Playlists - Easy and straightforward

Roon Software Discussion
1

Hi there.
I am totally new to Roon, I have just put a NUC + Rock + 1 TB SSD internal storage into operation. I am coming from a Sonos system feeding my stereo hifi system (and don’t want or need multi-room). I chose Roon firstly due to improvement in sound quality, secondly because of the enhanced database functionality.
Here is my problems: (1) Playlists seem to me to function very strangely and (2) Why are Folders not available?

Playlists: like in Sonos I just want to be able to create playlists and then play them in any order I like without any changes or re-ordering. E.g. if I have a playlist with 10 songs, I simply want to be able to play # 1 then perhaps # 6 and then # 2 - if I don’t tab or click any other song after that, then my playlist should continue the sequence from # 2 all the way to # 10 and then it should stop.
If I try to do this using my iPhone or (Android-) tablet, Roon changes the playlist queue! Why? If I choose # 6 then Roon transfers it to the end-of-the queue and breaks the sequence. From a listening point of view, Roon destroys my Playlist - yes I know it is saved in its original shape/sequence, but it is of no use if you cannot keep the sequence while listening. This is awfully annoying and almost makes Roon unusable to me.
Can it really be true that you cannot keep your playlist or queue if you just want to jump around a bit?
All other music players I have tried (like Clementine, Amarok, iphone music player, car stereo, etc etc) works in a “normal” and predictable way - keeping the sequence of songs while letting you jump around as you like.

Folders: when creating playlists it is much easier and a LOT faster for me to use folders, than to search Roon for this album or that.
Of course Clementine and Amarok are PC based and thus it is easy to use folders. But even Sonos allows you to go to your Library and scroll down to Folders and then continue from there.
This is especially true for compilations: if I can just go to the compilation folder and choose the files I want freely. I bought a test album from AiX Records with TRUE Hi-Res music (i.e. music recorded digitally in the studio on fully professional digital equipment with final consumer version in 96 kHz 24 bit) and Roon doesn’t know it and thus I cannot find the songs easily. But using folders…

2

I’m also new to Roon and haven’t explored playlists much, so can’t speak to your question about those. However, I think that tags and “focus” can help with your missing of folders. For example, you could go to Tracks, and then use Focus to select all Performers matching “various artists” — which is one way to get at compilations, for example. Save that view as a bookmark and you can refer to it any time, and or set tags on those tracks/albums to organize them further.

You’re right, as far as I know, that you can’t call on an existing file folder structure for organization, which may be what you’re really looking for. And this does take some setup initially, but using focus is quick and pretty effective! Maybe worth a try in your case.

3

Not to be a nag, but these two subjects have been discussed ad infinitum. If you do some searching in this forum you’ll find a plethora of posts discussing the pros and cons of these two issues.

FYI, the Roonies have said they will never incorporate folder views. It’s against their core philosophy. Also, I believe they’re working on improvements to playlists. At lease they’ve requested input concerning our preferences for playlist functionality.