I was converted to Classical Music by a bunch of “Public School Types” when I was at University, I was introduced to bridge (new were short a 4) accompanied by Mahler . Not easy for Grammar School kid raised on Clapton, LZ and folk clubs initially but I persevered.
I agree classical is a niche genre 2.5% of US sales probably ties in. That doesn’t mean it should be ignored. My collection is probably 50:50 Classical : Others (Mainly Rock) . I still listen LZ , Clapton etc but I am an old “Fuddy Duddy” after all.
That said I understand Roon’s limitations and the amount of Dev time that can be used for such a small genre. The Big (DG, Philips, Decca etc) Labels don’t help where in their releases even recent ones they cannot be bothered to Credit a Composer . In some cases the Work & Opus No has to be used to “guess” the Composer , Roon simply has no chance getting this from a third party Metadata source all things considered they do well.
I think some minor improvements would go a long way to assuaging the moans of the more vocal classical fans, my top is Box Set handling bu there are others.
Manually grooming a collection is possible but time a single new album to add Composer, Composition Movement , Opus No etc and it gets a bit scary , say 5 minutes a CD . Is it really worth it ? My collection (say 4000 classical albums) now has all classical work & part populated but at what cost !!
I listen to a mix of genres, including classical from early music to 21st century, with a combination of ripped CDs (including boxsets), digital downloads from multiple vendors, and Qobuz. Roon does well with anything that has reasonable metadata on at least one of their metadata sources (mainly Allmusic/Rovi and Musicbrainz; for complex reasons, not Discogs, which is unfortunate). The main failure cases are very old/exotic recordings, boxsets that keep rearranging the same original recordings in different combinations, and recent small-label/self-published recordings. I listen to a lot of new recordings in all genres. If I had a mainly static classical collection, Roon’s value for me would be less than it is with my voracious appetite for new work.
To enjoy Roon coupled with a streaming service (I use Qobuz) you need a very solid server. I decided to use a Nucleus after trying a QNAP NAS with lots of frustrations. it runs (almost) perfectly. Just avoid to do many other things on you network when listening to 192k. I listen to jazz, classical and pop/rock. I thought I knew a lot of good music, but the Roon + Qobuz combination help me to discover everyday great records I ignored till today. I was also upset by my “own ripped CD” but frankly today, I listen much more to streamed music and Qobuz is the right choice if you are a classical amateur.
No tool or software is perfect. If you’re happy with your collection and just want to enjoy it, and you’re happy with your current setup, there is no need for Roon. If you like the interface, want the metadata (e.g. reviews, biographies etc) or want to explore the links between music in your collection or discover new music, then Roon can be a godsend.
iTunes worked perfectly for me in terms of managing my collection, better than Roon does. However, once I had done a Roon trial I bought a lifetime membership and haven’t gone back to iTunes a single time. Depending on what you’re looking for, Roon can be great or irrelevant (or somewhere in between).
Today I came across a typical example of one of the key issue facing Classical musical lovers in the digital environment. I noticed a review of a CD entitled Heavenly Songes (sic) on Musicweb by (to me at least) unknown artists and issued by a small record company. Nearly all the works on this disc are by a relatively obscure composer called Ludford (in whom I have some interest). Many of the works have not been previously recorded. There are a couple of tracks by that composer of great renown called Anon.
In adding this disc to my library - either as a streamed album via Qobuz or as a download if I decide to purchase, I would change the title of this disc to Ludford Missa Sabato.
I don’t criticise the record company or artists - particularly a small company such as this. I am sure both the repertoire as well as the album title were designed to maximise sales across two different market segments and we all have to earn a living!
You need to firstly load to your Roon library and then in Roon you can use the Roon edit facilities. (If you click on the three dots next to the “focus on similar” box you can then select the edit function and then the Edit Album tab. You will be presented with a series of editable fields and can select either the tick box options or by ticking the “edit” box you can then enter your own text. You will then need to tick the grey save box at the bottom). Of course these edits only apply to your Roon library - they don’t apply though the Qobuz app.
They are sufficient for my needs. I have been using a consistent approach to naming albums well before I started to use Roon that allows me to find very quickly a particular composer and composition. I can also readily locate a particular composition played by a particular major artist. I actually only ever use two views of the Roon library - sorted by album title and sorted by date added. I occasionally use the Roon search facility. I haven’t found a need to group compositions.
@Paul_Williams, Your comment about obtaining “digital copies of many booklets for the ripped CDs” intrigued me. Would you be so kind as to enlighten us about your source of these?
Thanks.
Scott
@Paul_Williams will surely elaborate further. But as an example what I have done is to look up booklets for ripped CD’s from companies that make them readily available on their webpage for download (without the need to purchase the recording itself).
Examples include Hyperion Records, Chandos. And also on eclassical.com you can download many booklets for free. If you have a Qobuz subscription, then thats another potential source, as you can save the booklets shown with the recording to your disk.
Thats how I “filled up” lots of missing booklets in my collection.
You have described well how I have done it. Two other sources are Decca for opera libretti and Naxos. Of course nearly all modern digital downloads come with a digital PDF.
My opinion is that, whatever the %age of classical music lovers is of the population, it is a much higher percentage of audiophiles. There is so much nuance in classical music. i’m able to download and stream up to DSD256 and will get that resolution whenever possible.
Paul, I do not know how to add a pdf, like a cd liner note, to a music selection (unless it is accompanying a download). Can someone enlighten me as we have many opera/vocal pieces?
John Eliot Gardiner’s Monteverdi Orchestra and Choir website also offer, through their shop, free, separately downloadable booklets of all their recordings
