AY File

What are AY files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening an AY file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your AY files.

What is an AY file?

An .AY file is an AY Chiptune file.

AY Chiptune files store music data captured for the AY-3-8910 family of sound chips, used in older home computers such as the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. They encode machine code and data that drive the chip or its emulation, recreating the original real-time audio behavior rather than storing sampled sound. Music is played back by an emulator or player that feeds the AY registers at the appropriate times.

The files are produced by ripping the original game or demo code, or by composing new music in software that supports AY emulation. They are typically used by players and utilities like Audio Overload, Ay_Emul, AYMakeR, DeliAY, or AYPlay. These tools extract the tune data, package it into the AY format, and then emulate the AY chip to render audio in playback.

The format known as AY/EMUL or "EMUL-type AY file" was designed by Patrik Rak for the DeliAY plug-in for DeliTracker on the Amiga, later supported by ported AY utilities on PC. It uses big-endian (Motorola) ordering for multi-byte values and signed relative pointers within the file to link to strings, song structure records, and music data blocks. Records begin with a header identifying the file with ASCII codes for identifiers such as ZXAY and EMUL.

In the header the first four bytes are FileID "ZXAY", followed by TypeID "EMUL", then version information, pointers to author and miscellaneous info strings, number of songs, which song starts first, and offset to the song structure table. Each song structure gives a pointer to its name and to its song data. Each song's data block includes channel mapping, playback durations, initial CPU register state, and block-based code/data for the AY emulation.

Byte signatures include the string "ZXAYEMUL" in ASCII starting at byte offset zero, which serves to identify these files as AY/EMUL AY chiptune files.

How to open AY files

Important: Different programs may use files with the AY file extension for different purposes, so unless you are sure which format your AY file is, you may need to try a few different programs.

While we have not verified the app ourselves yet, our users have suggested a single AY opener which you will find listed below.

Last updated: August 22, 2026

Various apps that use files with this extension

These apps are known to open certain types of AY files. Remember, different programs may use AY files for different purposes, so you may need to try out a few of them to be able to open your specific file.

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