I’ve become convinced that the best of these forums are the times when we can help each other make the most of Roon.
I was just teaching a family member about the use of “negative focus” filters this morning when they were trying to make a mix, and I was sharing that it’s one of the cool-but-less-obvious features of Roon that make it so powerful. And then it occurred to me: while the Roon Mastery Series is a great resource, why not encourage the community to come up with their own “Greatest Hits (Tips) of Roon” and share them here? Of course, I just recently shared my feelings about how great Roon is when run directly on a NAS. But there is so much more.
So, I start this thread by submitting as a Users’ Greatest Tips #1: “Negative Focus” filters. When using Roon’s Focus feature and you “Add” a focus filter, it is in purple state with a “+” on the left side of it. You can “invert” that filter by clicking on it, and it turns red with a “-” sign, indicating “Not.” This is a great way to refine a filtered set of music to your liking, which you can subsequently bookmark for later use.
@DDPS , have you seen Roon’s Mastery Series?
“Discover what Roon can do for you with our exclusive Roon Mastery Series . From tips and tricks to real-world use cases, our team shares their insights and tackles the most frequently asked questions about Roon.”
@Neil_Small I sure have… I mentioned it in my original post up above. My aim here is to see what the readers/users wish to share that may be beyond the mastery series!
I found quite a few people don’t know about the powerful multi-selection possibilities in the PC version and how it allows making edits to ranges of items at once. This isn’t explained well/exhaustively in the help.
Some of my tips / workarounds for missing Roon features
Track ratings
Roon allows you to rate albums, but not individual tracks. To overcome this, I created tags with emoji stars (1-5) and assign these to the tracks I like most
ARC playlist download
I have a dedicated “ARC” playlist with tracks for downloading in ARC. It contains my favourite tracks so that I have them available while driving. After the initial download of the playlist in ARC, are is clever enough to download any tracks you add to the playlist at a later stage. Just make sure to open ARC on wifi once in a while…
Managing playlists
I started out by manually adding tracks to the playlist mentioned above. I soon discovered that I was adding the same track more than once. I overcame this as follows:
I created a dedicated “ARC” tag that I assigned to the playlist
Using focus, I created the filter for my tracks based on the custom rating tags and added a negative tag for “ARC”. I then created a bookmark for this.
I can now easily access the bookmark and I will show me all the tracks that should go into the playlist but aren’t added already
Then it’s just a matter of selecting all tracks (CTRL-A), clicking the 3 dots at the tops of the screen, selecting “Add to playlist”, and picking the ARC playlist.
My tip is too not use search for local library material it will lead to frustration. Goto tracks/albums/artists and use the filter instead, use bookmarks for ones you play a lot.
Also don’t fight how Roon wants to do things it has its own opinions and trying to get it to do what it’s not designed to will also lead to frustration.
I agree. If I were to clarify further for the uninitiated, many times (at least as of late 2023!) if you use Roon’s search for items in your local library, it won’t return all the results it should. But using the “Filter” capability in the category you want to search will return all the results you expect. Here’s an example of my own experience.
Here’s a second tip I thought I could contribute. If you are running the Roon app on your Mac you want to completely erase all of its local files and settings (perhaps to start fresh, or simply to stop using Roon on that Mac and remove all vestiges, or for whatever reason you like), I recommend having a script available.
I name this script “RoonClean.sh” - you have to set execute permissions on it at the command line. The contents of the script should be as follows:
Jim_F
(Remember - It's easier to Keep a Customer than to get a New One)
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My Roon tip is to keep it simple (KISS). Don’t add a bunch of unnecessary components. I prefer a Roon core connected to network by ethernet. For end-points I use a Roon ready device, such as Oppo 203 connected by ethernet, if possible or RPi4 connected by ethernet or WIFI with USB to DAC.
This strategy works well for me with Roon Nucleus, Apple Mac Mini, and Dell Windows 11 Roon servers and three end-points at home plus a WIFI connected RPi4 when away from home. Basically, 4 years of almost flawless Roon streaming from Tidal and Qobuz.
A tip for Google Cast/Chromecast Audio users, which I just found out recently:
Using the Google Home app, one is able to set routines for the different devices (or groups). You don‘t have to talk to your devices (or even have devices capable of Google Assistant). Instead, you can add your routines as favourites to the home screen.
So you can start a routine
manually with a fingertip
„manually“ by talking to Home Assistant
at a defined time
when another device is doing something
This way, you can for instance
define different (standard) volume levels for your devices/groups
define different (standard) volume levels for different events (e. g. listening/working/reading/cocktail party etc.)
reset automatically to standard volume levels over night (I LOVE this one )
turn off certain devices/groups manually/at given times/in case of other events (e. g. turning the TV on)
change the volume of devices/groups manually/at given times/in case of other events
… and probably more
This is kind of poor man‘s home automation, but it works seamlessly together with Roon‘s volume levels and groups. And saves A LOT of fiddling with volume levels on a Roon remote.
Another way to simply do this, is to Focus on the Album page. go to ‘PLAYED IN THE LAST’ .
Select the bottom option ‘All time’ and then reverse( negate) it.
They are subtly different tips and yours is what I use all the time.
With your tip, if one track has been played then the album is marked as played whereas the album doesn’t show up on @DDPS tip only if every song has been played.
Hi,
When I cannot find in Roon what i’m searching for? Another search trick
I open Qobuz, search the album i’m looking for, then mark this there as favorite. This mark at Qobuz is also tranfered to Roon. Then look in Roon into albums, when sorted as latest date added first it will show up soon in front of the rest.
Happy Listening, Ed
I’ve been using the same as Dirk and indeed noticed that an album was being excluded as soon as a single track of the album had been played.
Just tried the method of DDPS, but the count of unplayed albums is actually lower with this method. If this is as you say, it should be higher, or at least equal.
I must be doing something wrong…
EDIT: I noticed I have 3 albums with non-contiguous tracks, so these are being excluded, but I’m still missing albums for which I have unplayed tracks.
I rarely use Search
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