The San Andreas Audio Toolkit (SAAT) User Manual
Current Version: 1.10
The San Andreas Audio Toolkit (SAAT) is a set of commandline tools useful for modding the PC version of the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. SAAT allows the importing of music files into SA audio streams and the importing of WAVe files into SA sfx archives. It will also necessarily allow exporting from each type of archive into individual files.
SAAT was written by Dave Schmitt (AKA "P.D. Escobar") in C++; it is an open-source program released under the GNU General Public License. It was based on the open-source program Radio Free San Andreas and uses several open-source libraries: libogg and libvorbis for Ogg Vorbis processing and libsndfile for other sound processing.
Resources
Download Locations for Version 1.10
SAAT is distributed in two primary locations.
From the official website: http://pdescobar.home.comcast.net/gta/saat/SAAT_release_1_10.zip
From GTA Garage: http://www.gtagarage.com/mods/show.php?id=1186
Official Website
The official SAAT website is http://pdescobar.home.comcast.net/gta/saat/. It contains the most recent version of this README file, other documentation, and the distribution downloads.
Feedback
The main place for discussion and feedback on SAAT is its GTA Forums thread: http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=225049. You may also contact the author directly via email.
Installation
Windows Binaries
To install, simply unzip the archive and copy/move saat_stream.exe, saat_sfx.exe, and all INI files to a useful location such as the GTASA main directory. To use, follow the directions below and then follow the usage or examples.
Open a Command Prompt window. On Windows XP this is done by choosing Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt.
In the Command Prompt window, type the name of the drive where you installed the executables and hit return. For example, if you installed the executables to drive D: you would type
D:
and then return.
Change to the directory where you installed the executables by using the cd command. For example, if you installed the executables to D:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\GTA San Andreas you would type
cd "D:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\GTA San Andreas"
and then return.
You are now ready to use the program; see the usage or examples for more.
Source
To install from source, unzip the full archive and open a command prompt to the src directory. Open Makefile in an editor and change the PLATFORM variable to a value useful for your environment, editing as necessary. Then simply type 'make' in the source directory to compile. After compilation, you would follow the instructions for the binary installation above.
Usage
Stream tool
saat_stream.exe -e
Simple export mode; exports all tracks from , storing the Ogg
Vorbis files in an appropriately named subdirectory of .
saat_stream.exe -r
RFSA export mode; like -e but uses contents of for additional
descriptive information to tag and name the exported files.
Note: running RFSA mode on modified streams could lead to confusion.
saat_stream.exe -i
Import mode; creates based on the information and filename
references in . Also updates to reflect the changes
SFX tool
saat_sfx.exe -e
Export mode; exports all sounds from , storing the WAVe
files in an appropriately named subdirectory of .
Uses to help locate sounds within the archive.
saat_sfx.exe -i
Import mode; creates based on the information and filename
references in . Also updates to reflect the changes
Exporting streams example: BEATS
Assumptions:
This example assumes that GTASA is installed to the directory c:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\GTA San Andreas\.
It also assumes that saat_stream.exe is in that directory.
It further assumes that directory c:\temp exists and is usable.
Steps:
Open a command prompt window and change to the GTASA install directory
At the command prompt type the following:
saat_stream -e audio\streams\BEATS c:\temp\saat
This will create a directory called c:\temp\saat\BEATS which will contain the 10 Ogg Vorbis tracks from that stream (files named simply such as "Track_001.ogg") and a file called stream_import.ini which can be used to import any changes.
Exporting streams with metadata example: BEATS
Assumptions:
This example assumes that GTASA is installed to the directory c:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\GTA San Andreas\.
It also assumes that saat_stream.exe and metadata-full.ini are in that directory.
It further assumes that directory c:\temp exists and is usable.
Steps:
Open a command prompt window and change to the GTASA install directory
At the command prompt type the following:
saat_stream -r audio\streams\BEATS c:\temp\saat metadata-full.ini
This will create a directory called c:\temp\saat\Beats which will contain the 10 Ogg Vorbis tracks from that stream (files named descriptively such as "Club Dance Track #2 (Hollywood Swingin').ogg" & tagged with appropriate comments) and a file called stream_import.ini which can be used to import any changes.
Importing streams example: Replacing two dance tracks.
Assumptions:
This example assumes you've done the above BEATS export (example A) and it makes all of the same assumptions that example A makes.
It also assumes that you have a file somewhere called "New Dance.ogg"
It further assumes that you have a second file c:\music\dance_mix.ogg
Steps:
Copy "New Dance.ogg" into the c:\temp\saat\BEATS directory.
Open c:\temp\saat\BEATS\stream_import.ini in notepad and look in the section [Track_003] (this is originally "Funky President")
Change the line which says "filename = Track_003.ogg" so that it says "filename = New Theme.ogg"
Now look in the section [Track_004] (this is originally "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang")
Change the line which says "filename = Track_004.ogg" so that it says "filename = c:\music\dance_mix.ogg"
Save the changes and exit notepad.
Backup your original BEATS audio stream and the TrakLkup.dat file Using the game directory from the example, these files would be:
c:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\GTA San Andreas\audio\streams\BEATS
c:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\GTA San Andreas\audio\CONFIG\TrakLkup.dat
Go back to the command prompt from the previous example and type:
saat_stream -i audio\streams\BEATS c:\temp\saat\BEATS\stream_import.ini audio\CONFIG\TrakLkup.dat
Start a new game, head to the dance club, enter the red marker and hear your new music.
Note, the dance moves remain unchanged from the original songs in this example.
Exporting sound effects example: GENRL
Assumptions:
This example assumes that GTASA is installed to the directory c:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\GTA San Andreas\.
This example assumes that GTASA is installed to the directory c:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\GTA San Andreas\
It also assumes that saat_sfx.exe is in that directory
It further assumes that directory c:\temp exists and is usable
Steps:
Open a command prompt window and cd to the GTASA install directory
At the command prompt type the following:
saat_sfx -e audio\SFX\GENRL c:\temp\saat audio\CONFIG\BankLkup.dat
This will create a directory called c:\temp\saat\GENRL which will contain a file called sfx_import.ini and 137 Bank_XXX subdirectories; each of these directories will contain WAV format sound files.
Importing sound effects example: Changing the emergency vehicle siren.
Assumptions:
This example assumes you've done the above GENRL export and assumes all of the same things that example assumed.
It also assumes that you have a 16-bit PCM mono WAV file somewhere called "siren.wav"; the sample rate of the sound shouldn't matter.
Steps:
Open c:\temp\saat\GENRL\sfx_import.ini in notepad and look in the section [Bank_068]
Copy siren.wav to the c:\temp\saat\GENRL directory.
The main siren is sound 011 and the alternate siren that plays when you use the horn is sound 012. Assuming we want to replace the main siren, change the line "sound_011.filename = Bank_068\sound_011.wav" to instead say "sound_011.filename = siren.wav"
Save the changes and exit notepad.
Backup your original GENRL sfx archive and the BankLkup.dat file Using the game directory from the example, these files would be:
c:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\GTA San Andreas\audio\SFX\GENRL
c:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\GTA San Andreas\audio\CONFIG\BankLkup.dat
Go back to the command prompt from the previous example and type:
saat_sfx -i audio\SFX\GENRL c:\temp\saat\GENRL\sfx_import.ini audio\CONFIG\BankLkup.dat
Load a game, grab an emergency vehicle and enjoy your new siren.
In order for your sounds to play correctly in the game, they must be in the proper format. Thus, it will be highly useful to have an audio editor or conversion program available. There are many such programs, but one of note is Audacity. I single out Audacity because it is an open source audio editor and it is one of the tools used to test SAAT. Audacity is available at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Streams
Currently, SAAT will only accept Ogg Vorbis files for stream import. The bitrate shouldn't matter but the unmodified game uses variable bitrate files so that would be the preference. The most important thing is that the Ogg Vorbis files must be in stereo. If you import a mono file, it will play at double speed resulting in a "chipmunk" effect. If you have a mono file, make a stereo file out of it by duplicating the original single track for both the left and right channels before importing.
Also note that there appear to be some minimum length restrictions on stream tracks. In testing, very short (< 2 seconds) sounds worked fine for AMBIENCE sounds, but caused problems when used as part of radio songs. Within the radio streams, all radio songs/shows are broken up into several pieces. There are one or more small "intro" segments, a large "mid" segment, and one or more small "outro" segments. When the track is played, the game randomly picks an intro and outro and then plays the three selected pieces in order. In the unmodified game, the shortest pieces are in the area of 7-10 seconds. In limited testing, pieces of 5 seconds or less seemed to confuse the game and cause long pauses of "dead air" after the piece was played. More testing should be done in this area, but for now be cautious about using very short song pieces.
Sound Effects
SAAT can handle most of the file formats that libsndfile can process. Since all the original sound effects are mono, 16-bit integer (little endian), PCM (uncompressed) WAVe files (without headers,) that is the preferred format. As with the streams, the most important thing is that it is a mono sound. If you have a stereo sound, you must mix it down to a single channel before you import it. Otherwise, in the game it will play at half speed. You should not have to worry about the sample rate as the game uses whatever rate it is told to use; however, the sample rate of the exported sound is listed in the import INI file. This will allow you to ensure the replacement sound uses the same rate if you would like to be extra cautious.
The following formats have worked in testing and will probably work for you:
mono 16-bit PCM WAV (preferred as no internal conversion is necessary)
mono 8-bit PCM WAV
mono 4-bit MS ADPCM WAV
mono 4-bit IMA ADPCM WAV
mono 16-bit PCM AIFF
mono 8-bit PCM AIFF
mono 16-bit PCM AU
mono 8-bit ULAW AU
The following formats have not worked in testing and should be avoided:
mono 32-bit float WAV
mono 32-bit float AIFF
mono headerless RAW
stereo anything (see notes above)
These formats may be supported in future versions of SAAT.
For other formats, if it is supported for reading by libsndfile, there is a chance it will work. Feel free to experiment with such formats and report back to the author so it can be included in the documentation of future versions. The libsndfile homepage is http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/
One final note, imported sfx files must be less than 10MB. Anything over that will definitely cause a problem, and sfx files close to that might cause a problem. Since the largest sound in the unmodified game is approximately .5 MB this really shouldn't be an issue.
Useful INI values
SAAT uses INI files for a variety of purposes. Currently, there are three main types of INI files: metadata files, stream import files, and sfx import files. What follows are brief format outlines and useful values for these.
Because SAAT was born of RFSA, it uses an INI file for metadata information
when doing stream exports.
The metadata INI should have a [global] section for tagging
information relevant to every stream in the game. In this section,
two key strings are useful.
1. albumprefix -- The ALBUM tag for each file will be comosed of this
prefix followed by the 'station' name for the stream.
2. defaultartist -- If ARTIST tag information is not given for an
individual track or individual stream, this is used; it is the last
resort and if missing, the hardcoded default is "Rockstar North"
B. stream sections (md5 string or basename)
RFSA used an MD5 checksum as the stream identifier. In order to
maintain RFSA compatibility, these checksums can still be used, but
due to the SAAT implementation, they are faked. That means that the
checksum [8a388107cdf3934b3f7a3f1e2b33199c] will be interpreted as
the AA stream regardless of the actual contents of AA.
SAAT also allows a more simple basename as the stream identifier.
Thus, information for stream AA can be placed in a section [AA]
This is the preferred identifier and will be used first if found.
In stream sections the following key strings are useful. Note that
most are of the form "trackX.YYYY"; these are track-specific and
only apply to track 'X'. For example, track5.title is the title
for track 5.
1. stream -- unused by the program; mere description in the supplied
metadata-full.ini so that the user knows at a glance which stream
the section applies to since most people don't know the md5 sums.
2. station -- used as the subdirectory name for the exported tracks
and as part of the ALBUM tag for each track in the stream.
3. defaultartist -- default ARTIST tag for the stream; generally the
voice actor for the station DJ(s).
4. trackX.title -- TITLE tag for the track and default filename;
if it is used for the filename, ".ogg" is appended and it may be
sanitized to remove problem characters.
5. trackX.filename -- specific filename to override use of title. If
not present, trackX.title is used; if neither is present the
hardcoded default of "Track_xxx.ogg" is used.
6. trackX.artist -- ARTIST tag for the track. If not present, the
stream defaultartist is used; if neither is present, the [global]
defaultartist is used.
II. stream import INI files
Information related to how to build a stream when importing is stored
in a stream import INI file. Such a file is automatically generated
when exporting, but in theory could be created from scratch.
The stream import INI must have a [Stream] section for global
stream-related information. Note the capitalization. In this section,
the following key strings are useful.
1. basename -- currently unused by importer; contains the base filename
of the stream which was exported
2. lookup_index -- in order to pick out the proper track in the stream
archive, the game uses a lookup table called TrakLkup.dat; this is
the index of the imported stream within that file. You should only
change this if you really know what you are doing. Note that if
you export from a stream with a nonstandard name, SAAT will warn
and set the lookup_index to -1; in that case you must change it
to a valid value before importing with that INI. In the unmodified
game, the following indices are used for the streams:
0 = AA (Police)
1 = ADVERTS
2 is unused by the game
3 = AMBIENCE
4 = BEATS
5 = CH (Playback)
6 = CO (KROSE)
7 = CR (KDST)
8 = CUTSCENE
9 = DS (Bounce FM)
10 = HC (SFUR)
11 = MH (Radio Los Santos)
12 = MR (Radio X)
13 = NJ (CSR)
14 = RE (KJAH West)
15 = RG (MasterSounds)
16 = TK (WCTR)
3. num_tracks -- the number of actual tracks in the stream; this really
should not be changed and there must be an equivalent number of
[Track_XXX] sections or bad things will happen.
The stream import INI must have a [Track_XXX] section for each track
which will be imported into the stream. The first track will use
section [Track_001], the second [Track_002], etc. Useful key strings:
1. beat_total -- If a given track will be used for the Dance minigame
or the LowRider Challenge minigame, it must have the "beat"
information defined in the stream. If the beat_total is 0, there
will be no such information stored in the stream. However, if the
beat_total is nonzero then the track section should contain the
beat information which will be imported. In the unmodified game,
only 6 tracks in the BEATS stream contain such information.
2. beat_YYY.timing -- If the track has beats, there should be timings
defined for each one. Thus if your beat_total is 170 there should
be 170 separate beat_YYY.timing entries numbered consecutively
from beat_000.timing through beat_169.timing; they don't necessarily
have to be listed in numerical order. Each timing value is the number
of elapsed miliseconds from the start of the song when the beat
should be entered. As such, beat_001.timing should be a higher
value than beat_000.timing and so on. If this is not the case, SAAT
will warn you on import and attempt to adjust the timings.
3. beat_YYY.control -- If the track has beats, there should be controls
defined for each one. Thus if your beat_total is 170 there should
be 170 separate beat_YYY.control entries numbered consecutively
from beat_000.control through beat_169.control; they don't
necessarily have to be listed in numerical order. Each control
value is an identifier for which key must be pressed to enter that
beat. The following control values are useful and dance values
probably should not be mixed with bounce values; invalid controls
will cause SAAT to warn you on import and prematurely end the beats.
Dance Controls LowRider Challenge Bounce Controls
1 = Down Arrow 9 = Right (6) 13 = Up (8)
2 = Left Arrow 10 = Left (4) 14 = Down (2)
3 = Up Arrow 11 = Up/Rt (8+6) 15 = Up/Lt (8+4)
4 = Right Arrow 12 = Dn/Lt (2+4) 16 = Dn/Rt (2+6)
33 = Beat End token (should be the last defined control)
4. filename -- The name of the sound file which is being imported for
this track. This can be a relative path ("foo.ogg", "..\bar\baz.ogg")
or an absolute local path ("\temp\moo.ogg", "C:\music\my song.ogg").
The filename should not be quoted in any way and embedded spaces
are okay. The INI file will be scanned on import and missing/invalid
filenames will cause an error and the import will be aborted.
5. length_index -- The length of the Ogg Vorbis file is stored in the
track header within the stream; however, the position of this length
varies somewhat. Tracks which have beat information generally use
a length_index of 1 while other tracks use a length_index of 0. This
value is stored in the INI on export and shouldn't be changed.
6. length_extra -- There is an unknown 32-bit integer value stored in
the track header after the length. It looks like it may have once
been intended as a sample rate but is now probably unused. To be
cautious, this value is stored in the INI on export and probably
shouldn't be changed. For the curious, most tracks have 48000 here,
but all the AMBIENCE tracks use 24000. Additionally, most of the
CUTSCENE tracks use 0 aside from a couple 48000s and one 25137.
III. sfx import INI files
Information related to how to build a sfx archive when importing is stored
in a sfx import INI file. Such a file is automatically generated
when exporting, but in theory could be created from scratch.
A. [Archive] section
The sfx import INI must have an [Archive] section for global
archive-related information. Note the capitalization. In this section,
the following key strings are useful.
1. basename -- currently unused by importer; contains the base filename
of the archive which was exported.
2. lookup_index -- in order to pick out the proper sound from the sfx
archive, the game uses a lookup table called BankLkup.dat; this is
the index of the imported archive within that file. You should only
change this if you really know what you are doing. Note that if
you export from a archive with a nonstandard name, SAAT will warn
and set the lookup_index to -1; in that case you must change it
to a valid value before importing with that INI. In the unmodified
game, the following indices are used for the archives:
0 = FEET
1 = GENRL
2 = PAIN_A
3 = SCRIPT
4 = SPC_EA
5 = SPC_FA
6 = SPC_GA
7 = SPC_NA
8 = SPC_PA
3. num_banks -- sfx archives are divided up into several sound "banks"
which each contain between 1 and 400 actual sound effects. This is
the number of sound banks within the archive; this really
should not be changed and there must be an equivalent number of
[Bank_XXX] sections or bad things will happen.
In bank sections the following key strings are useful. Note that
most are of the form "sound_YYY.ZZZZ" ; these are specific to an
individual sound effect. F
or example sound004.filename is the
filename of the fourth sound in the bank.
1. num_sounds -- This is the number of sound effects within the bank.
Once again, it really shouldn't be changed and there should be
an equivalent number of sound_YYY.ZZZZ entries in the bank section.
2. sound_YYY.filename -- The name of the sound file which is being
imported. This can be a relative path ("foo.wav", "..\bar\baz.wav")
or an absolute local path ("\temp\moo.wav", "C:\sound\cool sfx.wav").
The filename should not be quoted in any way and embedded spaces
are okay. The INI file will be scanned on import and missing/invalid
filenames will cause an error and the import will be aborted.
3. sound_YYY.sample_rate -- The sample rate of the exported sound
effect. This is for informational purposes only in case you wish
to save your replacement sound at the same rate as the original.
4. sound_YYY.unknown_16 -- There is an unknown 16-bit integer value
stored in the bank header for each sound after the sample rate.
The most common value is 0 but a wide variety of non-zero values
are also seen. If a given sound entry has a non-zero value, it is
stored on export with this key string. It is probably a bad idea
to change this value or to add this key with a different value.
5. sound_YYY.unknown_32 -- There is an unknown 32-bit integer value
stored in the bank header for each sound. The standard value used
is -1, but if a given sound entry has a non-standard value, it is
stored on export with this key string. It is probably a bad idea
to change this value or to add this key with a non-standard value.
