# The sound-cue table, and how dialogue binds to a recording

**✅ Settled 2026-08-26.** `dat/tables.pak` carries the game's cue index. It
closes the join from a message id to the `.slb` bank that voices it — the
missing link between the script/caption side and the audio side.

## The table

One IDXD object in `dat/tables.pak` (373 680 bytes, 5 records, 10 937 fields)
holds:

| record | shape | content |
|---|---|---|
| `SETTINGS` | 3 fields | `PATH` = `game:\dat\sound.pak+`, `PARAM` = `Pj_Silph.xgs`, and a positional `BANK_SE` |
| `BANK_SE` | 1 positional | `Static.slb` |
| `FILES` | 5 135 positional | bank paths — `jpn\Voice\VOICE_TCAF_592.slb`, `BGM_001.slb`, … |
| `STAGES` | **0 fields** | present but empty |
| `SOUNDS` | 5 798 **named** | cue name → numeric sound id |

`SOUNDS` is the only record on the disc found so far that is entirely named
fields, and the names are the join key.

Cue families and their id ranges — the id space is partitioned by family, with
no overlap:

    VOICE   n=5044    1500 .. 7331
    SE      n= 322       1 ..  901
    DEMO    n= 295    8000 .. 8408
    BR      n= 101    8500 .. 8600
    BGM     n=  32    1001 .. 1109
    JNGL    n=   3    1201 .. 1203

5 797 of the 5 798 values are numeric and **all 5 797 are distinct** — the ids
are unique, so the id is not how banks get shared. One cue's value is
non-numeric.

The id is **not** an index into `FILES`: ids run to 8 600 and `FILES` has only
5 135 entries. `FILES` is reached by *name*, not by id.

## The join: a message id to a recording

    MSG_VOICE_D_257   (built-in 64's operand, see isl-message-dialogue-link.md)
      -> cue   VOICE_D_257          `MSG_` becomes `VOICE_`
      -> id    6945                 SOUNDS
      -> bank  jpn\etc\VOICE_D_257.slb   FILES, matched on stem

The prefix rule has one wrinkle, and getting it wrong is easy:

* **`MSG_` is replaced by `VOICE_`** — it is not simply stripped.
* A name that already carries `VOICE_` keeps the one it has rather than
  doubling it: `MSG_VOICE_D_257` → `VOICE_D_257`, but `MSG_TCAF_592` →
  `VOICE_TCAF_592` (not `TCAF_592`).

**I got this wrong first.** Stripping `MSG_` resolved 1 250 of 1 338 script
message names and left 88 unresolved, and the 88 were exactly the four-letter
ship families (`ADAN` 32, `ADPL` 27, `TCAF` 12, `ACRO` 3, `RHIN` 2) — which I
was ready to write up as "text-only announcements with no recording". Seeing
`jpn\Voice\VOICE_TCAF_592.slb` in `FILES` refuted that: the recordings exist,
my rule was wrong. Under the corrected rule the count is **1 326 of 1 338**.

`SOUNDS` and `FILES` agree exactly — the same 12 names are absent from both,
and **every one of the 5 135 bank files has a cue** (zero orphans). 663 cues
have no bank file; those are `SE`/`BGM`-family cues living in other banks.

## The 12 script lines with no recording

    MSG_VOICE_A_273   MSG_VOICE_D_183
    MSG_VOICE_D_600 … MSG_VOICE_D_608   MSG_VOICE_D_611

All twelve are in the `VOICE` family, have caption text, are called from the
stage scripts, and have neither a cue nor a bank. Ten of them form the near
contiguous block `D_600`–`D_611`. Whether they are subtitle-only by design or
a late cut is **not settled** — the shape (a contiguous high block) suggests
lines added after the recording sessions, but that is a guess, not a
measurement.

## What this does *not* settle

* **The wrong-recording case was already explained, and I overstated it as
  open.** On first writing this page I said the cue table "does not explain"
  the `hokyu_DS_s13A → VOICE_D_452` rejection and that the sharing must
  therefore live deeper. That was careless:
  [voice-bank-leading-region.md](../voice-bank-leading-region.md) settled it
  earlier — the bank holds one **generic** line ("Resupply complete. You are
  cleared for take-off!") reused across four stages, so the binding is right
  and only the expectation was wrong. What this table adds is narrower and
  worth stating precisely: the reuse is a **movie-slot → bank** relation, not a
  cue-level one, because all 5 797 numeric cue ids are distinct and no two cues
  name the same bank file.
* **`STAGES` is empty**, and what would have populated it is unknown.
* **`SOUNDS`' one non-numeric value** was not chased down.
* Only the English pack and the `jpn\` bank paths were examined. Every path in
  `FILES` begins with `jpn\`, which is consistent with the already-recorded
  finding that the voice set is Japanese, but the other language packs'
  tables were not diffed against this one.

## Tool

    tools/re-capture/sound_cues.py summary | resolve <MSG_id> | demo | unbound