Convert OGG to VOC — Free Online Tool
Convert OGG audio files (Vorbis/Opus streams) to VOC format, the legacy PCM audio container developed by Creative Labs for Sound Blaster hardware. The conversion decodes the lossy OGG stream and re-encodes it as raw unsigned 8-bit PCM, making it compatible with DOS games, retro emulators, and vintage Sound Blaster applications.
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FFmpeg Command
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DownloadHow It Works
OGG files typically contain Vorbis or Opus audio, both of which are lossy compressed codecs that store audio as frequency-domain data requiring full decoding before any reuse. During this conversion, FFmpeg fully decodes the compressed OGG audio stream into raw PCM samples, then re-encodes it as unsigned 8-bit PCM (pcm_u8) wrapped in the VOC container. This is a two-stage transcode — not a remux — because the source codec (Vorbis or Opus) is fundamentally incompatible with the VOC format, which only supports raw uncompressed PCM. The output VOC file will be significantly larger than the OGG source, since PCM stores every sample explicitly with no compression. Any OGG metadata tags, chapter markers, or multiple audio tracks will be discarded, as the VOC format supports none of these features.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg binary — the open-source multimedia processing engine that handles decoding the OGG container, demuxing the Vorbis or Opus audio stream, and re-encoding it as PCM for the VOC output. |
-i input.ogg
|
Specifies the input OGG file. FFmpeg reads the OGG container, identifies the enclosed audio codec (typically libvorbis or libopus), and prepares to fully decode the compressed audio stream into raw PCM samples. |
-c:a pcm_u8
|
Sets the output audio codec to unsigned 8-bit PCM, the most compatible raw audio format for the VOC container and legacy Sound Blaster hardware. This replaces the compressed Vorbis or Opus encoding with uncompressed PCM samples, which is what the VOC format requires. |
output.voc
|
Specifies the output filename with the .voc extension. FFmpeg uses this extension to select the VOC muxer, which wraps the raw pcm_u8 audio data in the Creative Labs VOC container format, including the required VOC file header that DOS applications and emulators use to identify and play the file. |
Common Use Cases
- Replacing or adding custom sound effects in classic DOS games (such as those built for Sound Blaster hardware) that require VOC-format audio assets
- Preparing audio files for use with DOSBox or other DOS emulators that load Sound Blaster-compatible VOC sound effects directly
- Converting freely available OGG sound libraries into VOC format for use in retro game development projects targeting DOS or early Windows platforms
- Restoring or replacing corrupted VOC audio assets in vintage multimedia CD-ROM titles using modern OGG source recordings
- Creating Sound Blaster-compatible audio clips for hardware projects or FPGA-based retro computing systems that interface with VOC playback routines
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, and in two ways. First, any quality loss already present in the OGG source (from its original Vorbis or Opus encoding) is permanent and carries over. Second, the VOC output uses unsigned 8-bit PCM (pcm_u8), which has a dynamic range of only 48 dB — far less than CD-quality 16-bit audio. This means the conversion introduces additional quantization noise and a reduction in dynamic range. For retro gaming and Sound Blaster compatibility, this is generally acceptable and expected, but it makes VOC unsuitable for high-fidelity audio archival.
OGG with Vorbis or Opus is a compressed format that typically achieves 8:1 to 15:1 compression ratios by discarding audio information the human ear is less sensitive to. VOC stores raw uncompressed PCM samples, meaning every fraction of a second of audio is stored as individual byte values with no compression whatsoever. Even though pcm_u8 uses only 8 bits per sample (vs. 16 bits for CD audio), the absence of any compression means the file size is determined purely by duration and sample rate, resulting in files that are many times larger than the OGG source.
The VOC format does support stereo audio in later revisions of the format specification, but compatibility varies widely depending on the target application or hardware. Many older DOS programs and Sound Blaster drivers only reliably handle mono VOC files. If your OGG source is stereo and you experience playback issues, you can add '-ac 1' to the FFmpeg command before the output filename to downmix to mono, which maximizes compatibility with legacy software and hardware.
All OGG metadata is lost during this conversion. The VOC format has no support for metadata tags, chapter markers, or embedded artwork — it is a minimal container designed purely for raw PCM audio data in a DOS-era context. If your OGG file contains Vorbis comment tags (artist, title, album, etc.) or chapter markers used for podcast navigation, none of this information will be present in the output VOC file.
By default the command uses pcm_u8, which is 8-bit unsigned PCM. To get 16-bit signed little-endian PCM — the other codec the VOC format supports — change the codec flag in the command to '-c:a pcm_s16le', giving you: ffmpeg -i input.ogg -c:a pcm_s16le output.voc. The 16-bit version offers significantly better dynamic range (96 dB vs. 48 dB) and is more appropriate if your target application or emulator supports it, though it will also produce a file twice as large as the 8-bit equivalent.
Yes. On Linux or macOS you can use a shell loop: 'for f in *.ogg; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:a pcm_u8 "${f%.ogg}.voc"; done'. On Windows Command Prompt, use: 'for %f in (*.ogg) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -c:a pcm_u8 "%~nf.voc"'. Each OGG file in the directory will be decoded and re-encoded to a VOC file with the same base filename. This is especially useful when preparing a full set of game sound effects for a retro project.
Technical Notes
The VOC format was designed in the early 1990s for Creative Labs Sound Blaster cards and operates under significant constraints compared to modern containers. It supports only two PCM codecs: unsigned 8-bit (pcm_u8) and signed 16-bit little-endian (pcm_s16le). The default conversion uses pcm_u8, which is the most universally compatible option for original DOS software and hardware. Sample rate support in VOC is technically flexible but many legacy applications expect common rates like 8000 Hz, 11025 Hz, or 22050 Hz — if your OGG source uses 44100 Hz or 48000 Hz, consider adding '-ar 22050' to the command to resample to a rate your target application is more likely to handle correctly. The VOC format does not support multiple audio tracks, so if your OGG file contains multiple audio streams (a less common but valid OGG feature), only the first audio stream will be included in the output. There are no quality tuning parameters for PCM codecs in the VOC output — audio quality is determined entirely by bit depth and sample rate.