NEWS: Kaleidescape Conductor is being retired

[Kostas]

Received below email from K:

The Kaleidescape Conductor application has historically made it easy for customers to export music (imported from CDs) to their iTunes library on a Windows computer. However, the termination of music guide updates and the use of unsupported Apple APIs make it necessary for us to discontinue this feature. When our upcoming software release rolls out mid-September, installed versions of Kaleidescape Conductor will no longer be compatible with Kaleidescape servers. To prepare for this, customers can uninstall Conductor and install our recently released Music Export tool.

In May 2020, we introduced Kaleidescape Music Export, a tool that allows customers to export any portion of their Kaleidescape music library onto their home computer in lossless file formats. It runs on both Windows and macOS operating systems and is highly configurable. To download Kaleidescape Music Export and find details on the tool, see the knowledge base article at:
https://support.kaleidescape.com/article/Kaleidescape-Music-Export

Customers who still have Kaleidescape Conductor installed after the upcoming kOS 8.7.0 software release may see the following message, and attempts to upgrade the tool will fail:

To be ready for Conductor’s retirement and to take advantage of lossless quality export options, customers can uninstall Conductor and install Kaleidescape Music Export prior to the kOS 8.7.0 release.

Thank you,

The Kaleidescape Team

 

[JohnJ]

Thanks for the alert on this! I converted to Roon last year and used the Kaleidescape Music Export tool to get all my CD’s moved to my NAS so they could be used by Roon. It was a VERY easy process.

John

 

[Kostas]

Thanks for the alert on this! I converted to Roon last year and used the Kaleidescape Music Export tool to get all my CD’s moved to my NAS so they could be used by Roon. It was a VERY easy process.

John

Did exactly the same, I confirm.

 

[AlienW]

Will the music guide (frozen to new updates since June 30, 2020) continue to recognize CDs when they are imported?

 

[cinelife]

For those with Roon, have any of you used their Nucleus in the system, or are you using some other NAS? If using Nucleus, what's your opinion of that product? Thanks.

Jim

 

[cinelife]

Will the music guide (frozen to new updates since June 30, 2020) continue to recognize CDs when they are imported?

Yes, BUT, only for CD's the guide had in the system prior to that 2020 date. So, if you try to import a CD that was already in the movie guide, it will be identified as usual. If it's a CD that is not in the guide, it will still import but you'll have to do the manual input of data yourself (Cover art, tracks, etc..)

BTW, I'm not referring to YOUR CD's that were in the guide before that date, I'm referring to the 1000's of CD's that were already in the guide. If you import one of those it will be fully recognized. Just wanted to be clear.

Jim

 

[SJHT]

For those with Roon, have any of you used their Nucleus in the system, or are you using some other NAS? If using Nucleus, what's your opinion of that product? Thanks.

Jim

I use my Mac mini as the core. Nucleus is probably the simplest. Roon is great and has led me to listen to a lot more music (have Qobuz as my main service)…. Works great with my Trinnov

 

[Kurvenal]

For those with Roon, have any of you used their Nucleus in the system, or are you using some other NAS? If using Nucleus, what's your opinion of that product? Thanks.

Jim

Hi Jim,

I am a big fan of Roon and have a Nucleus+. Basically it is a customized Intel NUC running on Linux. Since this is a forum for Kaleidescape users, I am not going to bother justifying the price premium for the Nucleus over a DIY NUC Roon server solution. Suffice it to say that my Nucleus+ is sitting comfortably in my rack with an ethernet cable as its only input and works absolutely like a charm with the Roon Ready Trinnov Altitude in my theater and Trinnov Amethyst in my living room, and is a great UI for distributed audio in 12 other zones with Roon Ready Bluesound Node 2i as the sources. I opted for Roon as my primary distributed audio UI over a matrix switcher even though I had to give up the control system integration because Roon can handle high res content up to 192 kHz, whereas I would have had to downsample with a matrix switcher.

Although the Nucleus+ (vs just the Nucleus) is primarily marketed for larger music libraries, it is also recommended for users with many distributed audio zones, particularly if you are using Roon’s built-in EQ across multiple zones, which requires a lot of processing power.

Roon has a very feature rich UI, and recent software releases have brought many new features to keep Roon competitive with standalone streaming services. What really sets Roon apart though is its vast network of partnerships with audiophile grade hardware brands.

Some lessons I learnt along the way:
1) Some sources are more “Roon Ready” than others. Dig deeply on the Roon Community forums before committing to a particular brand. No issues whatsoever with Trinnov compatibility (although I did have to increase the Audio Buffer Size on the Amethyst to avoid dropouts with 192 kHz content), but I had MAJOR issues with NAD multi-zone players so had to swap them out for a Bluesound Node 2i for each zone.
2) When I first installed Roon, it could not handle having my iPad controller on one network vlan with my music players on another. I think they may have fixed this in a recent release, but if you are having problems definitely look out for that.
3) Although Roon are trying to promote the Nucleus for the custom channel by making a Crestron module available for the Nucleus only, my integrator‘s programmer has refused to implement it because he says it is not stable (I would be interested in hearing from others who may have had a different experience). So the best I can do from my control system is open the Roon app on my iPad and switch on the amps. Having said this, the iOS controller software is very cool.
4) Although Roon supports multi-channel playback up to 7.1, there is precious little multi-channel content available on either Tidal or Qobuz (the only streaming services available through Roon), so if you want multi-channel you will most likely have to go the download route or rip from discs (fortunately Roon was initially designed for NAS music libraries). Roon also does not appear to be very interested in supporting immersive formats like Dolby Atmos, but it is still too early tell how Apple’s entry into spatial audio may cause some shifts in the market.

Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss further.

 

[cinelife]

Thanks John!

@Kurvenal, thank you for that info, very helpful! Still undecided, but the info you provided helps with the decision, very much appreciated!

Jim

 

[JohnJ]

I have the Roon core running on Synology NAS. It has worked fine until recently Synology updated to DiskStation Manager 7.0. My wife needed this for her photography/photo editing hobby and we updated to DSM 7.0. Unfortunately, the Roon core does not work with this update. I have a patch from a user on the Roon forum that I have tried but now I get some other errors that I am troubleshooting.

The Nucleus would avoid these kind of issues.

John

 

[graytek]

I have Roon integrated with Crestron and would be happy to discuss in detail with anyone here - just send me a DM.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Steve Bruzonsky]

Can the KScape Music Export export the audio tracks from KScape movies/videos/concerts? I don't need it for non-video music as I rip blu ray music via DVD Audio Extractor (using AnyDVD HD to decrypt) and I rip SACDs as well, and of course CDs are easy to rip, and I buy music including hi res on line as well. I'm as bad a music ripper and downloader as I am a KScape movie/video owner collector.

 

[Steve Bruzonsky]

And same for me, I've been using and loving ROON for years. Over 12 TB of music including over 900 multi-channel albums on my server, much hi res. Multiple systems in my home using ROON (theater under upgrade, Trinnov Altitude 32 SSP ROON Ready, family room Exasound s88 7.1ch DAC ROON Ready, Bluesound Pulse 2i portable ROON Ready though I use it where I don't have hardwired ethernet thus using its Airplay 2.0. If you have questions glad to see if I can help, just PM me your phone - much easier than writing on a PC or phone back and forth.

 

[9riffTX]

Roon as a product is a great way to stream some, but not all, content from online providers. The Nucleus is in some ways like a Terra/Strato offering in that it can power more simultaneous streams than some may ever need, there is an "it just works" appeal to it. As someone who runs Roon on an iMac, not having to "wake" the system up to listen to music may be worth the price of admission alone.

 

[cinelife]

Thanks to all you guys for the info, much appreciated.

Steve, the Music Export is only for CD's, it does not reach music videos.

Thanks again!

Jim

 

[JohnJ]

Can the KScape Music Export export the audio tracks from KScape movies/videos/concerts? I don't need it for non-video music as I rip blu ray music via DVD Audio Extractor (using AnyDVD HD to decrypt) and I rip SACDs as well, and of course CDs are easy to rip, and I buy music including hi res on line as well. I'm as bad a music ripper and downloader as I am a KScape movie/video owner collector.

No, it only works with CD content that has been loaded on a Premiere system.

John

 

[paulc]

I have Roon Nucleus Plus that I purchased "bare bones". I installed an after-market 4 TB SSD. I was upgrading my system and included a Roon in that upgrade. One of the items upgraded was going from our CP2E Crestron Processor to an MC4 (Series 4) Crestron Processor. The integrator found that Roon module was not compatible, contacted Roon and Roon has just informed our integrator that they are not going to provide an updated module to support the Series 4 Crestron Processors, at least not at this time, since he was the only integrator asking for that support. Apparently, Roon modules work on the lower Series Crestron Processors. I have not really used the Roon too much, so don't feel able to comment on it yet, only recently installed. I did use the export tool from KScape to put all of an existing music library on the Roon SSD. I have used a Roon phone app to play music, but have not really used the features available in Roon. Not sure of which subscription service to get, probably not both. My understanding is that you can own the music in one, but not the other. Is there a fidelity difference? I believe so, with a higher subscription service. I regret if this is a bit mixed up addressing multiple issues/items. In the meantime, we are also continuing to use our 1U Plus Server and K4000 Music Player for music playback during our transition.

 

[AlienW]

@J.Green Is there any chance of adding the ability to export mix albums as m3u playlists in the new Music Export Tool? This is one really important feature that will be lost with the sunset of Conductor.

 

[J.Green]

I will forward the request to the development team but I can't make any promises.

 

[cinelife]

Thanks to all that commented on Roon. I'll likely add that brand to the lines we offer, appreciate all the feedback.

Jim