extracting music from games for SADX AP music shuffle
Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2026 5:50 pm
SADX AP has a music shuffle feature which allows you to add any music you want as ADX files, and then randomize it along with the vanilla tracks. this has sent me down a rabbithole of not only converting some parts of my personal music collection, but also ripping music from games i own and converting them to ADX. this post goes over the latter.
Legality notice
this post goes over the extraction and modification of audio files for personal use, such as personal listening or use in personal game mods.
please do not distribute any audio or music you have extracted using this guide.
i am not responsible for what you do with the information i'm providing here.
this post also goes over ripping music from switch games, therefore i will not be linking this in the official AP server or any resources tied to it.
The end goal
SADX music uses the ADX file format with built-in loop points. this is the end goal for this post. if your goal is something else, you can probably figure out how to get there, so i won't cover it here.
What if I don't care about looping music?
non-jingle music without loop points will just loop on its own in-game, so if you are okay with music fading out and then repeating, you can just use ffmpeg to convert to ADX.
this post will go over the best possible experience though. if i'm already converting music using tenacity anyway, i may as well go the extra mile while i'm at it.
Required software
more kinds of games will be added here as i run into them.
GameCube and Wii games
the Dolphin emulator has a built in filesystem tool that can be used to extract game files.
Super Smash Bros for Wii U
this game has lots of music, so it might be desirable to extract music from it. note that if you also have SSBU, most songs in SSB4 are there as well.
NOTE: the game files have all music, even those added in DLC. while i can't stop you, i advise against using music you did not buy the DLC for, as you technically don't have the license to use it.
once installed in Cemu, right click the game and go to the Game Directory.
from there, you will see NUS3BANK files in ./content/sound/bgm. continue to the NUS3BANK output section.
Super Smash Bros Ultimate
this game has lots of music, so it might be desirable to extract music from it.
NOTE: this game has a lot of music, keep storage in mind. the extracted files are 1.4GiB in total size before converting to WAV.
NOTE: the data.arc file has all music, even those added in DLC. while i can't stop you, i advise against using music you did not buy the DLC for, as you technically don't have the license to use it.
you will need:
now go to /stream:/sound. right click the bgm folder and click Extract File. this will extract all of the music to the export folder where you extracted ArcExplorer.
each song is a pair of NUS3AUDIO and NUS3BANK files. keep both files and continue to the NUS3AUDIO output section below.
you can refer to this gdoc to see which files are which songs.
The output
what we do next depends on the output file.
ADX
congrats, you have an ADX file! this can be used as-is.
known games that use ADX:
BRSTM files are typically used for Wii games, like Super Smash Bros Brawl and Mario Kart Wii.
use OpenRevolution's brstm_decode command. this will convert to .wav and give you the loop start point in the command output - easy!
known games that use BRSTM:
some games will output .fsys files. this is a compressed file format. odds are good that this is compressed with I_SF, since this is used for the games i tested that have this format - other sorts of files are compressed differently and their extraction method is different.
use the I_SF tool from this post. run it with java from the command line, in the same directory as the .fsys file. type the name of the .fsys file and press Extract.
you may receive one or two .dsp files. with pokemon xd as an example, *_1.dsp is the left channel, and *_2.dsp is the right channel. it may be different for each game, so you might have to experiment.
continue using these files in the DSP section below...
DSP
some games developed using the Nintendo SDK have their music stored as DSP files.
use vgmstream (browser version works fine) to convert to WAV.
if you have more than one DSP file, you can join them into a stereo track in tenacity.
known games that use DSP:
this is for NUS3BANK files that contain music. if you see NUS3AUDIO files next to the NUS3BANK files, use the NUS3AUDIO section instead.
open NUS3BANK Editor. go to File > Open NUS3BANK, and select a NUS3BANK file.
you will see a .idsp file appear. right click it and Export. this will save it as a WAV file.
known games that use NUS3BANK:
this is for NUS3AUDIO files paired with NUS3BANK files.
open simple-nus3audio-gui. go to File > Open nus3audio, and select a NUS3AUDIO file.
you will see a .lopus file appear. click it, then go to File > Export single sound... - this will save it as a WAV file.
known games that use NUS3AUDIO:
convert to WAV using ffmpeg
Editing in Tenacity, converting to ADX
open the WAV file in Tenacity, delete any silence at the start, find the loop points as samples, trim excess audio at the end. export as WAV, signed 32-bit PCM.
now we convert to ADX. open AdxEncoder.exe. (on linux, wine should work; i use my SADX proton prefix using protontricks)
drag a WAV file onto the window that opens, then double click it. select "Setting of Loop Points by Sample" and put in the samples. click OK, then Encode.
and... that's it! you now have an ADX file with loop points. put it in your custom music folder for SADX and enjoy
tip: using subdirectories for SADX AP custom music
you can use subdirectories in your custom music folder.
in your songs.json, the filename should be the path to the file, using double backslash (\\) as the directory separator. this is true on linux as well. so, for a song named bat.adx in the Final Fantasy VII subdirectory, it would be "Final Fantasy VII\\bat".
you can only have a subdirectory one deep - no subdirectories inside subdirectories. the game will fail to find your music at that point. (bug or limitation? not sure)
Legality notice
this post goes over the extraction and modification of audio files for personal use, such as personal listening or use in personal game mods.
please do not distribute any audio or music you have extracted using this guide.
i am not responsible for what you do with the information i'm providing here.
this post also goes over ripping music from switch games, therefore i will not be linking this in the official AP server or any resources tied to it.
The end goal
SADX music uses the ADX file format with built-in loop points. this is the end goal for this post. if your goal is something else, you can probably figure out how to get there, so i won't cover it here.
What if I don't care about looping music?
non-jingle music without loop points will just loop on its own in-game, so if you are okay with music fading out and then repeating, you can just use ffmpeg to convert to ADX.
this post will go over the best possible experience though. if i'm already converting music using tenacity anyway, i may as well go the extra mile while i'm at it.
Required software
- Audacity or Tenacity. i will say and use tenacity for the rest of this post, but you can use either.
- ADX Encoder
- vgmstream-cli - for DSP, NUS3AUDIO
- NUS3BANK Editor - for NUS3BANK (on linux you will need wine)
- simple-nus3audio-gui - for NUS3AUDIO
- OpenRevolution - for BRSTM
more kinds of games will be added here as i run into them.
GameCube and Wii games
the Dolphin emulator has a built in filesystem tool that can be used to extract game files.
- add the game to your games list
- right click the game and go to Properties > Filesystem
- look for a music file. right click it, then Extract File...
- choose where to save it
Super Smash Bros for Wii U
this game has lots of music, so it might be desirable to extract music from it. note that if you also have SSBU, most songs in SSB4 are there as well.
NOTE: the game files have all music, even those added in DLC. while i can't stop you, i advise against using music you did not buy the DLC for, as you technically don't have the license to use it.
once installed in Cemu, right click the game and go to the Game Directory.
from there, you will see NUS3BANK files in ./content/sound/bgm. continue to the NUS3BANK output section.
Super Smash Bros Ultimate
this game has lots of music, so it might be desirable to extract music from it.
NOTE: this game has a lot of music, keep storage in mind. the extracted files are 1.4GiB in total size before converting to WAV.
NOTE: the data.arc file has all music, even those added in DLC. while i can't stop you, i advise against using music you did not buy the DLC for, as you technically don't have the license to use it.
you will need:
- your extracted data.arc file from your copy of SSBU. you need cfw to do this.
- the latest version of ArcExplorer
now go to /stream:/sound. right click the bgm folder and click Extract File. this will extract all of the music to the export folder where you extracted ArcExplorer.
each song is a pair of NUS3AUDIO and NUS3BANK files. keep both files and continue to the NUS3AUDIO output section below.
you can refer to this gdoc to see which files are which songs.
The output
what we do next depends on the output file.
ADX
congrats, you have an ADX file! this can be used as-is.
known games that use ADX:
- Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (PC) - already covered in SADX AP setup guide
- Sonic Heroes (GCN, PC) - PC is already covered in SADX AP setup guide; GCN files are in root and use the same names as PC, a few song variants are missing
- Sonic Gems Collection (GCN) - museum songs are in /museum, menu songs are in /sound
- Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U) - files are in /content/stream/bgm. not looped
BRSTM files are typically used for Wii games, like Super Smash Bros Brawl and Mario Kart Wii.
use OpenRevolution's brstm_decode command. this will convert to .wav and give you the loop start point in the command output - easy!
known games that use BRSTM:
- Super Smash Bros Brawl (Wii) - files are in /sound/strm
- Pokemon Battle Revolution (Wii) - files are in /sound/sound. s*_*.brstm files are pokemon cries (labeled with their romanized japanese names)
- Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
- probably a lot more GCN/Wii games
some games will output .fsys files. this is a compressed file format. odds are good that this is compressed with I_SF, since this is used for the games i tested that have this format - other sorts of files are compressed differently and their extraction method is different.
use the I_SF tool from this post. run it with java from the command line, in the same directory as the .fsys file. type the name of the .fsys file and press Extract.
you may receive one or two .dsp files. with pokemon xd as an example, *_1.dsp is the left channel, and *_2.dsp is the right channel. it may be different for each game, so you might have to experiment.
continue using these files in the DSP section below...
DSP
some games developed using the Nintendo SDK have their music stored as DSP files.
use vgmstream (browser version works fine) to convert to WAV.
if you have more than one DSP file, you can join them into a stereo track in tenacity.
known games that use DSP:
- Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness (GCN) - compressed as FSYS, files are in root and start with stm_bgm
- Chaos Field (GCN) - files are in /Sound and have different DSP files for left and right channels
this is for NUS3BANK files that contain music. if you see NUS3AUDIO files next to the NUS3BANK files, use the NUS3AUDIO section instead.
open NUS3BANK Editor. go to File > Open NUS3BANK, and select a NUS3BANK file.
you will see a .idsp file appear. right click it and Export. this will save it as a WAV file.
known games that use NUS3BANK:
- Super Smash Bros for Wii U
this is for NUS3AUDIO files paired with NUS3BANK files.
open simple-nus3audio-gui. go to File > Open nus3audio, and select a NUS3AUDIO file.
you will see a .lopus file appear. click it, then go to File > Export single sound... - this will save it as a WAV file.
known games that use NUS3AUDIO:
- Super Smash Bros Ultimate
convert to WAV using ffmpeg
Editing in Tenacity, converting to ADX
open the WAV file in Tenacity, delete any silence at the start, find the loop points as samples, trim excess audio at the end. export as WAV, signed 32-bit PCM.
now we convert to ADX. open AdxEncoder.exe. (on linux, wine should work; i use my SADX proton prefix using protontricks)
drag a WAV file onto the window that opens, then double click it. select "Setting of Loop Points by Sample" and put in the samples. click OK, then Encode.
and... that's it! you now have an ADX file with loop points. put it in your custom music folder for SADX and enjoy
tip: using subdirectories for SADX AP custom music
you can use subdirectories in your custom music folder.
in your songs.json, the filename should be the path to the file, using double backslash (\\) as the directory separator. this is true on linux as well. so, for a song named bat.adx in the Final Fantasy VII subdirectory, it would be "Final Fantasy VII\\bat".
you can only have a subdirectory one deep - no subdirectories inside subdirectories. the game will fail to find your music at that point. (bug or limitation? not sure)