Roon-similar for tracking vinyl?

I want to track my extensive vinyl collection and use metadata similar to that in Roon (some vinyl overlapping and some distinct from my digital collection). Any ideas on best tools to accomplish this?

If I understand your question, there is a group of programs called CollectorZ, one of which is called Music Collector (I use it and the Movie Collector). I use the Music Collector to catalog my LPs and my SACDs. It seems to pull its LP metadata from Discogs; not sure where the SACD data comes from.

The nice thing about the programs is that there are iOS and Android equivalents which can be sync’d with the computer version. I’ve installed that on my phone so when I’m at Amoeba Records, I don’t buy what I already have.

Oh, the programs are for both Windows and Mac.

@Bob_Clarke Hi Bob, please would you elaborate on what you are trying to achieve here? I’d like to understand the use case.

@mike

Using discogs is a good start, and it gives you plenty of options for custom fields and export

I view Roon as a tightly integrated music catalog manager/player. I currently have 2300+ albums–mostly classical–in my Roon system. Not large by some viewpoints, but more than enough music for me (and, of course, being added to all the time). But, Roon only catalogs those albums it can play; which means a computer file that Roon can access.

I have close to 700 LPs, and over 100 SACDs, neither of which are computer files (started a project once to digitize my LPs, gave it up quickly as the process was laborious and didn’t answer the Metadata ‘problem’–all that data had to be entered by hand with the programs that existed at the time).

After the 5th time of buying an LP I already had–no catalog of the LPs–I started looking around for a program that would approximate Roon, but for LPs (and it obviously didn’t need to ‘play’ the LPs). I finally found the Music Collector, part of the CollectorZ family. I was only a few days into my trial and bought it.

It, also obviously, is not as automatic in cataloging an LP, but allows a few different ways of identifying an LP. It then collects Metadata (Discogs for starters; and, like Roon, its own database maintained by the company) and create an entry complete with cover art. All the data can be accepted as is, or modified/augmented as desired.

(It also can handle CDs, and play them but only on the computer the program is installed on. For CDs, the search can be done by Barcode and they have a nifty smartphone app that can read the Barcode and lode that into the main program; a feature I only use for movies as CDs are ripped to FLAC and loaded into Roon.)

As mentioned, there are iOS and Android versions of the program; so, I’ve loaded my iPhone with the program and keep it synced with my main database. When I’m out browsing LP bins at Amoeba Records here in SF, I can quickly determine if I already have a particular album.

I, personally, think it’s the best of both worlds, I can sit in my listening chair, browse Roon on my iPad and play an album (through a PS Audio Direct Stream DAC with Bridge II card), or browse through my LP collection (of course, have to get up and physically find the album on the selves (really need to organize them in some manner other than classical, jazz, pop)).

That’s my use case. There are probably other programs other than Music Collector, but it’s the 1 I found and use. I took Bob Clarke’s question to mean something similar.

Thanks to all for your comments. Bob Brina described my use case exactly. I think I’ll follow him with Music Collector.

Bob C

Meant Bob Brinza

Interesting discussion.

Back in the day, I used MyMovies with Windows Media Center, and it had the very useful capability of being able to include in its library management both ripped DVDs/BluRays and what might be described as “offline” physical media (e.g. VHS tapes that had not been ripped).

This sounds like something similar, and is probably worthy of being entered as a feature request in the Feature Request category.

(I also use the Book Collector program, from the CollectorZ suite to catalogue my library)

That’s a lot of books. Takes courage to make your library available online. Don’t know if I’d want everyone to know about my complete Gor series. Oops.

I thought that MusicBrainz had the capability to create collections and had the ability to take photos of barcodes from phones. I think I tried this once or twice.

That was probably 5 reformat and reinstallations ago on my main PC. I haven’t played with MusicBrainz for a while now.

To amplify my original question (that is being well-discussed here)…

My original use case is to have an app that I can have on my phone both to know what vinyl I have and to ideally be able to take advantage of Roon-like metadata for my extensive (3000+ LPs). Most of mine are pre-1980s so have no barcodes. I would like to be able to enter by lp # such as lsc-2912, with a list of choices popping up that I can click on the version I have.

The second, better, use case would combine an ability to access a list of my digital files in Room now w/ vinyl tracking capabilities above to give me a complete view of my collection on my phone. That would keep me from buying duplicates and give me confidence when I see a potential purchase of what formats I don’t (or do) already own it in.

It’s fun just thinking of the possibilities.

Not exhaustive, but I tried Music Collector and didn’t like it because it couldn’t search on catalogue numbers. Discogs can.

The current release of Music Collector can search based on Album Title/Artist, Bar Code, or catalog number (and, I’ve discovered, CD id retrieved from the disc).

My only complaint is that you have to be fairly exact with search terms. I’ve got no match, gone to Discogs and discovered a ‘-’ or ’ ’ in the catalog number, for example, that when supplied in Music Collector gets a ‘hit’. And sometimes, the cover art isn’t retrieved, yet is present as Discogs.

It now can also scan a disc folder for music files and catalog them if it gets a hit. Haven’t done this. All the programs are pretty much the same, and did use this option for my movies that I ripped for Plex. Movie Collector found them, so movies are either in location Plex (as a File in Edition) or some album for my Blu-rays/SACDs.

I’m tempted to try this with my FLAC files so that I have a catalog with both Roon and LPs/SACDs. However, I’ve never followed a ‘plan’ when it comes to my FLAC files, other than to have a folder in which the music goes. That folder can be artist, or Title, or, ala iTunes, a Various Artists folder on Compilation folder which then has individual albums (or box sets).

This is probably what I was thinking of: https://musicbrainz.org/doc/MusicBrainz_for_Android

So it can! Many apologies.

Brian

Really “back in the day” old dudes like me used index cards and a file drawer to meticulously catalog our collections (mine is a few thousand LPs). I would indicate whether the lyrics were on the album sleeve, whether there were extra items included inside the album cover and things like that.

No computers at the time of course for personal use. I still have all those cards but no way to import that data in to any program without retyping). The suggestions about Music Collector software I will have to try, as none of my vinyl is listed anywhere in JRiver, Roon or otherwise. I had hoped to find one propgram to list everything (digital and vinyl) but alas it appears not to be.

I’m still a user and huge fan of Catraxx for cataloging physical and digital releases. The creator stopped development on it due to illness, but there are still a couple of fan community sites for it. Great software.