files and give a different and sequential IMPORTDATE value for each file? I’m not a programmer. Im a salesman
Because some software might use that field and then it will cause issues. Roon does care and uses that field for the intended purpose, i.e. storing a composer name or names.
Hi Rugby, I am sorry, I cannot get your logic here.
Text is just text, whether it says Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus or Beethoven or My Smelly Pants, it has no meaning to the software, just to the person reading it.
The whole point of giving the subscriber the choice of preferring file content over roon content is so we can have choice over what is displayed on our screens.
Why would Roon object as a company if I use “Composer” as a way of overcoming a very real (to me) problem I am having to be able to display my music collection in the manner I am used to and desire to, when Composer is an irrelevant tag/field to me personally?
Mods and others with “Community:” titles are not Roon developers or employees. We are users like you.
So it’s not a matter of Roon the company having an objection. Daniel is pointing out that the Composer field has a particular function in Roon the software and that using it for another purpose may well have unintended consequences.
Ok, no problem. It’s still just text, and what it’s being used for is neither here nor there. No matter. It ain’t going to happen either way, so no point in arguing - ill try what you suggest in your other post about using file creation and will let you know how it goes . Cheers!
