Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your DLS file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert DLS to another file type
To convert DLS Files to another format, you need Microsoft DirectMusic or other Audio software.
Convert a file to DLS
To convert other file formats to the "Sound Bank File" file type, you need software like Microsoft DirectMusic or a similar tool.
About DLS files
The .DLS file extension primarily represents a Downloadable Sounds sound bank. Developed for the Microsoft DirectMusic API, these files contain digital audio samples and instrument articulation data used by synthesizers like the Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth to play MIDI music. A secondary, but distinct, use for the .DLS extension is for Electrical schematic diagram files created by IGE+XAO SEE Electrical (formerly XelecSch2). Users typically need to convert .DLS sound banks because the format is largely obsolete, unsupported by modern digital audio workstations (DAWs), and restricts users to older Windows environments. For the electrical schematics, the files are locked inside an expensive, proprietary ecosystem, making it impossible to share technical drawings with clients or engineers who lack the specific software. For sound banks, the best conversion target is the widely supported SF2 (SoundFont 2) format, or extracting the raw audio samples to WAV. Be aware that complex articulation rules may be lost during conversion. For electrical schematics, exporting to PDF or DXF is recommended to preserve visual layout, though you will lose active electrical routing data. These formats are notoriously difficult to process online. .DLS sound banks use a complex RIFF container structure with intertwined audio samples and metadata, while the electrical schematics use undocumented proprietary structures. Often, only the original software can properly read or export the data. However, just drag and drop your file onto convert.guru to see what it is and convert it if supported. We can identify the file format, inspect the internal file headers, and show text or internal content. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or conversion may still be possible.
Use Convert.Guru to open and convert your DLS file.
If you want to convert DLS file to SF2, MXN, BGL, MP3, WAV, AAC, FLAC, OGG, WMA, M4A, AIFF or OPUS, you can use Microsoft DirectMusic or similar software from the "Sound Bank Storage" 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 DLS, try Microsoft DirectMusic or another comparable tool in the "Sound Bank Storage" category.
The DLS Converter Story
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 DLS converter.