Hi all,
I’m pretty much sorted with my system now, - NAS via Ethernet -> NUC via USB -> dsj and controlled with an app on my android pad. I also have my PC connected to the network to manage settings on the NAS & NUC and transfer new music to the NAS. At the moment I have about 150 albums on the NAS with around 800 more to rip. But before I do this I would like to find a Music Management system or program to be able to sort complete albums from single songs or tracks and have them tagged correctly, before the size of my library becomes too large and unwieldy.
I would be grateful for any suggestions offered that would help me in this matter.
Thanks all
Roy.
Good luck with that. I haven’t found anything that is bullet-proof and drama free. Computer Audio is something I’ve turned my back on and walked away from.
Free trial on Roon. I was a JRiver MC user, and I migrated to Roon a couple of years ago. Integrates well with Tidal. Really great program IMO.
Metadata management is good, but you have to tweak things on occasion.
Roon is good but before you try it make sure you don’t mind the pricing as it isn’t cheap.
If the price doesn’t scare you off then give it a try as it is a great way to handle your music.
No doubt it’s not cheap. I’m a lifetime member (2+ years). I looked at it like investing in a piece of system equipment.
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I have a similar hardware setup so my experiences with music management may be relevant.
To state the obvious if your prime concern is listening to music rather than tweaking your hardware/software system try to keep it as simple as possible. I tried JRiver and could not live with it because of its complexity and opaque user instructions. I guess if I had been tweaking things daily I might have come to terms with it but my infrequent tweaks typically caused me time-consuming problems.
For the last 5 years I have been using MinimServer running on my NAS to take care of the music-serving. This has been trouble-free.
Metadata management can be a problem, particularly if your music collection has a large amount of classical music. If not, my experience has been that the default settings in iTunes can be adequate. For classical albums you may need to define your own functionality for the metadata.
To check the integrity of your metadata (errors, omissions, inconsistencies etc etc) I found that a library scan with JRiver was OK but MinimServer is more rigorous in identifying errors. Both are streets better than iTunes, even if you augment iTunes with Dougscripts (which I recommend highly).
Although it is peripheral to your question there is one other important point I’d add. Having heard of several instances of corruption of music libraries, typically caused by computer or hard disk crashes or power failures, I now store all the files related to my music library in a single folder (with multiple backups) so that the music media and library catalogue (metadata etc) cannot get out of synch.
David
I start with ripping CDs using EAC. Goofy to set up, but I have label each song with 01 Name, 02, Name… etc… It brings the song names down and other stuff.
Then I use Foobar. I like it simple. It is also free.
I store my CD on my network NAS in a folder called Music, then Classical, Pop, Spoken Word, etc, then artist folder, then album folders under that, then the songs… worked really well for many years now.
I always wanted to try the others but why when I’ve been very happy.
Peace
Bruce in Philly
Foobar2000 is the most customizable and granular of the apps discussed. If you like customization and lots of control it’s worth checking out. Its free too which is nice. I suspect those who prefer Apple-like simplicity and those who are default-should-be-good-enough people (the two are synonymous in my head) or even those not great with technology should look elsewhere like with Roon. But Roon is crazy expensive even for what it is. JRiver is a nice compromise between function, price and relative ease of use.