So I did a search for Jack Bruce. The type ahead prompt provided Jack Bruce so I selected that. Top Result was not Jack Bruce. It was Bruce Springsteen. Why would Roon select Springsteen as the top result when it provided the exact text of Jack Bruce in the type ahead for my search? It’s unexpected results like this that make people question the quality of the search function.
7 Likes
All the right words, but not necessarily in the right order. 
1 Like
No hits on the first screen…
(Nothing under “Artists” either, 50-ish irrelevant artists are shown)
… but he’s there,
… so it’s not like there were no good hits.
1 Like
Just to build on this last example, when I capitalized the name for Mike MacArthur, my “Top Result” and “Artists” didn’t land on him, but the two albums popped up:
1 Like
It would be helpful to not only get the top hit as what one is actually looking for (esp if entered correctly and listing present), but also if all the ‘More’ listings were alphabetized.
1 Like
Not sure about that, I would rather the “more” listings were ordered by the closeness to the search terms. For example, this search for “Beethoven Yo-Yo Ma Emanuel Ax” features results that don’t include Beethoven, and results that don’t include Emanuel Ax, before results that contain all three.
By contrast, Qobuz does it much better from my point of view, and as a bonus puts their latest release (which as it happens is what I was looking for) at the top rather than the bottom.
3 Likes
Yes, I was actually going to amend my post saying it should alphabetize or otherwise prioritize the closest terms first and then put anything after that doesn’t fit the exact search terms. Probably best to even split those off into more of a search ‘recommendations’ column or section.
2 Likes
Given that many searches are done on devices with autocorrect, I don’t know that case sensitive searches are important.
If a search is done with a ‘verbatim’ modifier, it would make sense, but, maybe not as a standard part of search.
Another example, Lyder Øvreås Røed suddenly spelled “Lyder Ovreas Roed”… But at least that was the first returned hit.
Here’s the Qobuz search result, with the name spelled correctly:
2 Likes
so here is another example of Roon search failing big time.
806 - simple search for “Attila Ghiaurov”
all except one result are wrong - the others do not have Ghiaurov in them (checked credits)
This is what I get when I use focus in my library - I have 4 recordings of Attila with Ghiaurov.
This just to show that I actually have them in my library and that Roon can find them when using Focus and not Search.
I personally believe that it got worse with 806 - even though I was told that it is not possible.
But I simply do not remember it being this bad before.
This example hopefully shows how difficult it is to find music in a library.
Dear software developers - please actually use a library with files of classical / opera music locally combined with streaming to find out why this is happening and hopefully fixing it.
The problem seems to be: same album title - different artists.
Somehow this is something Roon does not like.
4 Likes
+1
Is it worth asking how many of the Roon search team have a real understanding of classical music and empathy with its users? Can the classical music users connect with them in a focussed and mutually beneficial way? Is it even worth having a separate “Roon classical search sucks” thread? (though being refined classical music lovers we are far too polite to say “sucks”)*.
*until it sucks
6 Likes
We can tell you that it is not useful (at the moment) to have another thread on the subject of classical specific search.
Getting examples helps our team test new algorithms against known existing issues, adding more topics/threads only serves as a means to get important data lost. This topic is a good place to give those examples.
You provide examples of failures, and then you wait until it improves. You can wait while using Roon as it is, or you can not renew until you see it’s working better.
I think numbers and these marks:
‘“,?/!-:;()$&.[]{}*+=><~_|
could be messing up part of the new algorithm.
There is no new algorithm. Search + search results has zero new changes.
Build 806 only changed what happens BEFORE you hit enter.
Anyway, instead of speculating, give examples of what you searched for, and what you expected, and if it appears in the lists, where it is now. Explain WHY it should be there and earlier in the results.
This is by far the most important and useful thing you can do. Everything else will most likely be ignored as noise.
1 Like
Just stumbled across another good example:
Search: “Elektra Gwyneth Jones”
Roon gives me 0! correct results - telling me I have not got an album of Elektra with Gwyneth Jones.
Since I know I have actually got these recordings, I used Focus and voila - I actually have 5!!! albums of Elektra with Gwyneth Jones
Yes if I search “Kind of Blue Davis” I get the correct results - even in the search bar. But that is easy. I strangely even get the correct album if I search for “Kind of Blue Evans” Evans being the pianist on this album, even that is found.
Maybe this is why there are not more complaints at the moment - in some scenarios it works.
But in others it does not.
Question remains - are these examples helpful and more would actually make a difference?
2 Likes
Here’s an example
A search for “Der fliegende Holländer”
I have 3 recordings of Der fliegende Holländer in my library. Plus another couple that have some arias from it within.
The Lee Morgan Sidewinder in the results is particularly funny.
It seems the search is just using “Der” and ignoring the rest of the search terms.
A search for “The Flying Dutchman”
2 Likes
When I search for “Der Fliegende Hollander” I get this. (Not a single direct hit).
The next few screens are similarly only indirectly (IMO) related to the search I entered. But then I get a whole load of hits.
What seems to me to be happening is that results from my own library which are weak matches are being presented before direct hits (from Qobuz) that aren’t in my library. The “der” syllable appears in some of the weak matches, There may be a good reason for this, but until Roon say so and explain why I will continue to expect direct hits to get offered first whether they are in my library or not.
2 Likes
Here’s another example of a search that seems to favour weak hits from my library over strong hits from Qobuz.
A search for “Mozart Perahia” returns only two out of the first 12 results that involve Mozart and Perahia. If I scroll down quite a few screensful of partial hits then I do get direct hits from outside my library which involve both Mozart and Perahia.
Again, I would expect direct hits to be offered first wherever they come from. If this expectation is unreasonable then by all means say so.
2 Likes
My results do not even show exact matches from my library in the top 20 - only matches on the word “der”
2 Likes
