Convert VOC to OGG — Free Online Tool
Convert VOC audio files — the classic Sound Blaster format used in DOS-era games — to OGG Vorbis, a modern open-source lossy format ideal for streaming and broad compatibility. The raw PCM audio stored in your VOC file is transcoded to Vorbis using FFmpeg's libvorbis encoder, giving you a dramatically smaller, widely playable file.
to
FFmpeg Command
Copy this command to run the same conversion locally with FFmpeg on your desktop. Download FFmpeg
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Note: Browser-based encoding uses approximate quality targets. For precise CRF compression, copy the FFmpeg command above and run it on your desktop.
Estimated output:
Conversion Complete!
DownloadHow It Works
VOC files store uncompressed PCM audio (typically 8-bit unsigned or 16-bit signed samples) in a simple chunked container developed by Creative Labs. During this conversion, FFmpeg reads the raw PCM stream from the VOC file and passes it through the libvorbis encoder, which applies perceptual lossy compression to produce an OGG Vorbis stream. Because VOC is uncompressed, there is no prior lossy generation to worry about — you are encoding from a lossless source. The output OGG container wraps the Vorbis stream with Xiph.Org's open page-and-packet structure, and the default quality level 4 (on a 0–10 scale) targets approximately 128 kbps, which is more than sufficient to faithfully represent the limited-fidelity audio typically found in VOC files, particularly 8-bit 22 kHz or lower-quality samples common in DOS games.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg tool, which handles the demuxing of the VOC container, decoding of the raw PCM audio, and re-encoding to Vorbis within the OGG container. |
-i input.voc
|
Specifies the input VOC file. FFmpeg detects the VOC container format and reads the embedded PCM audio stream (either 8-bit unsigned or 16-bit signed depending on the file's origin). |
-c:a libvorbis
|
Selects the libvorbis encoder to compress the raw PCM audio from the VOC file into Vorbis format, which is the standard lossy audio codec for the OGG container and is widely supported by browsers, game engines, and media players. |
-q:a 4
|
Sets the Vorbis variable bitrate quality to level 4 on a 0–10 scale, targeting approximately 128 kbps. This is a sensible default for VOC source material, which is typically low-fidelity 8-bit DOS game audio that does not benefit from higher quality settings. |
output.ogg
|
Defines the output filename with the .ogg extension, instructing FFmpeg to wrap the encoded Vorbis stream in an OGG container — the standard open container format developed by Xiph.Org. |
Common Use Cases
- Extracting sound effects from DOS game VOC files to use in modern game development projects or remakes, where OGG Vorbis is a natively supported audio format in engines like Godot and Unity.
- Archiving a collection of vintage Sound Blaster audio samples with dramatically reduced file sizes, making it practical to host or share retro game sound libraries online.
- Preparing VOC-sourced dialogue or music clips from classic multimedia CD-ROM titles for playback in modern media players and browsers, which do not support the VOC format.
- Converting VOC sound effects ripped from early 1990s games to OGG for use in fan-made sequels, preserving the original audio fidelity while using a universally compatible format.
- Importing old Sound Blaster recordings or voice clips stored in VOC format into a modern audio editing workflow where OGG is the preferred lossless-adjacent working format.
- Hosting retro game audio samples on a web platform or Itch.io project page where OGG Vorbis is the recommended streaming audio format for browser-based HTML5 games.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, OGG Vorbis is a lossy format, so some audio data is discarded during encoding. However, because most VOC files contain low-fidelity audio — often 8-bit samples at 11 kHz or 22 kHz recorded on Sound Blaster hardware — the perceptual difference at quality level 4 is typically negligible. The Vorbis encoder is very effective at preserving the character of low-resolution PCM audio, and the output will sound virtually identical to the source on typical playback devices.
The lo-fi character comes from the source material itself, not the OGG conversion. VOC files were created for the Sound Blaster card, which was often limited to 8-bit unsigned PCM (pcm_u8) at sample rates as low as 8 kHz. Raising the Vorbis quality level will not restore fidelity that was never present in the original recording. The OGG file accurately represents what the VOC file actually contained.
Adjust the -q:a value, which ranges from 0 (lowest quality, smallest file) to 10 (highest quality, largest file). The default is 4, which targets roughly 128 kbps. For DOS game sound effects that are already 8-bit and low sample rate, values of 2 or 3 are often more than sufficient and will produce very small files. For example: ffmpeg -i input.voc -c:a libvorbis -q:a 2 output.ogg.
Yes. On Linux or macOS, use a shell loop: for f in *.voc; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:a libvorbis -q:a 4 "${f%.voc}.ogg"; done. On Windows Command Prompt: for %f in (*.voc) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -c:a libvorbis -q:a 4 "%~nf.ogg". This is especially useful when extracting large libraries of sound effects from DOS game directories.
VOC files contain essentially no metadata — the format was designed purely for raw audio playback on Sound Blaster hardware and has no fields for artist, title, or track information. The OGG container fully supports Vorbis Comment metadata tags, but since there is nothing to copy from the VOC source, the output file will have empty tags. You can add metadata manually by appending -metadata title="My Sound" -metadata artist="Creator" to the FFmpeg command.
Yes. Replace -c:a libvorbis -q:a 4 with -c:a libopus -b:a 64k in the FFmpeg command: ffmpeg -i input.voc -c:a libopus -b:a 64k output.ogg. Opus is more efficient than Vorbis at low bitrates and is an excellent choice for low-fidelity DOS game audio, since even 32–48 kbps Opus can cleanly represent 8-bit PCM source material. Note that Opus uses bitrate (-b:a) rather than a quality scale.
Technical Notes
VOC files use one of two PCM encodings: pcm_u8 (8-bit unsigned, the most common for DOS games) or pcm_s16le (16-bit signed little-endian, used in later Sound Blaster 16 recordings). FFmpeg's VOC demuxer handles both automatically. Because pcm_u8 has only 256 amplitude levels and a dynamic range of about 48 dB, the source audio is already bandwidth-limited before encoding begins — this means very high Vorbis quality settings above 5 or 6 provide no meaningful benefit and only increase file size. The OGG container supports multiple audio tracks and chapters, but since VOC is a single-stream format with no chapter concept, neither feature is populated by this conversion. One important edge case: some VOC files used in games contain looping metadata (loop start and end markers embedded in the VOC chunk structure) that instructs the Sound Blaster hardware to repeat sections. FFmpeg does not translate these loop markers into OGG metadata, so if loop behavior is important for your use case (such as background music), you will need to manually handle looping in your target application. Sample rates in VOC files are often non-standard (e.g., 11,025 Hz or 22,050 Hz), which libvorbis handles natively without resampling.