VOC to SD2 Converter

Save Sound Blaster VOC audio as Sound Designer II

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Pro Audio Heritage

Sound Designer II helped launch Pro Tools. Your VOC audio gets wrapped in a container with serious professional pedigree.

VOC to SD2 Path

Bridge the Sound Blaster and Digidesign worlds — from DOS-era PC audio to professional recording studio in a single conversion.

Confidential Processing

Professional audio requires privacy. Uploaded VOC files are deleted immediately, SD2 outputs within 24 hours.

How to convert VOC to SD2

1

Select files from Computer, Google Drive, Dropbox, URL or by dragging it on the page.

2

Choose sd2 or any other format you need as a result (more than 200 formats supported)

3

Let the file convert and you can download your sd2 file right afterwards

About formats

VOC (Creative Voice) is a digital audio container developed by Creative Technology and introduced alongside the original Sound Blaster card in 1989. It served as the native audio format for the Sound Blaster family during the DOS era, when Creative's hardware dominated PC audio. VOC files are block-based: each file consists of typed data blocks that can carry 8-bit unsigned PCM, 4-bit and 2.6-bit Creative ADPCM, 16-bit signed PCM, as well as A-law and mu-law encoded audio. This block structure also supports silence intervals, repeat loops, and marker points, giving game developers fine-grained control over sound playback. A notable advantage was hardware-level decoding — Sound Blaster cards could play VOC data directly via DMA transfer, freeing the CPU for other tasks in an era when processor cycles were precious. The format saw extensive use in DOS games from id Software, Sierra, and LucasArts. With the rise of Windows and the WAV format, VOC gradually fell out of mainstream use, yet it remains important for retro gaming preservation and for anyone working with vintage PC audio archives.
Initial release: 1989
Sound Designer II (SD2) is a professional audio format created by Digidesign around 1988 as the successor to the original Sound Designer format. For over a decade, SD2 was the standard interchange format in professional recording studios, especially those on Macintosh systems. It stores uncompressed linear PCM audio at up to 24-bit resolution with sample rates used in professional production (44.1, 48, 88.2, and 96 kHz). A distinctive technical trait is its reliance on the classic Mac OS resource fork for critical metadata — sample rate, bit depth, and channel configuration — while audio data resides in the data fork. This design worked elegantly within the Mac ecosystem but created portability challenges when files moved to Windows or Unix. A key advantage was SD2's support for multiple channels in a single file and tight integration with the Pro Tools editing environment, enabling non-destructive region-based editing. The format also carried loop points and markers, making it valuable for sample libraries. As Avid Technology shifted Pro Tools toward WAV and AIFF, SD2 usage declined, but millions of legacy session archives still contain SD2 files needing occasional conversion.
Initial release: 1988

Frequently Asked Questions

Why convert VOC to SD2?

SD2 was the native format of early Pro Tools and Digidesign hardware. Converting VOC to SD2 enables integration with legacy Pro Tools sessions.

What can open SD2 files?

Pro Tools (legacy versions), Audacity, and SoX can read SD2. Modern Pro Tools uses WAV/BWF but still supports SD2 for compatibility.

What is Sound Designer II?

SD2 is a professional audio format by Digidesign for Sound Designer and Pro Tools. It stores high-quality audio with loop and marker data.

Is SD2 still used in Pro Tools?

Modern Pro Tools uses BWF/WAV as default. SD2 is supported for backward compatibility with older sessions and legacy Digidesign hardware.

Does SD2 support multiple channels?

SD2 supports stereo and mono with rich metadata including markers and loop points — features that made it popular in professional studios.