Extract text from Nintendo audio archives (BARS)
To convert BARS audio archives to another format, you need vgmstream or other Game software.
To convert other file formats to the "Game Audio Container" file type, you need software like vgmstream or a similar tool.
The .BARS file extension represents a Binary Audio Resource System archive, a proprietary container format used primarily by Nintendo for games on the Switch and Wii U consoles.
These files function as libraries that package multiple audio assets - such as background music, sound effects, and voice clips - into a single file to optimize game performance. Inside a .BARS file, you will typically find proprietary audio streams (like BWAV) and metadata control files (AMTA). Because this format is engineered strictly for internal game engine use, it is incompatible with standard media players like VLC Media Player or iTunes. Users attempting to open these directly will encounter "file format not supported" errors.
To listen to a game's soundtrack or use the audio effects in video editing, you must convert the contents of a .BARS file to a standard audio format. For maximum compatibility with web players and mobile devices, converting extracted streams to MP3 is ideal. For preserving the original audio fidelity of the game rip, converting to WAV or FLAC is recommended. Specialized playback libraries like vgmstream are often required to parse the archive before conversion can occur.
Convert.Guru analyzes your BARS file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted BAR, BFSTM, NRO, SUPX, PSI, MPA and ATM files.
If you want to convert BARS file to PSI, MPA, ATM, MP3, WAV, AAC, FLAC, OGG, WMA, M4A, AIFF or OPUS, you can use vgmstream or similar software from the "Nintendo Game Audio Archive" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert MIDI, AAC, TTA, AU, WV, DTS, MID, FLAC, RA, MP3, PCM or WAV files to BARS, try vgmstream or another comparable tool in the "Nintendo Game Audio Archive" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our BARS converter.