I like the format so far very much.
I like the hierarchy system in Octave that goes by artist and then gives album view… this makes it a bit more like physical media.
Also, I like what you’ve done with the discovery mode. I prefer the interface with this on but it works both ways. Very intuitive.
I personally have to work on it rather than finding it intuitive, but I got the logic again after 15 minutes. Don’t take me as typical, others coming from Roon probably don’t need any time to be familiar. Still didn’t get the full meaning of „explore“ and concentrated on „collection“ and „discover“
My main concern with „collection“ was, that I often expected album covers as result to further go down the hierarchy where I got list views of songs sorted by albums.
Generally I’d prefer page switches instead of expanding sections. And I’d need several additional and cascading views add. to the few ones under „collection“. But we talk about a test version here, so that’s no demand at this stage.
I also got the approach of „discover“ after a few trials. I like the result, but I would rather have expected it from e.g. just clicking on an add. discover button besides a composer or artist instead of toggle it from the start page as I then have to use browser back to continue without the discover toggle from where I came. I think the necessity of browser back actions is not state of the art anymore. I personally much prefer apps instead of web interfaces as they usually have to be more simple and intuitive and can’t use menue structures, sections, drop down lists etc.
I think @wglenn’s screenshot here is enough: We’d like some help with Octave
It’s like mac os “finder” you can map network share over nfs / cifs from NAS/server/other computer and browse folders containing music files wav/flac/dsf and add to playlist. I quess a lot of people (Windows/Linux users) have sorted their music like this: /music/artist/album/songs or /music/flac(mp3, wav, dsf)/artist/songs. I personally have stored music this way since late 90s.
Very few high-end players do it this way, if I remember correctly, Bryston BDP is one of them.
Here are two great reviews from Hans:
Rune audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmeUxk14vCc
and Volumio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRyCpZh9-pI
That’s interesting. I also prefer Jriver/JRemote to any other, but I use the cover display mode.
All the different feedbacks again shows to me how different our demands are and how good it is there are different options or solutions which are highly functional and configurable.
We do more and have a lot of different approaches with our collections than/compared with a phone where one highly elaborated concept like Apple‘s works for all, it’s different here imo.
Cover mode works well if there are a small number of albums. Auralic’s LightningDS app used to allow a choice of how albums displayed but now only allows cover mode. It takes forever to scroll to the bottom albums when there are a huge number of albums. Choice is good. I don’t want the cover mode to be replaced–I just want options where they are needed.
Arrgh. These populated randomly. So you recognize this as MControl and it’s just a sequential step down the folder levels. So the KEY for the image order would be
1)Library
2)WGlenn’s iPhone
3)My Music
4)Artists
5)Fogey
6)Phoenix
and this is just the same sort of thing as the screenshot that I sent of Mac Finder only each panel from left to right on the Finder screenshot would get it’s own window in a mobile app.
This would be a great option for those of us who have our collections already organized into files and folders. This is particularly important for classical since there are multiple versions, by multiple arrangers, by multiple conductors, orchestras, collections… and I can find them using my filing system. Roon’s interface is awesome for most things but surgically extracting specific albums or tracks. Oh yeah, Jazz, too!
I find it very easy and intuitive and the Discover button is cool too. That said, as a Roon Lifetime member I’m failing to see the real advantage here.
This is the system UI I am familiar with
If you build it so that a 5 year old can use intuitively it should be good for the rest of us. The kids are the ones you should be testing this thing on. I hate to be the doomsayer but I just see a world of pain coming for the developers of this Octave project.
You know, for whatever reason WGlenn’s point didn’t strike me at first when I was looking at Octave (this is one of the benefits of having a large pool of folks looking at it!!) but now that I see it… I agree. It’s something that probably most of us need/want to do at least once in a while. Jriver also has the “locate in file system” feature or whatever they call it but in any case it would be good to be able to simply browse thru the relevant folders
I agree that this is appealing in structure and functionality. It would be prudent for PS Audio to look at this and try to emulate some, if not all, of it. Good luck PSA.
I agree.
Oh, sorry. Not at all. But even if so, it’s ok. Happens almost everyday at home!
The real advantage is that it is not Roon and it serves the purpose of managing music and gaining easy access. We cannot in good conscience produce a product that is dependent on a paid app like Roon. That’s for two reasons: I am not sure Roon’s going to be around for the long term (and if they go the product turns into a brick) and it is too expensive. At some point we will produce products based on Octave that will retail for about the same price as a subscription to Roon. That just does not make sense.
Lastly, while I like Roon, it still has some drawbacks I am not happy with like its sound. Octave addresses those concerns.
I agree with Paul on being bound to Roon. Roon has a business model that gets fat on lifetime subscriptions but survives on the revenue stream from new yearly adopters. As products like Octave come to market, Roon will look less desirable. Roon may just get bought out by a company like Tidal and get integrated into it’s offering. I’m in the boat with a one year subscription that is done in August and I’m wondering when Octave will hit the street?
Me too. 
Hopefully near the end of this calendar year.
First touch: I search for Hadyn and I get what I expect in terms of “Works”, BUT how the heck is Kenny Chesney or Cyrus Chestnut similar to Hadyn — especially after I drill down to Joseph Hadyn. At a minimum, in “Similar”, I would want to see other stuff in the same genre?
Roon has addressed the concerns of them going under and Roon not being able to be used, there is a long thread on their forum about this. To be fair, every business including PSA and the customers are in the same boat. It’s risk for consumers as there is no business that is forever. What will Octave cost for us customers? How will it generate revenue to keep the programmers busy long term? How does your model differ from others?
I’ve already provided some feedback on the GUI, in particular sorting and slicing, via the Feedback tab. For my purposes Roon does the sorting really well. One area where Roon needs some serious work, one that I really could not judge the Octave prototype on, is Meta Data.
Roon does a poor job of recognizing tracks to be the same (Saint Stephen vs St. Stephen) and often it confuses composers (Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter verses Garcia/Hunter). Roon is also weak on finding lyrics to songs (most likely because it can’t accurately resolve composers and song names) and is severely lacking in Album liner notes. If Octave can make some inroads on the Metadata front that would be great.
When I think back to the glory days of vinyl, sitting around reading album liner notes while listening, reading the lyrics as the song played, etc, those activities enriched the music experience for me. CDs killed that past time and Roon is weak here too. If Octave could restore that experience that would really give it a big leg up on the competition IMHO.
Paul,Octave will be for free ?
This frustrates me as well. If I search for Haydn I want Haydn alone, not what an algorithm thinks is somehow “like” Haydn. The “similar” albums appear random, although there may well be something behind the display of other albums. At a minimum I want a permanent switch which lets me turn off all of the similar or like results.
