VOC to SND Converter

Transform Sound Blaster VOC audio to SND format

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Cross-Platform Audio

SND works on NeXT, macOS, and Unix systems. Converting from VOC gives your Sound Blaster audio broad legacy platform compatibility.

Online Processing

The conversion runs on our servers — no command-line tools needed, no Unix environment required on your side.

Rapid Turnaround

Both VOC and SND are straightforward formats. The conversion between them completes in seconds.

How to convert VOC to SND

1

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

2

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

3

Let the file convert and you can download your snd 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
SND is a multi-platform audio file extension used across several computing ecosystems since the late 1980s. On Sun and NeXT workstations, .snd files follow the AU format structure — a header with magic number 0x2e736e64, data offset, encoding type, sample rate, and channel count, followed by raw audio. On MS-DOS PCs, the same .snd extension was used by early sound utilities like Sounder and SoundTool for simple 8-bit unsigned PCM recordings. Macintosh systems also employed .snd for sound resources embedded in the resource fork. Because the extension is shared across incompatible formats, audio processing tools typically inspect the file header to determine which variant they are handling: files beginning with the AU magic number are treated as Sun/NeXT audio, while headerless files are interpreted as raw PCM with assumed parameters. The Sun/NeXT variant supports multiple encodings including mu-law, A-law, 8-bit and 16-bit linear PCM, and ADPCM, making it versatile for both speech and general audio. One advantage of the AU-style SND is its self-describing header, which enables any compliant player to determine sample format and rate without external metadata. The MS-DOS SND variants hold historical value as artifacts of the era when Sound Blaster cards first brought digital audio to personal computers. SND files from all platforms can be processed and converted using SoX and other audio tools.
Initial release: 1988

Frequently Asked Questions

Why convert VOC to SND?

SND is a versatile audio format used on NeXT workstations and early macOS. Converting VOC to SND serves cross-platform Unix audio compatibility.

What can open SND files?

macOS, Unix systems, Audacity, VLC, and SoX all handle SND files. The format is closely related to the AU container.

How does SND relate to AU?

SND and AU are essentially the same container. SND is more common on NeXT and macOS, while AU prevails on Sun systems.

Can I use SND in modern macOS apps?

macOS recognizes SND files through its core audio frameworks. Audio players and editors on macOS open them without issues.

Is the conversion lossless?

If the SND output uses PCM encoding, the audio data transfers from VOC without quality loss. Mu-law encoding introduces slight compression.