· Easier way to reorder files with correct metadata track? I have ripped some multichannel albums - SACD, DVD-Audio, Blu-Ray Audio - and getting the tracks tagged properly is onerous. In the attached example, for this album there are two sets of twelve tracks, one set in stereo and another in 5.1. Using common software (ISO2DSD), these sets of files are placed in separate directories. I identify the album, find the right one, and see that the formats are represented as disk 1, 2, and 3. For the 5.1 tracks, I need to move each of these 24 slots downward. With scrolling the windows up and down, this is over 300 mouse clicks. It's roughly the same for each multichannel album - thousands and thousands of mouse clicks. Is there an easier way? Please tell me I'm doing this wrong!
Before anything else, please tell us what format ISO2DSD wrote out, .dsf or .dff, and open one of the 5.1 files in a tag editor to see what it actually carries.
The reason we ask is that ISO2DSD is an extraction tool rather than a tagging tool, and what comes out of it is often thin. If you extracted to .dff, there is no standard place to put tags in that format at all, so Roon has nothing to build an order from and the manual dragging you are doing is the only thing holding it together. That would explain the whole problem, and it is not something we can fix from our side.
Roon builds track and disc order from the files’ own tags. So the work is worth doing once, properly, in a tag editor before Roon sees the files, rather than repeatedly in the interface where a rescan or a library rebuild can undo it. Any of the common editors will do a whole folder in one pass, for example Mp3tag, Kid3 or Yate. What matters is that each set carries its own DISCNUMBER and a clean TRACKNUMBER run of 1 through 12.
One suggestion worth considering separately. You may not want these as a single three-disc album. The stereo and 5.1 versions of the same record are usually easier to live with as two albums, because you pick the one you want to hear instead of scrolling past twelve tracks you did not want. If you would rather have that, give each folder its own album title, for example adding “(5.1)” to the multichannel one.
If a bulk reorder tool inside Roon is what you actually want, please post it in Feature Suggestions. That category is read by the product team, and a request with other users behind it carries more weight than anything we pass along internally.
What I do with all my SACDs or DSD files (if available in multiple formats:
Own directory for each format and in album title added the format in rounded brackets (like (SACD - Stereo) or (SACD -Multi)).
In Roon then you’ve multiple versions of this album and you can set the preferred one as standard (for me it’s the stereo version, because most of my endpoints are stereo only)
These files are extracted to DSF and have tags. I do keep the formats in separate folders and tag them in Roon separately. This largely works for me, and they do show up in Roon as different “versions” (5.1, 4.0, Stereo, different re-masters).
Like the Duke Ellington example, I will find the release that makes the most sense - one that optimally includes all tracks and names them appropriately (5.1 mix, as above).
The pain point is that I need to click on the arrow next to the track name (often dozens of times for each track). My tracks are in individual folders and labeled 1-x. Not the “Disk 3, track 5” as above, or track 35-50 in other cases.
My ask is… is there, or can there be a way to directly change the mapping of “Track 03 - Solitude.dsf” (track tag/name) from “Disk 1, track 3” (default association) to “Disk 3, track 3” (desired target).
One question first, because it decides which of two fairly different answers applies: do you want the multichannel rip to end up as a separate version of the album (which is what you described happening today, 5.1, 4.0 and Stereo showing as versions), or as Disc 3 of a single multi-disc album? Those are two different outcomes in Roon with different setups, and the post reads a little like both at once. That may be where the friction is coming from.
Why there’s no direct mapping field: when an album is identified, the disc and track numbers you see come from the identified release. Your files’ own disc and track tags are what Roon uses to line each file up against that release’s slots. So there isn’t a per-file “put this on Disc 3, Track 3” override to reach for, the disc/track tag is the mapping. Get the tag right and the alignment happens on import, with no clicking at all.
That’s why we’d point at the tags rather than the interface, and there are two specific things worth checking.
1. The disc number tag specifically
DSF files carry ID3v2 tags, where disc number lives in the TPOS field (usually shown as “Disc Number” or DISCNUMBER in a tag editor). The SACD/DVD-A extraction tools reliably write album, artist, title and track number, but most of them don’t write a disc number at all. If it’s missing, Roon has no option but to treat each folder as Disc 1, which matches exactly what you’re seeing.
Could you open one of the 5.1 files in Mp3tag (Alt+T for the extended tag view), Kid3 or Yate and confirm whether a disc number is actually present, and what value it holds? “Has tags” and “has a disc number tag” often turn out to be different things with these rips.
2. The folder layout
All discs of a set need to sit under a single parent album folder, either as CD1/CD2/CD3 subfolders, or flat with 01-01, 03-01 style filenames. Splitting discs into separate album-level folders works against grouping:
Separate album-level folders per format, combined with no disc number tag, will produce “everything is Disc 1” every time.
If you want one multi-disc album
Move the format folders under one parent album folder, named to match the release’s disc layout (CD1, CD2, CD3)
In Mp3tag, select all files in the 5.1 folder, press Alt+T, and set DISCNUMBER to 3/3
Keep ALBUM and ALBUMARTIST identical across all discs
Track numbers restart at 1 on each disc
Optionally set DISCSUBTITLE to 5.1 Mix, Roon will label the disc with it
Rescan, then identify
That’s a handful of operations for the whole album rather than per-track clicking, and it survives a rescan or a library rebuild, which edits made in the interface don’t always do.
If you want separate versions instead
Tag every folder as 1/1, leave the folders separate, let each one identify on its own, and use version grouping with a preferred version, as Burkhardt described. In that case the disc number never needs to change and the whole mapping problem disappears.
On the broader ask
A direct field to type disc and track numbers in the editor has been raised before. Adding your vote and your use case there keeps it all in one place:
Thanks @benjamin for clearly describing the options.
I do want to keep these as separate versions, so I’ll continue to have tracks in different folders.
When I Edit | Identify Album, I choose the same release (when possible) for both sets of folders, and fortunately, many do have an “Other release” that has the 5.1 versions called out, which I like to see in the track name.
Thank you for calling out the feedback thread that describes what I’m really looking for. I’ll monitor that for any movement.
