Binary XACT SoundBank

This is the binary version of the XACT SoundBank (XSB), version 11, as used by Jade Empire on the original Xbox. The Windows PC version of Jade Empire uses an ASCII variant, which contains the same information.

Conceptually, it's very similar to later XSB versions that are used by Microsoft's XNA toolset.

On the top-level, a SoundBank consists of cues and sounds. A sound is a collection of tracks, which each contain a list of events and a list of wave variations, while a cue consists of a list of references to sounds.

A structural example:

• Sounds
  • Sound 0
    • Track 0
      • Event list
        • PLAY
        • LOOP
        • VOLUME
        • PITCH
      • Wave variations
        • Sound 23 out of WaveBank "foobar"
        • Sound 24 out of WaveBank "foobar"
        • Sound 12 out of WaveBank "quux"
  • Sound 1
    • Track 0
      • Event list
        • PLAY
      • Wave variations
        • Sound 24 out of WaveBank "foobar"
    • Track 1
      • Event list
        • PLAY
      • Wave variations
        • Sound 25 out of WaveBank "foobar"
• Cues
  • Cue 0
    • Cue variations
      • Sound 0
      • Sound 1
  • Cue 1
    • Cue variations
      • Sound 0
  • Cue 2
    • Cue variations
      • Sound 1

Both the cue variation and the wave variation can be selected using different methods. For example, they could be played in order, or randomly. Or they could be explicitly selected by game.

Structures

All numerical values are little-endian.

Header

Offset	Size	Description
0x00	4	FourCC, "SDBK"
0x04	2	Version, 11 (0B 00)
0x06	2	CRC
0x08	4	Offset to WaveBank array
0x0C	4	Offset to ?
0x10	4	Offset to 3D parameters array
0x14	4	Offset to ?
0x18	2	XSB flags
0x1A	2	Number of ?
0x1C	2	Number of sounds (soundCount)
0x1E	2	Number of cues (cueCount)
0x20	2	Number of ?
0x22	2	Number of WaveBanks
0x24	4	?
0x28	16	SoundBank name
0x38	cueCount * 20	Cue entries
0x38 + cueCount * 20	soundCount * 20	Sound entries

WaveBank entry

Offset	Size	Description
0x00	16	WaveBank file name (without extension)

Cue entry

Offset	Size	Description
0x00	2	Flags
0x02	2	Sound index, if the cue has only one variation. 0xFFFF otherwise
0x04	4	Offset to name. 0xFFFFFFFF if the cue has no name. Should be ignored if XSB_FLAG_NO_CUE_NAMES is set
0x08	4	Offset to variations. 0xFFFFFFFF if the sound has no variations
0x0C	4	?
0x10	4	?

Sound entry

Offset	Size	Description
0x00	4	Offset to non-trivial entry, or 2 bytes of wave index and 2 bytes of wavebank index
0x04	2	Volume
0x06	2	Pitch
0x08	1	Number of tracks
0x09	1	Layer
0x0A	1	Category
0x0B	1	Flags
0x0C	2	Index into the 3D parameters array
0x0E	1	Priority
0x0F	1	3D volume
0x10	2	EQ?
0x12	2	EQ?

Simple sound track (one track, one event (PLAY), multiple wave variations)

Offset	Size	Description
0x00	4	13 bits: Number of variations (variationCount) 4 bits: Variation selection method 13 bits: Current variation 2 bits: Flags
0x04	variationCount * 4	Variation entry (2 bytes of wave index and 2 bytes of wavebank index)

Complex sound tracks (multiple tracks or more than just a simple PLAY event)

Offset	Size	Description
0x00	1	Number of events
0x01	3	Offset to event list

Variation table

Offset	Size	Description
0x00	4	13 bits: Number of variations (variationCount) 4 bits: Variation selection method 13 bits: Current variation 2 bits: Flags
0x04	variationCount * 8	Variation entry

Event list entry

Offset	Size	Description
0x00	1	Event type
0x01	3	?
0x04	1	Parameter size in bytes
0x05	1	Flags
0x06	2	?
....		Parameters

Event list entry for a PLAY or PLAY_COMPLEX event

Offset	Size	Description
0x00	1	Event type (= 0x00 or 0x01)
0x01	3	?
0x04	1	Parameter size in bytes (= 0x04 or 0x10)
0x05	1	Flags
0x06	2	?
0x08	4	If XSB_PLAY_EVENT_FLAG_COMPLEX in Flags is set, this is an offset to a wave variation list (see "Simple sound track" above). Otherwise, this is 2 bytes of a sound index followed by 2 bytes of bank index.

Variation entry

Offset	Size	Description
0x00	2	Sound index
0x02	2	?
0x04	2	Weight minimum
0x06	2	Weight maximum

3D parameters entry

Offset	Size	Description
0x00	2	Inside cone angle
0x02	2	Outside cone angle
0x04	2	Cone outside volume
0x06	2	?
0x08	4	minimum distance
0x0C	4	maximum distance
0x10	4	Distance factor
0x14	4	Rolloff factor
0x18	4	Doppler factor
0x1C	1	Mode
0x1D	4	?
0x20	4	?
0x24	4	?

Flags

XSB flags

Name	Value	Description
XSB_FLAG_NO_CUE_NAMES	0x0001	If set, cues in the XSB file have no human-readable name

Cue flags

Name	Value	Description
XSB_CUE_FLAG_INTERACTIVE	0x0008	If set, the cue is interactive

Sound flags

Name	Value	Description
XSB_SOUND_FLAG_3D	0x01	If set, the sound has 3D parameters
XSB_SOUND_FLAG_TRIVIAL	0x08	If set, the sound only has one track, one event (PLAY) and one wave variation
XSB_SOUND_FLAG_SIMPLE	0x10	If set, the sound only has one track, one event (PLAY), but multiple wave variations

PLAY event flags

Name	Value	Description
XSB_PLAY_EVENT_FLAG_COMPLEX	0x04	Complex wave variations definition

Enums

Event types

Name	Value	Description
XSB_EVENT_TYPE_PLAY	0x00	Play a wave, from start to finish
XSB_EVENT_TYPE_PLAY_COMPLEX	0x01	Play a wave, with parameters
XSB_EVENT_TYPE_STOP	0x03	Stop playing
XSB_EVENT_TYPE_PITCH	0x04	Set the pitch
XSB_EVENT_TYPE_VOLUME	0x05	Set the volume
XSB_EVENT_TYPE_LOWPASS	0x07	Low-pass filter
XSB_EVENT_TYPE_LFO_PITCH	0x08	Low-frequency oscillator on the pitch
XSB_EVENT_TYPE_LFO_MULTI	0x09	Low-frequency oscillator on the pitch and amplitude
XSB_EVENT_TYPE_ENVELOPE_AMPLITUDE	0x0A	DAHDSR envelope on the amplitude
XSB_EVENT_TYPE_ENVELOPE_PITCH	0x0B	DAHDSR envelope on the pitch
XSB_EVENT_TYPE_LOOP	0x0C	Loop a wave
XSB_EVENT_TYPE_MARKER	0x0E	Marker
XSB_EVENT_TYPE_DISABLED	0x0F	A disabled event
XSB_EVENT_TYPE_MIXBINS	0x10	Set a separate volume for each channel
XSB_EVENT_TYPE_ENVIRONMENT_REVERB	0x11	Environmental reverb
XSB_EVENT_TYPE_MIXBINSPAN	0x12	Set channel volumes according to a listener orientation

Variation selection methods

Name	Value	Description
XSB_VARIATION_SELECT_PARAMETER	0x03	Parameter-controlled