SBANK Version 1.50 01-27-94 SBANK is a command line utility for managing Sound Blaster and Adlib instrument files and sound banks. It will translate between .INS, .SBI, .BNK, and .IBK files. In addition, it will report instrument names stored in bank files, and display musical parameters contained in the instrument definitions. Usage: SBANK BankFile [-AUMDXLVSTI?] [BankFile|Instrument...] BankFile is the name or path of a BNK or IBK instrument bankfile -- It will be created if appropriate. Instrument is the name of an instrument or the name or path of an .INS or .SBI instrument file. OPTIONS Option letters are case insensitive and may be preceded by either - or /. They specify the operations to perform. -A append the specified instruments (INS or SBI files) to the named bank file. Wildcards (* and ?) may be used to select the instrument files. The bank file is created if it does not exist. Duplicate instrument names in the bank file are not updated unless the -U option also appears. -U update the specified existing instruments in the named bank file. Wildcards are allowed. Specified instruments that do not exist are not added unless the -A option also appears. -M move the specified instruments to the named bank file. Specifying -M implies both append and update. After a successful insertion, the instrument file is deleted. Wildcards are allowed. -D delete and discard the named instruments from the bank file. This can be used with the -X option to remove an instrument from a bank file. -X extract the named instruments from the bank file. The type of instrument file to create is determined from the filename suffix. -L list the names of the instruments contained in the bank file. This option formats the names one per line. Only instrument names are displayed. It is useful for creating input for command line filters or file redirection. -V list the names of the instruments contained in the bank file. The instruments are formatted eight names to a line in the same order they are encountered in the bank file. For a BNK file, they will be sorted alphabetically; for an IBK bank, they are presented in the order they were appended. This is also the order of increasing MIDI program change numbers. -S show the parameters for an instrument or instruments. This option formats and displays the parameters that comprise the instrument sound. -T translate from one file type to another. For this option the first named file is the source and the second is the target. This is the only option that will operate between instrument files as well as between bank files. If the source and target are bank files, this option acts as a merge command, merging the source into the target; and the -I ListFile option may be used to select instruments to translate. -I FName specifies an ASCII text file containing a list of instrument names to be used when translating between two bank files. This file should be formatted with one instrument name per line. The -L option will output a list in the proper format, which may be redirected to a file, and then edited (See Examples). -? display brief help information. NOTES When possible, file types are determined from their internal structure rather than the external file name extension. The program can translate each of the four file types into any of the other types (including its own type). It should be noted that the SBI and IBK file types do not include fields for percussive mode and voice number. This information is lost when converting between them and BNK or INS file types (the mode is always melodic in SBI and IBK files). When displaying parameters, the following abbreviations and ranges are used: Abbrev Meaning Range Notes KSL Level Scaling 00 - 03 FQM Frequency Multiplier 00 - 14 FB Feedback 00 - 07 Used by Modulator only ATK Attack 00 - 15 DCY Decay 00 - 15 SLV Sustain Level 00 - 15 (15 - 0) See Note Below RLS Release 00 - 15 LVL Output Level 00 - 63 (63 - 0) See Note Below SUS Sustaining Sound No - Yes AM Amplitude Modulation No - Yes Tremolo VIB Pitch Modulation No - Yes Vibrato KSR Envelope Scaling No - Yes WAV Wave Select 00 - 03 Waveform Distortion CON Connection FM - AS Only used by Modulator MOD Mode MLD-PRC Only used by INS and BNK V# Voice Number 06 - 10 Only used by INS and BNK The actual number stored for SLV and LVL is an attenuation level: the higher the number, the softer the sound. What is displayed is the reverseof this number. As noted above, the MOD and V# fields are only used in INS and BNK file formats, MOD will always be melodic (MLD) in SBI and IBK files. When using the -V option on a BNK file, both the number of defined instruments and the current capacity is displayed. The current capacity of a BNK file is increased when it becomes filled. IBK bank files always have a capacity of 128 instruments. This corresponds to one instrument for each MIDI program change number. EXAMPLES Following are a few examples to demonstrate the kinds of operations that can be performed with SBANK: C:\> sbank standard.bnk -x myins\b??.sbi This will extract from STANDARD.BNK, all instruments matching B, B? and B??, convert them to SBI files, and place them in theMYINS subdirectory. C:\> sbank /s standard.bnk abrss1 x* This will display the parameters for the ABRSS1 instrument, and all instruments matching X*. C:\> sbank standard.bnk -l >verylong.lst This will display the name of each instrument stored in STANDARD.BNK but redirect the output to the file VERYLONG.LST. It will most likely be a very long list! This list may be edited by any text editor and subsequently used as an instrument list for translating bank files: C:\> sbank standard.bnk /t new.ibk /i verylong.lst Will create a NEW.IBK bank file containing the instruments in STANDARD.BNK which are listed in VERYLONG.LST. C:\> sbank -au new.bnk *.ins C:\SBI\*.sbi This will Append or Update to NEW.BNK, all the INS files in the current directory, and all the SBI files in the C:\SBI directory. C:\> sbank my.ibk abrss1.ins -m This will Append the ABRSS1.INS instrument to MY.IBK and then erase the ABRSS1.INS file - if all goes well. C:\> sbank my.ibk /d abrss1 This deletes the ABRRS1 instrument from MY.IBK C:\> sbank my.ibk ?a* -v Will display all of the instrument names in my.ibk which have "A" as the second letter. The names will be formatted eight to a line. C:\> sbank piano1.sbi piano1.ins -t This will convert the PIANO1.SBI instrument file into a PIANO1.INS file. C:\> sbank piano1.ins -s This will display the parameters for the PIANO1 instrument contained in PIANO1.INS.