JRiver not up to the task

[Alobar]

Ruin was how it felt to me.

Some like it, I get that. But I'm not a fan...

I have at times thought that Roon could be a gateway to finally start enjoying streaming by getting away from their maddening interfaces but the price for admission (both hardware and software subscription) is too great for me for the time being.

 

[transmaster]

I went to setup Home Band so I could have voice control via my Amazon Dot. What I found when I got into it was unexceptable. This is intended for remote access to your music server. The security protocols on jRiver are are not worth a plug nickel my PC is my music server I do not have, and will not enable remote access for anything. Being able to access my home music files via an Alexa Dot is ludicrous. I have Apple Music, on my iPhone. And even if I carried a Dot with me I have Amazon Music Unlimited, which I can also access via my iPhone. I might be able to set this through a VPN but why?

 

[bangsezmax]

To me, the trick to using JRiver is also using MP3Tag. Anything that needs to be re-catalogued to look exactly the way you want it, just do it yer damn self in the metadata. I do plenty of needle-drops so this is a must.

I got hooked on JRiver because it was the initial media player for Pono. It handles everything, you just have to configure it to do what you tell it to. It ain't rocket science.

I still mainly use sad old Winamp. Wish that would come back, but alas, it isn't to be.

To me, JRiver is the closest to WinAmp which I still miss.

iTunes for MP3

That was a joke, right?

 

[imral3]

I have a large music collection all stored on an external hard drive. I use several programs (Roxio/Audacity/CUE Splitter) when needed to massage all music files into the same exact format. This eliminates the need for my media manager/streaming service (Subsonic) to change anything on the fly. Also makes it easy to share music with friends and family. However, 98% of my listening is done on my main system, using good ol' Windows explorer and playback via Windows Media Player. I like "playing" with my music collection while playing my music.

 

[transmaster]

To me, the trick to using JRiver is also using MP3Tag. Anything that needs to be re-catalogued to look exactly the way you want it, just do it yer damn self in the metadata. I do plenty of needle-drops so this is a must.

Thank You! I have used DBPower Amp's tag editor for years MP3Tag looks better.

 

[transmaster]

Sure wish I could get the Windows Media server working. It is all setup and the Yamaha sees it but there are hardly any files and a tree grows faster then it opens a file you click on.

 

[imral3]

Sure wish I could get the Windows Media server working. It is all setup and the Yamaha sees it but there are hardly any files and a tree grows faster then it opens a file you click on.

Have you tried accessing it on a device other than "the Yamaha"? I had a similar problem using my Denon receiver, was slow as molases, which was the fault of the Denon.

 

[bangsezmax]

Thank You! I have used DBPower Amp's tag editor for years MP3Tag looks better.

One of the many things I love about MP3tag is that it when you right-click any media file, MP3Tag comes up in the context menu. Easy peasy.

 

[jazzmans]

I use either Audacious or VLC within my linux stations, vlc does a really good job of well, just about everything. but I listen to music oddly, usually randomized, almost all my music/films are locally sourced, I've ripped every cd/dvd/blu-ray I've ever owned and kept the data in original format, (wav or mkv container for video) so cue sheets are good with wavs.

 

[Wildcat]

I have at times thought that Roon could be a gateway to finally start enjoying streaming by getting away from their maddening interfaces but the price for admission (both hardware and software subscription) is too great for me for the time being.

The price does not jive with how little it adds over the others. JRiver or any other software could do the same thing if they put their mind to it--there is nothing special that Ruin does. I just couldn't live with having all that bloat in the way of playing my music. I've read through their support forum quite a bit also. (Don't expect anything better than JRiver-level support, in other words--they also suffer from developers ignoring features that have been requested for years, or having unfixed bugs that get little to no attention. At the price level, this attention to deal shouldn't even be called into question.)

I can live with JRiver's minor shortcomings given the price. It still presents everything better than others I have tried thus far, for the way I use a music player. It's not a huge monetary loss if something better comes along in the future.

 

[Wildcat]

One of the many things I love about MP3tag is that it when you right-click any media file, MP3Tag comes up in the context menu. Easy peasy.

I've used it heavily for years--I can't see existing on this planet without it.

I keep all of my newly-ripped music in a folder on my computer. I right-click that folder to get MP3tag to display everything in it, then it's a simple job to work my way through the titles and tag everything to my liking. (I always right-click on the album cover image and "extract" a folder.jpg file for each album, just in case I have future music players that ever need it.) Once I'm done, it all gets moved to the NAS.

 

[KrisM]

Thank You! I have used DBPower Amp's tag editor for years MP3Tag looks better.

Just one guy's opinion, but it is better.

 

[KrisM]

I've used it heavily for years--I can't see existing on this planet without it.

I keep all of my newly-ripped music in a folder on my computer. I right-click that folder to get MP3tag to display everything in it, then it's a simple job to work my way through the titles and tag everything to my liking. (I always right-click on the album cover image and "extract" a folder.jpg file for each album, just in case I have future music players that ever need it.) Once I'm done, it all gets moved to the NAS.

Is there a setting for doing that right click thing?
I need to open up MP3Tag and call up the folder where the music I want to re-tag is.

 

[KrisM]

There is another tagging software - blisshq.com - as it will go through and fix all your tags in your library.

Can you point that one to a particular folder, with a bunch of albums in it, and then hit 'go'?
I've got a good portion of my digital collection tagged just the way I like it, and a bunch that needs work.

 

[sKiZo]

Interesting about splitting flac files! I have some vinyl rips where I just did whole sides and now kinda wish I had splitted them to tracks, but the drudgery of doing a re-rip on them has stopped me from doing anything about it.

Don't have to re-rip - just split them in Audacity. That allows you to label the individual tracks. Edit the metadata for the entire album (title, artist, genre, etc), add track titles and numbers as needed, and jRiver will look up the rest when you add the tracks to the library. That's how I ripped all my vinyl - full sides, then break down to tracks in Audacity. I clear the "recently imported" playlist before firing up jRiver after an Audacity session, and when the new stuff shows up, double check and tweak the tags if needed. Works nice.

I am currently using v21 of JRiver, so I'm hoping some of the stability issues I have are addressed in v22 and v23. I keep looking for better alternatives but really haven't found any yet.

JRiver isn't perfect, but so far it's one of the few that do everything I want it to, and can do it properly. It's fussy to set up, but fortunately that only needs to be done once.

Of course beta versions may have issues - that's why it's called beta. I let the brave ones play with those and iron out the lumps. You can set jRiver to only update to full (stable) versions, and definitely set it to only update with your approval. Once it's doing everything the way you want it to, shut off updates entirely - I'n still on the last stable v19 and quite happy with it.

And yes - I DO have occasional issues with jRiver taking a dump on startup - it IS a complex program. I just roll the system back with the latest stable system restore - hasn't failed me yet. I think that's more of a driver issue than anything else, as I have a lot of system tweaks to the sound engine.

If I had a major complaint, it would be that jRiver installs to a new directory with every new version. That blows out a lot of my addons (visualizations and such), and it's a PITA getting those working again. That's more sloppy programming on the part of the folk who produce the addons than anything else.

 

[Alobar]

Don't have to re-rip - just split them in Audacity. That allows you to label the individual tracks. Edit the metadata for the entire album (title, artist, genre, etc), add track titles and numbers as needed, and jRiver will look up the rest when you add the tracks to the library. That's how I ripped all my vinyl - full sides, then break down to tracks in Audacity. I clear the "recently imported" playlist before firing up jRiver after an Audacity session, and when the new stuff shows up, double check and tweak the tags if needed. Works nice.

Yeah that is how I do it with most of the vinyl I have ripped using Audacity. Problem is I did a few lp's without initially splitting them up, and I since have deleted the Audacity project files (as well as the Wav.'s) so all I have left is FLAC files of the album sides.. No way I know of to edit FLAC files from Aud. There probably are other means but I have not looked into it yet..

 

[KrisM]

The publisher - really answers questions. I would ask him.

Cool.
Thanks!

 

[KrisM]

Yeah that is how I do it with most of the vinyl I have ripped using Audacity. Problem is I did a few lp's without initially splitting them up, and I since have deleted the Audacity project files (as well as the Wav.'s) so all I have left is FLAC files of the album sides.. No way I know of to edit FLAC files from Aud. There probably are other means but I have not looked into it yet..

I know nothing about dividing FLAC files(it may be possible), but worst case scenario you could convert them back to WAV, edit, tag, and then go back to FLAC.
Just make sure to keep your original FLAC files as a backup, just in case something goes sideways.

 

[KrisM]

If you convert back to WAV you will loose the *cue file that is made by ripping and encoding one whole side. The *.cue file also holds all the information to tag. What you suggests seems like a waste.

He doesn't have a .cue file, though. He has one big file per album side.
If he wants to divide up those into individual tracks he'll need to get in there and (re)tag them all anyway.

 

[KrisM]

There is a cue file database on the interwebs IF they have the CD listed, all one needs do is download it.

He's not talking about CDs, though. He's talking about his own needledrops.
No way around it, full (vinyl) album side recordings require one to get in there manually.
Unless I'm missing something.