Building an XACT Wave Bank

A wave bank is a collection of wave files bundled together into a single larger file. You must also specify the mode of the wave bank, whether it is meant to be used in-memory or streamed.

To build a Microsoft Cross-Platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT) wave bank, complete the following steps:

You may perform additional actions with wave banks:

Create a Wave Bank

When you begin a new XACT project, there are no wave banks available. You must create each one you wish to use. You may create as many wave banks as you require.

To create a new wave bank

  1. Navigate to the Wave Banks menu, and click New Wave Bank.

    The new wave bank is listed under the Wave Banks branch of the project tree.

    Figure 1.  Creating a new wave bank using the menu toolbar

    This new wave bank has the default name "Wave Bank".

  2. Select the new wave bank.

  3. Press F2 and enter a more descriptive name for the wave bank, or change the Name property of the wave bank in the property frame of the audio creation authoring tool.

Creating a new wave bank, or double-clicking an existing wave bank in the project tree opens a child window within the project workspace. Figure 2 shows a wave bank window with some waves assigned.

Figure 2.  Wave bank window with data assigned

Set Wave Bank Properties

When the wave bank is selected in the project tree, its properties are displayed in the property frame, and may be changed. The following table describes the properties of a wave bank as they appear in the property frame.

Property Name Description
SyncWaveData Synchronizes wave banks when auditioning.
BuildWaveBankHeader XACT can optionally build a C/C++ header that contains the indices for all wave bank entries in this wave bank.
WaveBankHeaderFile Name of the generated wave bank header file.
WaveBankHeaderPath Location where the generated wave bank header file should be placed.
Name The default name of a wave bank is Wave Bank. You can rename the wave bank by changing this selection, or by selecting the name displayed in the project tree frame.
Streaming Specifies if the wave bank is to marked as in-memory (False) or streamed (True).
FriendlyNames Specifies if the "friendly name" strings assigned to the waves are to be stored in the resulting XWB file.
Size The cumulative size, in bytes, of the wave data contained in the wave bank. This value is for display only, and may not be changed manually.
Notes Comments from the designer.
CompressionPreset Specifies compression to apply to waves as they are built in the wave bank.
Name Name of the compression preset.
Comment Comments about the compression preset; visible to author (not stored in generated banks).
Format File format generated by the compression preset.
WindowsBuildName File name for the Windows version of the wave bank.
WindowsBuildPath Location of the Windows version of the wave bank.

Add a Wave File

Once you have created a wave bank, it is empty and ready to receive waves. You may add as many wave files to the wave bank as you need.

To add a wave file

  1. Open the wave bank by double-clicking the wave bank in the project tree.

    If the wave bank is already open, select the wave bank window by clicking on its title bar.

  2. Click Insert Wave File(s) on the Wave Banks menu (or, alternately, press Ctl+W).

    Figure 3.  Adding a wave to the wave bank using the menu toolbar

  3. Select one or more wave files to add to your wave bank, and then click Open.

    The wave files you selected are added to the wave bank.

Or

Wave Properties

When the wave is selected in the wave bank window, its properties are displayed in the property frame, and may be changed. The following table describes the properties of a wave as they appear in the property frame.

Property Name Description
Name The default name of the wave is the name (without extension) of the file. You can rename the wave (but not the file) by changing this selection, or by selecting the name displayed in the wave bank window.
Comment Comments from the designer.
SourcePath The directory path on the local hard drive and file name that references the wave file.
CompressionPreset Specifies compression to apply to the wave as it is built in the wave bank.
Name Name of the compression preset.
Comment Comments about the compression preset; visible to author (not stored in generated banks).
Format File format generated by the compression preset.

Rescan a Wave Bank

If you have modified a wave file used in a wave bank, you can rescan the wave bank that holds it to update XACT to the new wave's updated length, file size, and data.

To rescan waves in a wave bank

Update Wave Source Paths

During development of a title, you may move wave files around on disk. To continue using the wave banks that reference these moved wave files, you can update XACT to use the new file location, either by individual wave or by an entire wave bank.

To update the source path for an individual wave

  1. Double-click the wave bank in the project tree that contains the wave you wish to modify. The wave bank window will open.
  2. In the wave bank window, right-click on the wave you wish to modify and select Update Source Path...
  3. From the folder selection dialog box that appears, choose the folder that contains the wave file, and click OK.

To update the source path for a wave bank

  1. Right-click on the wave bank in the project tree that you wish to modify, and select Update Source Path...
  2. From the folder selection dialog box that appears, choose the folder that contains the wave files that are held in the wave bank, and click OK.

Note    When updating the path for a wave bank, the same folder will be applied to each wave in the wave bank individually. If a wave file cannot be found, a dialog box will appear and prompt for the correct path.

See Also

XACT Audio Authoring, XACT Overviews, XACT Reference