Server alternative - Not LMS, Plex, Kodi, or Roon

[coati]

Hello. I'm seeking recommendations for my home music server.

Requirements:

• Must be compatible with Logitech Transporter and other Squeezebox devices
• Must run on a recent/high-end NUC under linux
• Must be capable of handling 2 million+ tracks on multiple NAS devices
• Must be capable of custom/arbitrary tags. Not ID3; tags like: Recommended By Steve, or Music Purchased June 2023
• Nice to have: a more modern UI than LMS
• Bonus points: open source
• More bonus: prefer to keep the NUC headless and use a web-based UI for playback control

Plex and Kodi are not compatible with my Logitech devices. LMS doesn't allow for arbitrary tagging. And Roon can't handle 2M+ tracks (believe me, I tried for 6 months to import my library). I'm kind of skeptical that such an alternative exists, but it's worth a shot...

 

[Blumlein 88]

I hope you get an answer, I would like to know myself. Welcome to ASR as you are making your first post.

However, 2 million tracks? One minute per track is nearly 4 years of 24/7 watching/listening. If you only do that 4 hours per day each day then you are more than 2 decades to hear everything once. So I'm curious about that part of your requirements. If Roon does everything else, how many tracks will it handle? I don't happen to know.

 

[kemmler3D]

I would say Jellyfin but it doesn't seem to work with LMS / squeezebox, AFAIK it checks the other boxes, maybe not the tagging.

 

[Beershaun]

Hello. I'm seeking recommendations for my home music server.

Requirements:

• Must be compatible with Logitech Transporter and other Squeezebox devices
• Must run on a recent/high-end NUC under linux
• Must be capable of handling 2 million+ tracks on multiple NAS devices
• Must be capable of custom/arbitrary tags. Not ID3; tags like: Recommended By Steve, or Music Purchased June 2023
• Nice to have: a more modern UI than LMS
• Bonus points: open source

Plex and Kodi are not compatible with my Logitech devices. LMS doesn't allow for arbitrary tagging. And Roon can't handle 2M+ tracks (believe me, I tried for 6 months to import my library). I'm kind of skeptical that such an alternative exists, but it's worth a shot...

Would a potential work around for the Roon track limitations be multiple libraries? I don't know if that would work but just a suggestion. Will need to investigate more...

Would foobar2000 work?

foobar2000

foobar2000

www.foobar2000.org

 

[coati]

I hope you get an answer, I would like to know myself. Welcome to ASR as you are making your first post.

However, 2 million tracks? One minute per track is nearly 4 years of 24/7 watching/listening. If you only do that 4 hours per day each day then you are more than 2 decades to hear everything once. So I'm curious about that part of your requirements. If Roon does everything else, how many tracks will it handle? I don't happen to know.

Thanks for the welcome; glad I found this forum. Yeah, the 2M+ track requirement is definitely a Roon edge case. I never made it past ~1.2M tracks in Roon before the UI became unresponsive and gapless playback failed. The vast majority of the library is digitized 78 RPMs downloaded from the Internet Archive. Hence the arbitrary tagging requirement; very few of the 78s are in Discogs/MusicBrainz/any other database. They are well-tagged but not in any release database that I know of.

 

[coati]

Would a potential work around for the Roon track limitations be multiple libraries? I don't know if that would work but just a suggestion. Will need to investigate more...

That's an interesting idea that I think would require multiple licenses and multiple NUCs. I believe Roon only allows one library per license.

 

[coati]

I would say Jellyfin but it doesn't seem to work with LMS / squeezebox, AFAIK it checks the other boxes, maybe not the tagging.

Thanks for the thought, but I think you're right -- Jellyfin isn't compatible with Logitech/Squeeze hardware.

 

[coati]

Would foobar2000 work?

foobar2000

foobar2000

www.foobar2000.org

Good idea, thanks. It looks like foobar2000 is available as a snap for linux. I would prefer to keep the NUC headless and use a web-based UI for playback control.

 

[Apesbrain]

• Must be capable of custom/arbitrary tags. Not ID3; tags like: Recommended By Steve, or Music Purchased June 2023
• Nice to have: a more modern UI than LMS

LMS does have some custom tag capability via "CustomTagImporter" plugin. Did that not work?
Many have installed "Material Skin" plugin for a modern LMS user interface.

 

[coati]

LMS does have some custom tag capability via "CustomTagImporter" plugin. Did that not work?
Many have installed "Material Skin" plugin for a modern LMS user interface.

Good call on the Material Skin plugin. That's what I'm currently using.

It appears that the Custom Tag Importer plugin requires you to tag your tracks prior to importing into LMS. Not a deal-breaker, but I would prefer to tag my library within the server UI, just like Roon's tagging functionality.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[kemmler3D]

I would prefer to keep the NUC headless and use a web-based UI for playback control.

You can always do a remote desktop session into the NUC, that's what I do with my mini PC that I use for EQ and sometimes CD playback. This is definitely the poor man's "web interface", but it works reasonably well on Windows / Android as long as you don't mind some pretty significant jank.

 

[BillG]

There's nothing else out there that supports the SlimProto streaming protocol other than LMS.

The "Use Comment Tag Info" plug-in may fulfill your needs. However, tag editing is not happening within LMS and will require a third-party solution; I use MP3Tag.

Two other plug-ins that may be of use in your endeavors are the "Advanced Tag View" and "Virtual Library Creator" ones.

 

[coati]

There's nothing else out there that supports the SlimProto streaming protocol other than LMS.

The "Use Comment Tag Info" plug-in that may fulfill your needs. However, tag editing is not happening within LMS and will require a third-party solution; I use MP3Tag.

Two other plug-ins that may be of use in your endeavors are the "Advanced Tag View" and "Virtual Library Creator" ones.

I've been away from LMS for a few years, so those three plugins are new to me. I'll check them out. Thanks!

 

[BillG]

I've been away from LMS for a few years, so those three plugins are new to me. I'll check them out. Thanks!

You're welcome.

Since you've been away from it, if you find yourself in a situation where you need EQ, there's a new DSP plug-in being developed as well for LMS, SqueezeDSP. Although in development, it's stable; I've been using it for several months now for Correction EQ (speaker, room and headphone).

 

[MoreWatts]

You're welcome.

Since you've been away from it, if you find yourself a a situation where you need EQ, there's a new DSP plug-in being developed as well for LMS, SqueezeDSP. Although in development, it's stable; I've been using it for several months now for Correction EQ (speaker, room and headphone).

I'll post this in the Logitech Media Server etc. thread, to give folks who don't frequent the SlimDevices Forum a heads up. Thanks.

 

[FeelinNoPain]

You could try these guys, they might be able to help you. https://www.smallgreencomputer.com/

 

[antcollinet]

Is it mainly the UI of LMS you object to? If so, have you tried the material skin plugin?

 

[coati]

Is it mainly the UI of LMS you object to? If so, have you tried the material skin plugin?

Thanks for posting. You're right; the Material Skin plugin helps a ton. It's my go-to at the moment. I just wish LMS had a native, more intuitive method to group and tag arbitrary tracks. BillG suggested a few plugins that might fill that gap for me.

I found a few additional music server options. Daphile looks interesting, but I think it's proprietary. Also moOde, which is open source and has a beautiful UI (IMHO), but lacks support for Logitech/Squeeze hardware.

 

[BillG]

I found a few additional music server options. Daphile looks interesting, but I think it's proprietary. Also moOde, which is open source and has a beautiful UI (IMHO), but lacks support for Logitech/Squeeze hardware.

Daphile is custom Linux distribution with LMS at its core.

The other one can interface with LMS by activating its squeezelite renderer. I don't know anything else regarding its architecture beyond that, though.

 

[BillG]

I'll post this in the Logitech Media Server etc. thread, to give folks who don't frequent the SlimDevices Forum a heads up. Thanks.

You're welcome...