Why convert XSB to XWB?
In Microsoft's XACT audio system, the .xsb Sound Bank contains only cue names, volume settings, looping rules, and references to wave entries - no waveform data at all. A .xwb Wave Bank holds compressed or PCM audio samples. No tool can synthesize audio from a list of playback settings, so this conversion has no meaningful implementation.
How to convert XSB to XWB
unxwb FREE
To extract audio from an XACT project, run unxwb against the .xwb wave bank - not the .xsb. Pass the .xsb alongside with the -x flag to name output WAV files by cue name.
towav FREE
Use towav to extract WAV files from the .xwb wave bank. The .xsb is not required for extraction but provides cue name context.
xactbnk FREE
Open the .xsb in xactbnk to browse cue names, then point it at the matching .xwb to extract specific audio cues as WAV.
About these formats
.XSB
XACT Sound Bank
An XSB file is an XACT Sound Bank created by Microsoft's game-audio tool. It holds sound and cue definitions for games built with XACT or XNA, but contains no actual audio data. To get the…
Open .XSB details →
.XWB
XACT wave bank file
A .XWB file is associated with XACT wave bank, a audio file.
Open .XWB details →Quality & what to watch
- The
.xsbcontains no audio - it is a metadata file only; without the matching.xwb, there is no audio to work with at all. - Both files are produced together by the XACT authoring tool from source audio files; neither is derived from the other.
- XACT has been unsupported since the Windows 8 SDK and XNA was discontinued in 2013-2014; these files originate from older PC and Xbox 360-era games.
Frequently asked questions
I have the `.xsb` but the `.xwb` is missing - can I recover audio?
.xsb holds only definitions; without the matching .xwb, there is no waveform data to recover.
