NAME

       BSE - Better Sound Engine File Format

SYNOPSIS

       filename.bse

DESCRIPTION

       The  bse  file  format  is  used  by  the  bse  library and dependent programs to save bse
       projects, songs, instruments and sample collections.  The bse  scheme  shell  bsescm.1  is
       able to play back bse files directly.

FORMAT

       bse  files  start  out  with a special magic string "; BseProject0 and then contain nested
       expressions in scheme syntax using the ASCII charset.  Binary data may be  appended  to  a
       .bse  file  if  it  is seperated from the preceeding ASCII test by one or more literal NUL
       characters (' ').  This mechanism is used to store arbitrary  binary  data  like  .WAV  or
       Ogg/Vorbis  files  in  bse projects, while keeping the actuall content user editable (text
       editors that preserve binary sections have to be used, such as vi(1) or emacs(1)).

COMPATIBILITY

       The exact format and sets of objects and properties used in a bse file  depend  highly  on
       the  library  version that was used to save the file. Compatibility functions are supplied
       by the library itself, so old bse files can be converted when  the  file  is  loaded.   To
       enable this mechanism, all bse files contain a "bse-version" directive which indicates the
       bse file format version of the supplied content.

SEE ALSO

       beast.1 <http://testbit.eu/Beast.1>, bsescm.1 <http://testbit.eu/Bsescm.1>,  bsewavetool.1
       <http://testbit.eu/Bsewavetool.1>, BSE Object Reference <http://beast.gtk.org/bse-objects>