Extract text from Nintendo DS sound archives (SDAT)
To convert SDAT sound archives to another format, you need VGMTrans or other Game software.
To convert other file formats to the "Audio Container" file type, you need software like VGMTrans or a similar tool.
The .SDAT file extension is primarily associated with the Nintendo DS Sound Data format, a proprietary audio container developed by Nintendo for the Nitro Composer system. These archives function as a complete sound bank for Nintendo DS games, bundling background music, sound effects, and instrument libraries into a single file to save cartridge space. Internally, an SDAT file is a complex directory containing SSEQ (music sequences similar to MIDI), .SBNK (sound banks), and .SWAR (wave archives/samples).
Users typically look to convert these files to extract the game's original soundtrack (OST) or to access the instrument samples for music production. However, because the file relies on the Nintendo DS hardware to synthesize audio in real-time, you cannot simply open it in standard media players like VLC or Windows Media Player. Direct conversion to MP3 is not possible without an emulation or extraction step. The most reliable workflow involves using specialized tools like VGMTrans to parse the archive and convert the internal sequences into standard MID (MIDI) files and SF2 (SoundFont) banks, or to render them directly as WAV audio.
Note: A minority of .SDAT files may be encrypted data containers for Sony PlayStation systems (related to NPDRM/activation) or player data files for the mobile game AFK Arena. These variants are typically encrypted or obfuscated and cannot be converted into viewable formats.
Use Convert.Guru to open and convert your SDAT file.
Users also converted BIN, DF, 4 and GSF files.
If you want to convert SDAT file to MP3, WAV, AAC, FLAC, OGG, WMA, M4A, AIFF, OPUS, ALAC, APE or WV, you can use VGMTrans or similar software from the "Nintendo DS Sound 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 SDAT, try VGMTrans or another comparable tool in the "Nintendo DS Sound 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 SDAT converter.