The wonders of Roon radio - a field of gold

[Sloop_John_B (John B)]

Can I just give a shout for some sort of user configuration in Roon Radio. The spectrum is “more of the same” or “expand my horizons”.

@mike whilst there may be coding issues and errors I feel one of the difficulties with Roon Radio is expectation.

If I’m cooking in the kitchen I might just want a more of the same radio if I’m nestling in to a night’s listening I might want to be challenged. I think this dichotomy needs to be addressed.

Starting with Ob La Di Ba Da one part of the spectrum follows this with the Kinks Sunny afternoon, the other with Breeders Happiness is a warm gun.

.sjb

[David_Ellis]

It is getting worse. It seems to be if you listen to something vaguely metal then you always get the same few songs and artists on roon radio. Normally Marilyn Manson, who i hate and want to block, but cannot because this basic block artist functionality is missing.

[Uwe_Albrecht]

I think you have so far the from the overview “related artists” with the most popular titles in a very simple rotation, which must necessarily repeat quickly, because otherwise the still slim AI material runs out.

Some relatedness is questionable, as an example from the New Age corner shows. Unfortunately, I have it on the second computer and I’ll add it later.

Kilimandjaro (Brian Lévi Remix)

[Uwe_Albrecht]

On Friday, I had created a list of 30 to 40 very fresh music titles and transferred them to Qobuz and Tidal.

The Qobuz list was played completely and Roon-Radio could not find anything suitable. So did not start at all. Is this better than repeats?

[Uwe_Albrecht]

I had now also tried it with Tidal and fresh music. The Roon Radio does not start.

It was easier with this ballads…

Es folge ein Radio basierend auf Cutting Crew mit diesem 1. Titel…

[tripleCrotchet (Tony)]

@Uwe_Albrecht

I had now also tried it with Tidal and fresh music. The Roon Radio does not start.

I also find roon radio often will not start but it is unpredictable and depends on the seed. What are some tracks where roon radio failed to start for you?

In my case what I find is that roon gives itself 30 seconds to find “something similar” to the last track on the queue. Sometimes it fails to find something similar in time and radio is halted. But roon will continue to look, it is just too late for radio to start after 30 secs. You can watch this happening if you have your “queue” page visible.

[Uwe_Albrecht]

I always compare with the overview page. There comparable artists and with another click the popular songs of the related artists are mentioned.

I guess the algorithm works like this:

Known in Roon database and comparable artists → mark or stop depending on the result.

Which song is selected → play artist again and then a popular song of a preregistered artist.

No query on album or artist repeat!

It always remains a very limited selection without surprises and fast occurring repetitions (looping after about 20 to 30 songs)

So only a few albums and artists come in rotation (continuous loop)

[bruce_nicholson]

I have a lifetime Roon membership and used Sooloos, it’s Meridian predecessor starting in 2012, though I’ve seldom before posted a comment. But I agree all of those posting that Roon radio is “broken”. Though I have used it very regularly for years, recently it has stopped generating worthwhile playlists in many genres – draws from only a few (best known, “trite”) albums, artists and songs. Not worth using at present except in genres/subgenres that I have not previously explored.

[Uwe_Albrecht]

@bruce_nicholson

Not worth using at present except in genres/subgenres that I have not previously explored.

I had read another thread where it said it would now work with Jon Batiste. Here are my results:

After about 2 hours the same rotation comes only other titles of the already played albums.

Those who do not yet know this artist and these genres may discover something:

[tripleCrotchet (Tony)]

I got curious as well about the mention of a 4 hr stream with no repeats seeding with Jon Babtiste.

So I seeded with Jon Babtiste “We Are”. I recognize pretty much everything on your playlist. So there doesn’t seem to be any personalization going on. Artists began to repeat after about 2 hours or 30 tracks. One difference is I am not seeing artists repeat from the same albums but different ones. A common mood of laid back retro/alternative R&B has been maintained throughout. TBH a 2 hour session that maintains a programmatic mood is very similar to a real flesh and blood radio programme and may be as good as it gets.

It all seems to be very genre dependent. Other seeds I find give much worse results. It is difficult to see a pattern. I haven’t tried starting radio again with another artist generated from this Jon Babtiste stream. Maybe it will be another 2 hours of the same artists, maybe it will be different but I don’t know.

Edit: Spoke too soon. About 2 1/2 hours in I am starting to see the same albums repeated although it is different tracks.

[Uwe_Albrecht]

@tripleCrotchet

Edit: Spoke too soon. About 2 1/2 hours in I am starting to see the same albums repeated although it is different tracks.

Likewise here. The personal touch is missing. If you want to know what might be in the selection in the next few hours, you only need to look at this in advance:

With a click on Similar Artist you can then find the rest that was played.

[tripleCrotchet (Tony)]

Yes, and then if you select all those similar artists and do a shuffle you will get a much longer-lived stream that does not repeat albums although it will repeat artists. What exactly is roon radio doing?

[Uwe_Albrecht]

I have varied my starting point a bit. Today I started with a playlist from Tidal (18 songs curated by Emeli Sandé).

I’ve been playing through it for a good 7 hours with 90 songs and Roon radio has it down to these 43 artists:

Destiny’s Child, Gabrielle, Emeli Sandé, Lisa Stansfield, Michael Jackson, Toni Braxton, Alicia Keys, Eternal, TLC, Whitney Houston, 3T, Beyoncé, Christina Milian, Craig David, En Vogue, Janet Jackson, Joss Stone, Kelly Rowland, Kool & The Gang, Lighthouse Family, Macy Gray, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Prince, Shanice, Tina Turner, Barry White, Brandy, Des’ree, Diana Ross, Dionne Farris, George Michael, Jazmine Sullivan, Kanye West, Lionel Richie, Lord Finesse, Lutricia McNeal, Neneh Cherry, Sade, Seal, Sugababes, The Carters,Tiana Major9

Played 60 albums, so despite the repetition of artists (sometimes 6 times) and the repetition of albums, I still heard 31 albums only once in the Long Session.

The list was very Tidal-heavy, like the origin, there were also 10 Titell played by Qobuz. Here, more artist repeats occurred with Destiny’s Child, Michael Jackson, Beyoncé and Gabrielle.

Try yourself:

Emeli Sandé present TIDAL R&B…