Roon's source of metadata is deeply error-prone

It’s not a Support issue. I’ve opened a feature request thread regarding default preference as per my post above. The devs have said they are working on an improved error reporting system for metadata.

The ROON metadata issue and my huge time investments in editing the metadata of my library of about 96.442 titles in about 6.698 albums with about 19.164 artists (according the counting done by Logitech Media Server (LMS), most FLAC files) is another reason why I continue to use LMS besides ROON.

I’ve got a load to say on this subject, but will keep it simple. To those like me with big classical sets (I own all the sets mentioned above), do not be disheartened! Rovi catches up as quickly as it can, and when the metadata is there, it’s fantastic. Here are some boxes with full metadata - with recording dates:

Richter in Prague (15 CDs)
Perahia 40 Years (68 CDs)
Brendel Complete Vox, Turnabout (35 CDs)
Westminster Legacy (2x 20 CDs)
Lili Kraus complete Parlophone etc (31 CDs)
Richter Complete Sony (18 CDs)
Horowitz Complete Unreleased Live recordings (50 CDs)

That’s already a lot of important big boxes covered.

The original 80 CD Rubinstein box is also all in Rovi (apart from one disc) as single discs. If you have trouble with this box please PM me and I can explain how to deal with it. The new c150CD Rubinstein box is also all in Rovi, I believe (as one big multi-disc album) - as far as I can tell from the 3 CDs I have from it.

Not yet in Rovi:
Brendel complete Philips
Quartetto Italiano Philips
Stephen Kovacevich
Horowitz Live at Carnegie Hall
Richter 100th Anniversary Melodiya

That’s a pretty good roll-call of important boxes, and more than half are in Rovi. Those that aren’t are for the most part only weeks old.

(And yes, most of the above boxes are awesome!)

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I have the complete Glenn Gould (77 albums) from Qobuz, as well, and Roon handled it just fine? i.e., presents it as a collection, with links to all 77 discs.

To those having difficulties with Roon’s tagging (and no, it’s not perfect) I’d suggest first checking whether you have files organised in a manner to maximize Roon’s ability to correctly detect and classify your albums, it’s covered in FAQ.

Regarding metadata sources I’d suggest that both musicbrainz and discogs metadata is pretty meticulously groomed and thus make for decent metadata sources. I believe musicbrainz is leveraged by Roon, not sure about discogs.

I’m afraid I have to differ there, for classical at least. Musicbrainz often adds the composer to “album artist” which is the main cause of people finding that Bach (who died in 1750) was a recording artist… And that’s just the beginning of the problems. Musicbrainz is a band-aid, and a poor one at that, when it comes to classical metadata.

When Rovi has full metadata, it’s the best that can currently be sourced.

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That’s great. @hdls, can you start a thread in Support-Metadata Issues about this box, and then @jhwalker can maybe help you out with getting the box set recognised in Roon?

Do you mean http://www.allmusic.com/album/release/franz-schubert-the-complete-songs-mr0002057126 ?

If so it appears to be in Rovi and Roon should be able to identify it. If you continue to have problems, I suggest you open a ticket for that album in Support-Metadata Problems.

I’m pretty much a philistine where understanding of classical music is concerned… I have a reasonable collection and listen to it but I’ve not thus far developed my preferences to the point that I know music by composer or focus on specific works/ movements… I still think by performer/ artist and instrument e.g. when in the mood for violin I think Mutter, Perlman and album etc. rather than composer or work. So, if there are tagging issues with classical I’m mostly oblivious.

Your example of musicbrainz putting composer into artist is easily circumvented through some actions in tagging logic. I agree Rovinis great when it’s complete, but I find they’re increasingly lagging new releases and in many cases their metadata tends to be incomplete e.g. no composer and in some instances not even a track listing. Rovi has also become variable iro capitalization, something musicbrainz and discogs have been consistent with.

True, me too, but it’s still “unrecognized” (i.e. lots of Roon-enhanced metadata not present) - is yours recognized ? (in which case I would need to dig deeper)

Will do over the weekend if still not recognized

http://www.allmusic.com/album/release/franz-schubert-the-complete-songs-mr0002057126 yes this one

I have the fysical discs; better price sometimes offered vs download.

As well as improvements to classical, I think the guys also find handling box sets is in need of some improvement. In the meantime, I handle them in two ways currently.

Sharing below just to put some examples up for anyone that hasn’t settled on their own methods yet.

  1. Each album in a set is separate in its own sub-folder. Some get the individual album release ID and I force them back to prefer local meta. Others stay as local meta only as they don’t get an ID.
    See the 70+ CD set of Toscanini here. I could group them all under a single cover but chose not to just now.

  2. Each album is tagged and saved with Disc number and resides** in the same sub-folder**. This gives a single cover and many discs
    See Karajan set here. It is not ID’d becuase some discs are missing. e.g. disc 34

This set mildly frustrates me as I must have previously mis-ID’d some of the discs here as they are currently MIA. Probably when I imported into Sooloos a few years ago. They got exported from Sooloos ready for Roon and I wouldn’t have spotted where they went. i.e. which album release. That isn’t a Roon issue as such…more a legacy issue of previous systems and my lack of attention to detail.

I know that some improvements to “Find Missing Tracks” are coming. I will use that when it is released to see if it helps locate the MIA discs.

What program did you use for ripping your collection Dan.
I think If roon took the best ideas from ripping software and gave you a prompt from each album it scanned it could then notify you of variations in each particular album, single or box set and then give you a list to pick from with all the titles and artwork variations.
Then it could give you the option to reject if you were not happy with the result and allow you to upload what you think it should be.
This way their own meta info would grow and be more accurate.
It is long winded but the could allow the data you upload for your use then varify it later. They could post these uploads for roon community to verify.
This is long winded although if roon allowed you an edit or rescan file for later option this would speed up the process and at the same roon would be building a formidable vast continous up to date library

One part off your reply got me thinking. Ripping software, tagging…

What if roon would offer a seperate tagging software (not ripping software) to use with specifically roon core? I am not talking about organized folders.

In this way all fields roon uses to populate the roon core could be better organized by the user. It would also highlight a lot of tagging mistakes that are currently in the libraries of the users.

Now everybody uses different taggers, metadata providers and we are all “surprised” about errors, but when you look at the proces there are so many variables outside of the control of roon that errors are inevitable.

By offering own tagging software you would have more control over the roon eco system.

Even if Roon offered tagging software, people could still tag in ridiculous ways. It wouldn’t necessarily remove the aspect of user error.

Better that Roon provides more tag support (integrated with their rich metadata offering from Rovi etc), and clear guidelines how to tap into it.

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[quote=“Gary_Francis, post:55, topic:8584”]
I think If roon took the best ideas from ripping software and gave you a prompt from each album it scanned it could then notify you of variations in each particular album, single or box set and then give you a list to pick from with all the titles and artwork variations.Then it could give you the option to reject if you were not happy with the result and allow you to upload what you think it should be.
[/quote]if this was a default behavior in Roon’s tagging model I’d abandon it immediately. No way I want to vet every album in my collection up front…I’d far rather deal with exceptions only and then deal with anomalies when I encounter them. Roon already does what you suggest, but only if you go and manually identify the album … It’ll show all the versions of an album in the metadata so you can pick the correct one.

True, but it still gives more control and regarding weird tagging you could build in error checks etc…

Such tagging software (:bulb:roontagger, so naming is done :grinning:) would only use the same metadata providers as roon does now. So you would immediately see that you are dealing with an album that is not in Rovi (yet).

I also believe more in fixing the source (tags) i.o. glossing over afterwards. This makes it all more robust.

@Ludwig & @jhwalker sorry guys gave you wrong info - the complete Columbia works of Glenn Gould are indeed fully recognized now (6 months after the release…). So I am prone to think mentioning it on this forum over the winter did have a positive effect !

Nice idea, but the big problem is that the metadata which Roon gets from Rovi is more extensive than would ever fit into tags. It would need custom sidecar files, and then what’s the point, if no-one but Roon can read them?

I do agree with you though, that in cases where an album is not (and will never be) in Rovi, we need much more extensive File Tag support. I totally buy Roon’s model, concentrating on rich Rovi metadata and the interlinking it provides, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t also need extensive File Tag support for those albums which require it.