Music Library Doctor
For collectors

Auditing a Roon music library

Roon's signal-path display trusts the wrapper. MLD audits the actual audio — and surfaces what Roon's lossless badge can't see.

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The problem

Roon's signal-path display is one of the cleanest audiophile UIs ever built — every file shows its source format, sample rate, bit depth, and processing chain. The display is precise about what's documented; what it can't show is whether the audio inside a lossless container is actually lossless. A FLAC made from a 128 kbps MP3 source displays in Roon with the same lossless indicators as a 24/96 studio master, because both are FLAC containers. The audit step has to happen outside Roon, on the file system.

How Music Library Doctor does it

  1. 1 Find Roon's watched music folder(s). Roon Settings → Storage → your music storage locations.
  2. 2 Install Music Library Doctor on the machine you can mount the music storage from. Folder Library mode is the relevant fit.
  3. 3 Run a Library Health scan against Roon's music folder. The Audio Quality scan surfaces fake FLACs (scoring 30–55 despite a FLAC container); the Duplicate Scan in acoustic mode catches cross-format duplicates Roon sees as separate albums.
  4. 4 Review and clean up. Move fakes to Trash (reversible) or replace with cleaner versions via Smart Upgrade*. Collapse acoustic duplicates so Roon's album view stops fragmenting.
  5. 5 Trigger a Roon library rescan after cleanup (Storage → Force Rescan). Roon picks up the file changes and the library updates with the cleaner state. (* Smart Upgrade is a Pro feature; rights to replacement content are your responsibility.)

Supported today

Rekordbox · Serato DJ · VirtualDJ (incl. Favorite Folders) on Windows 10+ and macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel).

Why native integration matters

Roon's value proposition is meticulous metadata and signal-path transparency; the failure mode is that it trusts the file system on quality. MLD fills exactly that gap: file system audit that catches what Roon's tag-and-container reading can't see. The integration is no-integration — they share the music folder, period. No plugin, no auth, no Roon API touched. Roon stays focused on what it does best; MLD handles the file-quality audit; both update on their own schedules.

Frequently asked questions

Does this work for Roon Core on a Nucleus or a dedicated NAS?

Yes. Mount the music storage on the machine that runs MLD (your Mac or Windows PC), audit there, write back. The Roon Core doesn't need to do any audit work.

Will Roon's signal-path display change after cleanup?

If MLD removed fake FLACs from the library, Roon will stop displaying them in the lossless tier (they won't be there). If MLD's Smart Upgrade replaced a fake FLAC with a genuinely lossless file, Roon's signal-path display will reflect the new file's properties on next scan.

Does it touch Roon's database?

No. MLD operates on the file system. Roon's database (which holds your edits, ratings, playback history) is untouched. Roon rescans on its own schedule and picks up the file changes.

What about DSD or hi-res content?

MLD's FFT analysis works on decoded audio, so DSD (which converts to PCM for analysis) and hi-res PCM (24/96, 24/192) are scored just like 16/44.1 — based on the spectrum content, not the bit depth or sample rate.

Get your library in shape in minutes

Free tier covers detection and viewing. Lifetime access is $49 — $19 for the first 100 DJs.

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