My inspection on AAX files by Link0x at 5:53 AM EST on February 10, 2009
Hi there,
I made some inspections on the AAX audio format. In my case in Sonic Unleashed Xbox 360 version there are many CSB/CBK audio files where the Wii version used either ADX or AIX.
The CSB and CBK files extracted fine using hcs' CSB and CBK tools.. the AAX files so far do not seem playable using Winamp and vgmstream:
However, I found a way: if you try to open an AAX file with UTF_View it shows data segments in them (normally two), called AAX[0], AAX[1] and on-going.
Then it fails with an error message: not a @UTF table at [insert address] here... well, I took the contents of that area and saw: ADX header?
Well I simply extracted the area mentioned by UTF_View.exe and it is a simple ADX file. I have written a mini Delphi based unpacker (CSB/CBK/AAX to ADX) however, as it internally uses CSB_unpack/CBK_unpack/UTF_View it is quite large and I guess it could also work by directly incluing the AAX->ADX converters in to CSB_unpack/CBK_unpack.
The AAX files are indeed playable in vgmstream since r549. If there are particular ones that don't work please bring them to my attention, but all the musical ones play. vgmstream r579 is the latest build.
Since the discussion is regarding AAX, is there a way to directly convert AAX to ADX? I realize I could use VGMstream to output a WAV, and then use adxencd to encode it to an ADX. But since AAX is essentially already an ADX, I was wondering if there was a way to more directly convert it, to avoid reduction in audio quality (due to multiple transcodes). Since I already downloaded the Sonic X360 AAX files, I'd like to be able to put it on my MP3 player and play it in Rockbox (which plays ADX).
Thanks in advance for possible suggests. Mouser X over.
As Link0x says, using utf_view or its code you find the extents of the ADX files within the AAX. You can then extract those and combine them into a single ADX with adxloop. Also I'm not so sure that you will lose quality; if the compressor is any good it should recognize that it can create an ADX with no loss. Haven't tested this theory, though.
AAX are ADX files techinically, viewing the file in a hex editor, first comes the aax header and then the adx header right after that. So basically, you can just remove the aax header and you have a plain ol' adx file
@bxaimc: not quite correct.. AAX files might contain multiple ADX files.. in case of Sonic Unleashed which I was inspecting the structure however was simple:
it either contained one ADX file (non-looping) or two ADX files.. the first is used as an intro, the second is on endless loop!
how do i open a file in utf view by rfd at 11:20 AM EST on March 9, 2012
i would like to know how to open an aax file in utfview
or better how to convert it to wav
is thre a manual or something for all the software mentioned in this thread(i do not know anything about any of the mentioned software so is there a way to inform myself about it (manuals?)