BarsTool

Command-line tool for managing Nintendo .bars and .barslist audio files (Splatoon 2, other games untested). Handles BARS archives, BFWAV, BFSTM, BFSTP (prefetch), and AMTA metadata. Supports WAV conversion and bulk operations.

Requires .NET 8.0.

Build

dotnet build -c Release

The executable will be at bin/Release/net8.0/BarsTool.exe.

Usage

BarsTool <command> [options]

bars -- Manage .bars (BARS) files

List assets in a BARS file:

BarsTool bars list <file.bars>

BarsTool bars list BgmVersus.bars

Add audio to a BARS file (creates the file if it doesn't exist):

BarsTool bars add <file.bars> [audio|folder ...] [--name <name>] [--stream] [--waves <dir>] [--streams <dir>]

• --stream -- treat WAV files as streams (convert to BFSTM + generate BFSTP/AMTA) instead of BFWAV

BarsTool bars add BgmVersus.bars Jingle_win.wav
BarsTool bars add BgmVersus.bars Jingle_win.bfwav --name Jingle_win
BarsTool bars add BgmVersus.bars Stream\STRM_Versus01.bfstm
BarsTool bars add BgmVersus.bars my_track.wav --stream
BarsTool bars add BgmVersus.bars --waves extracted_bfwav --streams Stream
BarsTool bars add BgmVersus.bars --streams Stream

Create a new BARS file:

BarsTool bars create <output.bars> [audio|folder ...] [--names n1,n2,...] [--waves <dir>] [--streams <dir>]

BarsTool bars create BgmVersus_new.bars extracted_bfwav --streams Stream
BarsTool bars create BgmVersus_new.bars --waves extracted_bfwav --streams Stream
BarsTool bars create StreamOnly.bars --streams Stream

Remove an asset by name:

BarsTool bars remove <file.bars> <asset_name>

BarsTool bars remove BgmVersus.bars STRM_Versus01

Extract all assets:

BarsTool bars extract <file.bars> [--output <dir>] [--wav] [--streams-dir <dir>]

• --wav -- convert extracted BFWAVs to WAV
• --streams-dir <dir> -- write BFSTP (stream prefetch) files to a separate directory

BarsTool bars extract BgmVersus.bars --output extracted_bfwav --streams-dir extracted_bfstp
BarsTool bars extract BgmVersus.bars --output extracted_wav --wav --streams-dir extracted_bfstp

Paths can be .wav, .bfwav, .bfstm files, or folders containing them. WAV files are auto-converted to BFWAV. BFSTM files auto-generate BFSTP + AMTA. --waves <dir> adds all WAV/BFWAV files from a directory as wave assets. --streams <dir> adds all BFSTM/WAV files from a directory as stream assets.

barslist -- Manage .barslist (ARSL) files

List entries:

BarsTool barslist list <file.barslist>

BarsTool barslist list Sound.barslist

Add entries:

BarsTool barslist add <file.barslist> <name.bars> [name2.bars ...]

BarsTool barslist add Sound.barslist BgmVersus.bars BgmCoop.bars

Remove an entry:

BarsTool barslist remove <file.barslist> <name.bars>

BarsTool barslist remove Sound.barslist BgmVersus.bars

Create a new barslist:

BarsTool barslist create <output.barslist> --name <name> <entry1.bars> [...]

BarsTool barslist create Sound.barslist --name Sound BgmVersus.bars BgmCoop.bars

Audio conversion

All conversion commands support --bulk <input_dir> <output_dir> for folder conversion.

WAV <-> BFWAV:

BarsTool wav2bfwav <input.wav> <output.bfwav>
BarsTool wav2bfwav --bulk <input_dir> <output_dir>
BarsTool bfwav2wav <input.bfwav> <output.wav>
BarsTool bfwav2wav --bulk <input_dir> <output_dir>

BarsTool wav2bfwav Jingle_win.wav Jingle_win.bfwav
BarsTool wav2bfwav --bulk wav_dir bfwav_dir
BarsTool bfwav2wav Jingle_win.bfwav Jingle_win.wav
BarsTool bfwav2wav --bulk bfwav_dir wav_dir

WAV <-> BFSTM:

BarsTool wav2bfstm <input.wav> <output.bfstm>
BarsTool wav2bfstm --bulk <input_dir> <output_dir>
BarsTool bfstm2wav <input.bfstm> <output.wav>
BarsTool bfstm2wav --bulk <input_dir> <output_dir>

BarsTool wav2bfstm track.wav track.bfstm
BarsTool wav2bfstm --bulk wav_dir bfstm_dir
BarsTool bfstm2wav STRM_Versus01.bfstm STRM_Versus01.wav
BarsTool bfstm2wav --bulk bfstm_dir wav_dir

Generate BFSTP prefetch from BFSTM:

BarsTool bfstm2bfstp <input.bfstm> <output.bfstp>
BarsTool bfstm2bfstp --bulk <input_dir> <output_dir>

BarsTool bfstm2bfstp STRM_Versus01.bfstm STRM_Versus01.bfstp
BarsTool bfstm2bfstp --bulk Stream bfstp_out

Full pipeline example (Splatoon 2)

Extract everything from a BARS file, then rebuild it from the raw assets:

# 1. Extract BFWAVs and BFSTPs from the original BARS
BarsTool bars extract samples\BgmVersus.bars --output work\bfwav --streams-dir work\bfstp

# 2. Rebuild BARS using BFWAVs + original BFSTMs from the Stream folder
BarsTool bars create work\BgmVersus_rebuilt.bars --waves work\bfwav --streams samples\Stream

The rebuilt BARS will contain:

• BFWAV assets with auto-generated AMTA (from the extracted .bfwav files)
• BFSTP prefetch assets with auto generated AMTA (from the .bfstm files in Stream)
• Generated BFSTPs match the originals byte-for-byte

Notes

• WAV files are automatically converted to BFWAV (DSP ADPCM) when added to BARS.
• BFSTM files added to BARS auto generate a BFSTP prefetch (first 5 interleaved sample blocks per channel) and AMTA metadata.
• AMTA metadata is computed from audio properties (sample rate, channels, loop points, loudness, peak amplitude).
• Audio folders can contain mixed formats (.wav, .bfwav, .bfstm) -- each is handled appropriately.