Seeing different local versions of same track

Roon Software Discussion
1

I posted this on a Roon users group on Facebook, contributors have to some extent confirmed I am correct, please read below, my question (here) is that one contributor on Facebook said this would be addressed by Roon in an update, can you tell me when? without this feature I may not renew my annual subscription in April, it is an essential feature for me. (I was considering buying a lifetime subscription too). Read on to understand the feature I miss since 1.8

I use Roon to stream my library of around 1500 Cds (or hi res downloads) stored on a NAS and indexed and streamed by Roon Core on Windows. I have multiple copies of many songs, e.g. have a CD rip, an MP3, and maybe a Hi Res copy of the same album, or tracks may have been remixed / re issued, or a song appears on a compilation album in addition to its original release. I do not use Roon for streaming from cloud services, such as Tidal, and I have no desire to. I pay for Roon as a solution for making sense of my own music collection, and it has been excellent at that,

Earlier versions of Roon had an icon I could click which would show me the different versions I had, it also told me the file format/resolution and I could select one (usually the highest resolution one) as my primary copy. That feature has gone! please see pics

First pic shows the icon that tells you that you have multiple copies, since 1.8 it seems a blend of local copies and copies on internet.

Second pic shows me what I see (on Windows) when I click that icon. This is where I recall being able to see all my versions and their file formats/resolutions and being able to set the primary copy

Just now I used the focus feature to find all my hi res audio and saved a bookmark to those, then manually went there to play the hi res copy, and Pic 3 shows the result. Although I can see that this is indeed my hi res copy, I can no longer see that there are others, nor can I set this as primary

On the Facebook users group, I was adviced to use the “versions” feature but the “versions” click through is not displaying on the screen location I was advised to find it, This is the 4th pic uploaded

This was such a cool feature and without it I am lost, unable to know one version from another other than setting up different Focus bookmarks to find just hi res files, or just MP3s or whatever.

Can this feature please be re-enstated, if not is there a work around I could be introduced to (perhaps the mentioned versions feature which I can’t find)

Thanks

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2

Edit, the photos seem to have uploaded in the wrong order, I am sure you can still make sense of the questions however

3

Hello @Guy_Gampell2 and welcome to the forum.

This album is unidentified. Click the encircled 3-dots choose Edit and try to identify it. This might help.

A description of the version feature is linked below. If you have versions, this is where you usually can define the primary version:

This identified version shows a playtime of 3hr 19min as versus to the 39 minutes from the unidentified album above. Roon will not consider this as a versions of the same album because of this discrepancy.

Is the 3hr 19min correct?

4

None of my albums show the “versions” feature, none at all that I have found, and clicking the encircled 3 dots and offers Share, Export, Edit, Add to Playlist and Add to Tag. I can;t see anything about “identifying”.

I tried another track (Pet Sounds, 4 different copies, and these days no idea which is which.

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This feature of seeing all my versions and their file formats, worked perfectly pre 1.8A

Why has it been removed (from under the stacked CD icon) even if that icon now lists also cloud based copies on streaming services (none of which I use) it would still be interesting to know the file formats and resolutions of the different copies and Roon used to do that didn’t it? At least for local copies which are the ones I care about

5

As I wrote above, choose Edit. You are also welcome to click on links (blue text) that might provide additional information.

I don’t know what you are writing about. The stacked CD icon (it had a slightly different look in 1.7) directs you to the composition page for that track which list all known performances of that composition. This does not work for performances that Roon could not match to a/the composition (missing metadata) - very likely for unidentified albums. As I see this, it works same now with 1.8 as before in 1.7.

Roon used to do that didn’t it?

Not that I’m aware of.

6

On the Roon Users Facebook group I managed to find a user still on 1.7, he took a screenshot of precisely the feature I am talking about. Please see attached. This screen is accessed by clicking on the little “CD stack” icon where you have multiple versions of a track, as well as listing the other albums where that song is found importantly it tells you the file format and audio resolution of each version there and then. This is indeed the feature that has been removed, so for sure Roon used to do it.

Since writing about this, I have had help both here and in the Facebook Roon users, and I have found a workaround which is to manually group multiple versions of an album together, once done the “Versions” icon appears in the top view of an album. This does what I miss, but in 1.7 there was no need to manually group together the different copies of the same album, Roon was able to find them itself. It still does, but it no longer shows the audio fileformat and resolution.

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7

I agree that finding duplicates that are different bitrates, etc. has become suddenly quite awkward in 1.8.
I run 1.7 and 1.8 in parallel via Dockers and can easily see the differences between the two - and 100% the above is correct and shows another item that needs to come into 1.8.

Kev.

8

That feature is still there in 1.8. See this screen shot.

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9

Yes, but it doesn’t pick up all versions in 1.8:

1.7:

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1.7 shows all 3 versions. The version count, while small, was useful.

1.8:

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I don’t see any others. The one showing is the same one.
This is despite all being identified.

The same database was also imported from 1.7 to 1.8 to ensure consistency.

Bug?

Kev.

10

on 1.8 you have clicked “versions” to create the screen shot, and it only shows the different versions if you have manually group them together. A laborious process if you have as many albums as I do.

on 1.7 I never manually grouped them together ( I didn’t even know you could), the little CD stack icon just lit up telling me how many versions I had, and I could click that, see all the versions and see their file format and resolution.

In 1.8 the CD stack icon now seems to find versions by other artists and no longer works the way I relied on.

11

No I have not clicked on versions to create this screen shot, it is there when I go to an Album where there are different versions in my library.

No whilst I have had to manually group a few different versions most of them have been grouped automatically.

On 1.7 I also had to group a some of them manually, but most pf them were done automatically.

The CD stack icon always found different versions of a composition by many artists and not just different versions of exactly the same track by the same artist. The difference from before is that it used to have two numbers by it one for the different versions in your own library and the other for all the different versions that can be found on Tidal. Now it brings them all up and you have to use the library icon (by focus) to see what is in your library.

However there are several people reporting things similar to what you are finding with versions that were grouped in 1.7 not being grouped in 1.8. I suspect there have been some changes in the code here that have impacted this. Why it seems all your versions are now ungrouped and mine are not I do not know. Suggest you move this report to the support area of the forum as that is the section that Roon monitors to track this sort of thing.

12

My biggest gripes about 1.8 is selecting an artist. When I select an artist to listen to, I WANT TO HEAR THE MUSIC FROM MY LIBRARY!!! Yet the software goes to Qobuz instead. I get so mad at this operation that it not only makes me want to quit Qobuz, but Roon altogether!!! And I’m a lifetimer!!!

In the far away future, CD and Downloads may disappear and streaming may be all we have …but for today….I WANT TO HEAR MY LIBRARY!!!

13

the main point is that as my screen shot showed above in roon 1.7 when clicking the CD icon and viewing other versions the audio file format was included (and resolution) , so right there and then you see everything you needed to know and select primary version, where as in Roon 1.8 if you clicked on the CD stack icon (now replaced with a little stack of books icon, you see the other versions but to NOT see their file formats ad resolution

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There are other places you can find this info, but I really miss finding it under the icon right next to the song in the album track list,

14

Agreed. I notice this too and it makes for extra wandering when searching for my preferred version.
An add-back would be appreciated.

Kev.