I’ve just started a free trial with Roon. A large part of my music library is my own recordings from the radio. They are well organised on my computer (Mac), but appear as a mess in Roon, because most are not tagged. I could tag each file individually using Rogue Amoeba’s Fission, but that would probably take considerable time (months, at least), as there are several thousand individual files. Is there a way to batch edit files to add relevant metadata?
I also have several thousand CDs, the majority of which have not been ripped, and I have a similar question about the easiest way to rip these and to include relevant metadata. I know it will require some effort, but I don’t want to spend considerable time tagging individual music files, if I can avoid it!
A few options:
Get an old Bluesound Vault.
Get and old office computer and install Vortexbox (go Google!)
Get an Innuos Zen of some kind.
All of these will rip, tag and eject the disc and will be ready for next CD
Or simply use your desktop computer and EZ CD Audio Converter or similar software, but this will require some manual efforts.
Regarding your own recordings, only option is to tag them. They will never be “identified” by Roon and as such will bear no connections to other artists/albums/credited, but they can be displayed decently enough though.
EZ CD will assist with that also, in a user friendly manner…
Thanks Mikael. I’m trying to understand how high the mountain is, before I commit to climb it! The options you mention look interesting, and I will follow up.
There are loads of ripping software packages out there. The one that gets the best press I’d dBPowerAmp , I admit I haven’t used it.
I was using JRiver when I ripped my albums and that did a great job.
One software for tagging you should look at is SongKong , this will identify an album from track timings etc and do a lookup in the MusicBrainz and Discogs databases. There is usually a Roon offer in the Sales sect of the forum.
Unfortunately there is little alternative to manual ripping without resorting to 3rd party services
Your “manual” recordings will be a lost cause to Roon as it will try to identify an album and likely fail
The answer is the mountain is high but the view from the top is startling
One off the wall suggestion:
Pack all your CDs in a box and stick em in the attic ( in a logical order)
Get a subscription to Tidal or Qobuz
Use streaming as your primary source
Rip actual CDs when the specific album doesn’t show in your streaming service
Will save an enormous amount of effort ripping and tagging and you get straight on with fun bit - listening
For CD ripping dBpoweramp is well regarded. Works well on a Mac (you will get lots of PC-only suggestions anywhere you ask) and like most ripping software will add metadata, but it is worth checking that the CD has been properly identified within the programme before hitting rip (occasionally it goes awry).
A good tagging software that utilizes AcoustID should be able to recognize your recorded music and get the tags for it. If it can’t match it exactly, it will at least return a list of possible matches that you can choose from. I find Yate to be the best tagging software for Mac and it does integrate with AcoustID. You can also use this on your ripped albums.
Hi David
Can I humbly suggest you try SongKong on your tracks that are already ripped. Unlike most other taggers you can run over your whole music collection in one go using the Fix Songs task and you will get both a barchart showing how many songs have been identitified, and can then browse all the metadata added. SongKong uses Acoustid and/or metadata to find a match.
All this can be done in preview mode without any purchase necessary, then you can consider whether it would be worth purchasing a license.
