ST5 Files

The S_TOOLS 5 Sound file format (ST5) is a special sound file format implemented by the DOS version of S_TOOLS. The development of S_TOOLS was stopped in 1997 and replaced by the Windows version STx.

The features of this file format are comparable to that of the Windows WAVE format. A major difference is that ST5 files contains not only signals but also segmenting information. For downward compatibility STx is able to use ST5 formatted sound files. This feature should only be used, to read information from such files, but new files should always be created using the Windows WAVE format.

Format Details

An ST5 file consists of a header, a segment directory and a signal area. The header defines the file parameters (size = 64 bytes). The segment directory contains nsfde entries, where each entry can define one segment (size = nsfde . lsfde). In the signal area the signal samples are stored in the same format as in a wave file (ch1, ch2, ..., ch1, ch2, ...; size = nch . nbps . samples).

Header (64 bytes)

Sizein bytes	VariableName	VariableC data type	description
2	id	char[2]	"SF"
27	label	char[37]	file title
4	date	unsigned long	data of creation
4	srate	float	sampling rate in Hz
1	nch	unsigned char	number of channels
1	nbps	unsigned char	number of bytes per sample
1	code	unsigned char	sample code
2	nsfde	short	number of segment directory entries
2	lsfde	short	number of bytes per segment directory entry
4	samples	long	number of samples
4	-	long	not used
2	-	short	not used