tascam-dp008ex-sd-audio-extractor

Extract master mixes and multitrack stems from Tascam DP-008EX SD card images as standard WAV files — read-only, stdlib only, no recorder export needed.

Tested on DP-008EX only. The DP-006 / DP-008 / DP-24SD family is not verified — sibling models may shift the header fields. Verify with the verify command before trusting any extraction.

The DP-008EX stores songs in an undocumented proprietary "BFS" format on a raw MTR partition. This tool decodes the alloc table, walks the extent chains, and renders both the stereo master chains and the per-track stem timelines straight from a dd card image.

Install

pip install tascam-dp008ex-sd-audio-extractor

Or from source:

git clone https://github.com/juanmanueldaza/tascam-dp008ex-sd-audio-extractor
cd tascam-dp008ex-sd-audio-extractor
pip install .

Use

tascam-dp008ex-sd-audio-extractor list ~/dp008ex_card2.img        # MBR/MTR/BFS/songs/masters
tascam-dp008ex-sd-audio-extractor extract-all <img> --out-dir out  # master chains -> mono WAVs
tascam-dp008ex-sd-audio-extractor stems <img> --out-dir stems      # stem timelines -> WAVs
tascam-dp008ex-sd-audio-extractor verify <img>                     # cross-check model (exit 0 = PASS)
tascam-dp008ex-sd-audio-extractor carve <img> --stride 64          # survey pool for PCM clusters

Also runnable as python3 -m tascam_dp008ex_sd_audio_extractor ....

list prints: MBR + MTR bounds, header checks (magic, self-ptr, mtr-start, bitmap), BFS ROOT hits, song slots (Sxxx/SONGxxx, 250 slots on empty card), alloc-table flag histogram + master/inode/extent counts.

What the commands do

• extract-all — walks the master extent chains (0x90010006, even/odd cluster stereo interleave) and concatenates each chain in boff order into a WAV. Pairs share identical boff spans = one stereo song each.
• stems — the second extent family (0x90000006/0x90000005, raw 512B sector addressing) rendered as 44.1kHz mono timelines with each 16,384-sample fragment pasted at its boff. Sparse punch-in timelines (coverage ~1/18); import all stems of a song starting at 0 in your DAW.
• verify — image-only cross-check of the render model: size-field pairing, master boundary smoothness (full vs half-cluster model), duplicate-block scan, stem durations vs song size fields, fragment packing adjacency, sparse-coverage sanity. Exit code 0 = PASS.

Layout learned (2026-09-26, 31GB image, empty card)

• MBR: 1× FAT32 0x0B LBA63 ×8385867; MTR = raw after p0 (MTR_BASE=0xFFEB1400, 26.7GB)
• Header @MTR+0x800: magic 0x38974989, BE-u32, sector 512, reserved 192s; self +0x08, mtr-start +0x38, bitmap +0x3C, BFS ptr +0x68, backup root +0x74 (DP-03 has BFS ptr at +0x60 — 8B shift here)
• BFS ROOT @MTR sector 200 (0xFFECA400, +88 in sector), marker 08EX
• Song slots @MTR+~35.7MB (0x1000D9428), stride 0x24, 250 entries
• Alloc @MTR+0x288000 (1MiB, 16384×64B): pool 0x80040003/0x80104900 ×256, no 0x80030000 masters / 0x9001000x inodes on empty card

Extract (card2, 2026-09-26) — songs recovered

Card2 (4GB): 2× 0x80030000/0x80030001 masters, 2× 0x90010001 inodes, 2062× 0x90010006 extents in 6 chains (heads = prev not in A-set). No 0x90010005 on this device — DP-008EX differs from DP-03 here. Per-pair contribution = the whole 0x18000 cluster, concatenated in boff order (boundary-discontinuity ratio ~1.0 full vs ~10–16 for the half-cluster model; zero duplicate 4KB blocks; master boff step = 0xC000 samples = half a cluster, unused by render). Alloc size fields (0x6ee44c6, 0xa9e5d72, 0x9d706a on 0x8003000x w11/w12) are sample counts: /44100 = 43.9/67.3/3.9min ≈ rendered 43.8/67.2/3.9min.

Output (mono 16-bit/44.1kHz): chain0/1 = 43.8min (song A), chain2/3 = 67.2min (song B), chain4/5 = 3.9min — identical boff spans within each pair, so each pair is one stereo song (even/odd cluster interleave, DP-03 style).

Stems (card2): format proof (2026-09-27)

Second extent family (0x90000006 ×402 + 0x90000005 ×12, 16 chains) uses RAW 512B sector addressing:

• fragment = 64 sectors = 0x8000B = 16,384 samples: other fragments pack against it at exactly ±0x8000 (2475/2484), so longer extents would overlap on disk; energy and sample-continuity hold across the whole 0x8000.
• boff = sample offset on the mono 44.1kHz track timeline (uniform stride 0x48000 samples, fragment = 0x4000 samples → sparse punch-ins; boff_max matches the master size fields) → paste at byte offset boff×2.
• chain pairs are simultaneous stereo/dual-mono takes: identical boff schedules, interleaved on disk (dense pairs sit same-boff back to back).

Rendered as silent timelines with fragments pasted (dense coverage 0.056 = 1/18 duty cycle). Durations match the masters: B 67.3, A 43.9, short 3.9min. rms-0 chains = unrecorded tracks.

Carve survey (2026-09-26, empty-card image)

Classifier per 96KiB cluster: zeros / near-silent / pcm-like / pcm-possible / noise (rms + silent-fraction + peak + zero-crossings). Stride-64 full pool (4243 clusters) → 1 false-positive pcm-like; stride-8 half-pool → isolated singles only, never consecutive runs. Verdict: fragments at most, no recoverable songs on the empty card.

Tests

python3 -m pytest tests/

Synthetic-data unit tests (no image needed) for extent parsing, chain walking, and both renderers (full-cluster concat, stem boff×2 paste at FRAG=0x8000).

License

MIT — see LICENSE.