ah yes, and therein lies the rub. I spent the better portion of the weekend WORK and PARTing my Great Pianist set (about 100 CDs). Now only 2900 albums to go! It’s a kind of low-level tedium, but you have to be attentive to the details.
I had thought, or hoped, Roon would deliver me from that task. It recognizes albums pretty well, but composition IDing needs work.
I think this is at the root of many of the problems.
There are a number of current projects underway which will, I think, eventually manifest themselves as an improved Classical experience. They may not all be released at once. Roon has said it prefers to bring projects online as they are completed.
The absence or unreliability of Classical metadata has resulted in Roon looking carefully at the possibility of user pooled metadata, but I do not know whether or when that might make it into a release.
I have a large Classical library (9,312/14,696 albums) but I’m not a natural groomer and tend to do little bits as I notice them. I find the Compositions page clumsy to use. Like many others I’d like to see Albums by Composer.
I can understand the frustration of those who are waiting for improvements to Classical, especially if your listening is mainly Classical. As a lifer who listens to a lot of non-Classical, it doesn’t affect my use of Roon. For those who are assessing annual renewal I’d suggest judging renewal on the current product. If you like and use it, notwithstanding the issues, then renew. If you find it frustrating, then let it lapse. You can always take it up again later after changes have been implemented.
I see plenty Brendel in there , did you do like I did and split the 114 to a series of individual albums , Roon can “Mostly” handle it but there are still many in that set that didn’t see the light of days originally as albums
Eg The Brahms PC’s have additional tracks compared with my original CD’s
This is one of the tricks of the Roon Trade
Mike
All the more reason to keep a Box Set as it is and not try to split off “Original Albums”. It works with some eg Glenn Gould Original Jackets etc but not with others Brendel complete Phillips
My example of Brahms PC’s in Brendel each has an extra work compared with the original CD.
If you accept a Box is a Box Roon can stand a chance but you are still up against the 200 hyperlink nightmare
I quite often split off what I can and what Roon can ID and then keep the box with ‘x’ hyperlinks despite being a duplicate (disc space is cheap someone said)
Mike
Its not uncommon to see no Composer !! or even worse the Composer in the Artist tag and the Artist in the AlbumArtist tag
I often use SongKong before I import into Roon to fix stuff up and view what I have
Mike
Hi John
Have you had a look at MusiCHI Tagger, I used it on that very box with great success
It does a free month but its only 20 Euro, it has its own comprehensive lookup of Composer and Composition and a fantastic Text Processing Tool that allows you to split off bits of tags and copy to other tags eg Movement/Part
I use it a lot
Mike
Thanks Andrew
as ever the voice of reason …
I am not likely to bin Roon , I like too much about it to do that but to sit and wait and not comments well
“Them as asks don’t get” an old Lancastrian phrase from my mum , but the rider she used was “Them as asks don’t deserve” so I’ll settle for the first half
Box Sets are No.1, the Composer album one to me is a no brainer and probably (??) a quick fix
Mike
That should be obviously "
Them as don’t ask don’t get " !!!
Checking and amending album title when you download or rip is absolutely essential if you are going to have any chance of keeping track of a classical album collection. There are so many naming conventions - even from major specialist classical music providers. The most egregious is the use of a catalogue number alone for the album title (Chandos is the most notable offender here), but you get all sorts of other variation such as artist-composer-title. My practice is to amend the album title of nearly all classical albums along the following lines Composer (composer’s initials only if needed, eg Bach J S) Major Work, Minor Work and, if needed, performer and year. The performer and/or year are not needed if I am unlikely to ever have more than one version of a particular work, but essential in many cases (eg almost everything by Beethoven and for Karajan, for example may need the year to distinguish the various versions of the symphonies).
Obviously I apply different naming conventions for compilation discs or performer based collections that may involve numerous composers.
I wonder would a “Roon Standard” help
I do eg.
Beethoven: Symphonies - Karajan 1963
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas - Brendel (Analogue)
But only if needs be. I tend to rely on having the right artwork so that the 3 DG Karajan sets look correct
Roon will find nearly every box set collection, if when you download or rip, you make sure that firstly you ensure that all albums in the box set have the same album title and, secondly, that the disc numbers are correct in the metadata. On odd occasions, where a box set has been reissued (typically on fewer CDs), you may have to do some reallocation of tracks in Roon to get a match - this can be a bit cumbersome.
If you are referring to my screenshot, I only have what you see…around 5. No box set.
Most metadata editing within Roon is clumsy to use.
Yeh, then it typically identifies the box set sans any composer and performer metadata and each disc is simply numbered as opposed to having an album name, and right there Roon’s value proposition to navigate and explore your collection falls flat. I get that Roon’s metadata sources don’t have the data either, but there’s a conversation to be had with the upstream provider about improving how they leverage existing metadata into box sets and if discsubtitle were supported Roon could use it (when present, and I’d be surprised if users were not prepared to populate that into tags to find their box sets enriched) to find the individual matching album and apply the metadata.
I edited all metadata of my classical box sets with Jriver. I did that already many years ago.
For manual editing there is nothing really better than JRiver.
Classical Box sets need manual editing. There is no way around that.
You need to create your own rules and follow through.
Linking the Editing and Import Settings KB pages to make sure everyone knows about the Prefer File Tags options and what they can do.
I can understand people using the Album file field to include information relevant to them, but unless Prefer File Tags is implemented for that field in Import Settings then Roon will prefer it’s own Album name metadata upon identification. The goal here is to permit users to specify what fields they want Roon to populate and what fields they want to prefer their own metadata.
Maybe instead of “moaning” we put a concerted view forward that can guide the Devs to think our way
I am not sure how we do that but my 2 penneth for box sets
Add additional Tags , even though the metadata is not available automatically at least the tags exist to be populated and Roon knows about them
Box Set (Name)
Disc (Name)
Disc Volume ( for multi Volume sets like the Beethoven Edition)
Disc # (is already there)
Individual Folder Image ( real wish list stuff)
in such a way that these can be edited externally .
That would allow the Album Name to remain as “Alfred Brendel: The Complete Phillips Recordings” for lookup purposes where each disc could be identified eg CD001 - Bach Italian Concerto etc
On the main menu (hamburger) define Box Sets as a seperate entity leading to a screen a bit like a subset of the album view showing each CD in the box as a pseudo album
On a box set screen , provide
a dropdown that shows [Disc #] - [Disc Name] eg CD1 - Piano Sonatas Op.2 etc
A Filter to filter down by key words eg “Sonata” a bit like the Album View
That should allow a reasonable search
I make no apologies for “copying” what I have been using for years in JRiver with Custom Tags.
Anyone like to agree/critique modify , feel free
@joel , any thoughts ?
Mike
14 696 classical albums!
That is unfathomable - I thought I had a large collection with 575 FLAC and DSD albums.
I am awestruck 
Unfathomable & awestruck … I know those feelings! And not just for Andy’s classical album count. I get them when I read about a music system that cost as much as my condo or an $18,000 DAC that really opens up when you add the $7,500 power cord. The universe of Roon users may be small but it certainly is diverse
I’ve only been using Roon for about 3 months. I had about 80 CDs which I ripped to FLAC, I bought 5-10 HiRez downloads and then signed up for Tidal and have added almost 300 albums to date. I’ve setup two Pi based endpoints ( DragonFly Black and HifiBerry Digi+ Pro ) and two using ChromeCast Audio pucks connected to an AV Receiver and a soundbar. I can listen to my music everywhere I want to, I’m happy with the sound and I am really enjoying trying out new music.
Not sure I’ll ever become a true audiophile with a really high end system since I just retired and have so many demands on my money but with Roon and an affiliated streaming service I can listed to anything I want at home and hopefully will be able to take my music on the road in the not too distant future.
Back to listening to Miles Davis … Tim
Yeah - I’ve used a raspberry Pi in the living room. Serves an old Halide HD dac and a pair of almost knackered AKG 702s. Works well enough.
Gave up on Tidal and shifted to Qobuz. Much happier with that, but it does mean I lose the Roon interface.
Anyway - will also retire next year. I’m sure I can spend more time tinkering with basic kit to get the most out of it without buying a new house (they are very expensive in the UK!).