Trying to get a friend with 10K CDs into Roon

Back in the day, I was a Paradox wizard. I had to hire someone to reprogram all my Paradox queries and reports into menu driven Microsoft Access so our Marketing types could find their own information.

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Well, Roon is a big database well suited to exactly this. While Roon does expose some opportunities (e.g. tags), it would be great if they would allow more user-driven fields. I would love to add descriptive content at the album & artist level - particularly for those albums/artists that have little to no descriptive info.

But, it’s a slippery slope I’m sure.

Just tell him to stream from Tidal or Qobuz and move on already. The effort of ripping a library of that size and then correcting the numerous errors in metadata that come with that is 100% not worth it. Physical media is just no longer necessary, and much of what is available on Tidal in my experience is actually equal or better quality than the CD mastering. And then think about the % of those CDs that are starting to fail. Keep it for copyright as they say.

I have been streaming Tidal exclusively for several years and have NEVER had that urge to go get that CD from that archive in the spare bedroom closet. Not once.

And IF someone had the patience and time to get them ripped and tagged - then there is the constant worrying about backups and all that entails.

Personal experience:

I had approx 500 CD’s. I set up a separate PC with two external drives. I thought I’d work on this most evenings after dinner. I did this for a few nights until I realized that I hadn’t listened to many of them in years. Why? Roon, Tidal, and Qobuz. All of the music I ripped or was about to rip was available on-line. For 500 discs the infrastructure wasn’t expensive. For 10,000 to be online at home with a backup the infrastructure costs will be high. Why a backup? I don’t think any sane person would want to rip all of them again.

On another note, I recently went through my Roon library and looked at every Tidal favorite and then looked for a Qobuz equivalent. 95% of the Tidal music (Jazz, R&R, Blues, Classical, Folk, Alternative, Soul, R&B, and Electronic) was available on Qobuz and often at a higher bit rate. I think it’s time to dump Tidal. Will there be an occasional album on Tidal that isn’t yet on Qobuz? Certainly. Will I die without it? No. Will I be able to purchase it if I absolutely need it? Most likely.

My journey:
MP3’s = gone (long ago)
CD’s = gone
Tidal = pending (probably this week)
Vinyl = with me until I die

Maybe a #roon:feature-requests is in order

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I don’t like the idea of subscribing to anything (including Roon), particularly music, and certainly not if I already own it. 10K CD’s would take several years to listen to anyway, and ripping is 50x quicker. I’d start by ripping my favorites, then add rips as time and mood allows. Rip to FLAC, and rip once! As far as correcting or tweaking metadata, I’m still doing this now, but its not a priority, more an OCD itch.

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My circumstance. I do own 5,000 discs, for a while I used an Olive 04HD to rip all in there but unfortunately the collection overgrew the 04’s hard disc capacity and not being at all computer savvy I decided not to open up the unity and try to change it for a bigger one. Left it as is, at some 4,800 CDs all of them being redbook.

Also own a couple of hundred SACDs, K2s, HDCDs, MQACDs, XRCDs, blu ray, DVD-A etc etc some of them proved to have very high SQ.

What I found myself doing:

-Marked as many of my physical CDs albums as Favourites on Tidal as I could find. Unfortunately no Qobuz in my country of residence just yet.

-Now have a separate tower for my better sounding discs, to have easier access to them and play them in my player/dac setup (PS Audio DMP/DSJ connected via I2S).

-Putting the CDs I cannot locate on Tidal, in the same easy to access tower.

The remaining shiny discs (some 4,000 or so!) are still there, comforming a massive CD wall which I hope has sound diffusing properties. My partner currently not so chuffed with how this arrangement looks Ha!

Dirk’s comments about classical metadata are spot on I have to say - I have a simple solution but it doesn’t work well at all. I should add that I also have Tidal And qobuz, so am very pro-streaming as well.

Now I’m curious what your simple solution is Phil, even if you think it doesn’t work well at all :slight_smile:

Now I’m going to have to remember it - hold on…!!

Album artist = composer (surname first)
Composer - ditto
Artist = performer (orchestra or soloist)
Album = the work itself e.g. Symphony 9
Genre = whichever of my bespoke list is closest.

The above works reasonably well for me other than for box sets, which are a mess.

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I have done that a while back…

If you use MyMovies and a Nimbie Changer it won’t take long at all to rip those CD’s. Mine has ripped thousands and hasn’t skipped a beat.

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The Nimbie looks good, but it is PC-only. I have seen standalone rippers for about the same price (means your computer is not tied up).

The Nimbie is attached to a 2011 Windows Home Server and managing media is it’s main purpose; therefore, it doesn’t tie up any of my other PC’s. I’d be curious to see the other standalone rippers for the same price. Got a link? Can you load 100 discs in them? Sound interesting.

You like bowling googlys to Roon, I take it? :grinning:

That was where I started and I abandoned this way of tagging because there are more albums that have several composers and one soloist / conductor than albums that have several soloists / conductors and one composer.

So I have settled on using:
Album Artist = Main soloist or conductor (depending if orchestral work or concerto)
Artist = Soloist(s)
Album Name = Composer - Album Title (Samplerate)
Composer = Composer
Genre = whatever you wish, I just use classical for classical, opera, concerto etc.

This has several advantages:

  • it only unses the two fields Album Artist (which every player in the world understands) for the main information
  • you can extract the composer information quite easily and automatically put it in the composer field using jRiver, MP3 Tag or similar

Just google it, that’s how I found them. It would make sense to be able to rent these units for a month and do it all in one shot.

Actually: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016EHU5HU?pf_rd_r=M11E6CMPWQM1ZY38VGTP&pf_rd_p=ab873d20-a0ca-439b-ac45-cd78f07a84d8

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It seems to me, people are turning this into a much more complicated and daunting task than need be.

First, you shouldn’t be thinking about ripping 10k CDs as one long process. Just rip some CDs when you feel like it. The library will grow with plenty to listen to and enjoy. Second, spend a few dollars on dBpoweramp ripping software. Third, use a computer with a fast multi core CPU. Finally, seriously consider a NAS for storage - although not necessary, you’ll be thankful in the long wrong.

I go a bit overboard, but this is what I do. While I’m working at my computer I insert a CD in the drive. dBpoweramp is set up to simultaneously rip to three NAS devices so two backups are created automatically. I check that dBpoweramp has called up the right track listing, composer, performer, cover art, etc. (I usually use their Discogs data, but multiple sources are available and presented in a nice column format so you easily see differences). Everything is perfect about 95% of the time and easy to correct if it is not. Then I press the rip button and go back to what I was working on. The multi core CPU rips multiple tracks simultaneously, and I have it set up to use four cores. The AccurateRip feature checks your rip to make sure it is bit perfect. When I see that the rip is finished (I would guess about five minutes per cd), I check the log to make sure the rip is perfect and pop in another cd. Then it’s just rinse and repeat until you get tired of popping cds into your drive. Usually I’m enjoying listening to Roon while this is going on.

This is not a painful of burdensome task at all, it’s actually quite enjoyable. I don’t need 10k cds ripped overnight. Everyday I have anywhere from 10 to 100 new cds loaded in Roon. They’re ready to enjoy with all the great Roon features for listening from any room in my house.

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