Weakest part of Roon:
The dreaded “pawmasher”!
If i click a button named “Play album”, please clarify why i need to confirm that by clicking Play now?
Second weakest part of Roon:
Lack of a “Best practices”/Manual…
4 Likes
Hi Mikael,
- You may want to play the album now, or next (after current song) or add it to the end of the queue.
- It’s being worked on now.
Cheers, Greg
2 Likes
perhaps an option in settings to disable the Pawmasher. Personally I love it, my options are clear and I can set music up anyway I like. Also it is intuitive to use.
1 Like
Roon’s inability to add personal meta data descriptions to albums is a disappointment for me. My library is primarily of live recordings that don’t appear on your standard music meta data sites, however, there is a ton of information through other sources which I’d love to be part of the album descriptions. If we aren’t allowed to edit the description field then at least give us our own description field to play with.
Second weak link is the still problematic sorting of album artists. Roon has trouble recognizing the same artist under slightly different names (e.g. Lyle Lovett verses Lyle Lovett and His Big Band - even though they’re both inside the same watched folder titled Lyle Lovett).
5 Likes
I can honestly say I’ve tried, but I’m a long way from learning to like it. I think the simple fact of the matter is, however good the designers intentions/ideas, sometimes the only universally acceptable solution is user preferences.
1 Like
If there’s nothing playing, no queue, no current song, the only logical thing you would want to happen when you pressed play, is, er, play. But it still asks you just to make sure…
1 Like
Steve’s suggestion is good and simple. Make “Play Album” contextual. If nothing is playing, there’s no need for clarification: just play the damn album. If nothing’s playing but there’s a queue, stop when it’s over but retain the cue. If something else is playing, ask.
[quote=“hifi_swlon, post:46, topic:10137”]
If there’s nothing playing, no queue, no current song, the only logical thing you would want to happen when you pressed play, is, er, play. But it still asks you just to make sure…
[/quote]Not quite, one may wish to start the radio feature based on the selection … and that’s what is prompted for.
1 Like
This thread sounds like a pseudo 1.3 features request. I have no issue with that, Its okay i guess 
However i saw some weak spot today.
not sure about the sequence - Browsing or toggling between ‘Q’ and ‘Q’ again and some back clicks … i saw for the first time a Q showing the list of track being played (normal) and Q once again -> white screen. I wish that might have happened due to nothing else to show / back clicks flushed out ?.
Maybe it can show Album view if nothing else to show ? or a Roon icon in the center instead of white screen 
I’m sorry but I just don’t get that at all. Why would you select a specific album/track to play, if in fact you wanted the Radio? The fact that it pops up on the menu at that point, doesn’t make it valid IMO. A ‘play radio’ button should be elsewhere.
But I don’t think we’ll all ever agree on this because we’re all individuals. The problem now is you have to deal with it so often that if it’s not in tune with you, it’s annoying.
Carl, you’re saying that sometimes you select a specific song … in order to play radio based on that song? Hard to imagine myself ever doing that. But it does remind me: There were lots of radio-related suggestions before 1.2; was radio (not meaning Internet radio) upgraded?
It does, but because it’s focussing on frustrations, it’s got potential to get a bit juicy… 
It is not just ‘Start Radio’ – it is ‘Start Radio based on this track’.
Radio not functioning as it should does not change the paradigm, which is powerful, consistent and well thought out in my opinion.
Your tastes may vary (and validly so), but I really think the current player model deserves way more credit than it gets – even if it is not to your personal liking.
2 Likes
i see … i see you point Steve. if we want to play a track simply play if nothing on Q.
However its not slow. track -> play / radio in huge buttons - easy to access and quick ‘QUICK’. I mean Roon is truly fast.
i would get irritated if its slow. Anyways my take on it. I m the only to love double play to play a track? Suggestion could be we will need a additional settings which enables to toggle between “PLAY NOW / PLAY Q” (or PLAY POP up preference setting) somewhere in the settings -> general section.
My suggestion of a user guide would solve this. Right now the biggest weakness for me is finding information how to use all the different features that change depending on what view you are using.
2 Likes
I’m not commenting at all on what I do, I’m simply pointing out why Roon has the extra prompt.
Carl, noted. So then the question becomes, does anyone actually use it this way?
Suggestion could be we will need a additional settings which enables to toggle between “PLAY NOW / PLAY Q” (or PLAY POP up preference setting) somewhere in the settings → general section.
1 Like
To be honest I didn’t know that about ‘Start Radio’, but I just don’t work like that when I listen - I’m happy for a Radio idea to kick in when I’m done actively listening but if I’ve browsed to some music it’s not because I want a semi-random selection. Others may well like this though, I get that.
And I completely see where you’re coming from Rene regarding recognising Roons innovation - but in this topic of all places I think it’s fair to just say what we don’t like. It’s nothing personal or derogatory about the designers or their intentions for the pawmasher - I love so much of the innovation that is Roon - but for me the play/pawmasher adds more frustration than pleasure. I try and ignore it, and it’s not like I can’t live with it, but I honestly think if it bothers a reasonable number of people, either it’s got room for improvement or simply needs user preferences. Personally I would make ‘play from here’ the default, and I would only display pawmasher if there was something already playing, and at that point it could have whatever it wanted on it, but if I had a choice I’d remove radio and just have queue options. But that’s just me.
(And at the risk of topic hijack I’ll leave it there. But at least this process has cleansed me, many thanks and apologies 
)
1 Like
Carl, noted. So then the question becomes, does anyone actually use it this way?
Yes, I do.
And I like the Play button behaviour.
With roon I have never accidently killed a queue, like I did from time to time with other players. And I’m happy to never experience this frustration.
4 Likes