Extract Audio from MPG to VOC — Free Online Tool
Extract audio from MPG video files and save it as VOC format — the classic Creative Labs Sound Blaster audio container. This tool decodes the MPG's compressed audio stream (typically MP2 or AAC) and converts it to uncompressed PCM audio stored in the retro VOC format, making it immediately compatible with DOS-era game engines and legacy multimedia software.
to
FFmpeg Command
Copy this command to run the same conversion locally with FFmpeg on your desktop. Download FFmpeg
Drop your MPG file here
or click to browse
Free — no uploads, no signups. Your files never leave your browser.
Settings
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
MPG files store audio using lossy compressed codecs — most commonly MPEG Layer 2 (MP2), but sometimes MP3 or AAC depending on the source. During this conversion, FFmpeg discards the video stream entirely and decodes the compressed audio to raw PCM samples, then repackages them into the VOC container format using unsigned 8-bit PCM (pcm_u8) — the default and most historically authentic encoding for VOC files. Because MP2 is a lossy format and VOC stores uncompressed PCM, there is one decode step but no further lossy compression applied; the audio is losslessly preserved at whatever fidelity the original MPG audio contained. The VOC container itself is a simple, chunk-based format developed by Creative Labs that stores raw PCM data with a minimal header describing sample rate and bit depth.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg multimedia processing tool. In the browser version of this tool, this runs via FFmpeg.wasm (WebAssembly) entirely client-side — no audio data leaves your machine. |
-i input.mpg
|
Specifies the input MPG file. FFmpeg will parse the MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 container to locate the multiplexed video and audio streams — typically an MPEG-2 video stream and an MP2 audio stream for standard broadcast or DVD-originated MPG files. |
-vn
|
Disables video output entirely, instructing FFmpeg to ignore the MPEG video stream and extract only the audio. This is required because the VOC format has no video container capability and FFmpeg would otherwise attempt to mux both streams. |
-c:a pcm_u8
|
Sets the audio codec to unsigned 8-bit PCM, which is the default and most historically authentic encoding for VOC files. This decodes the compressed MP2 audio from the MPG source into raw uncompressed samples stored as 8-bit unsigned integers — the native data format of the original Creative Labs Sound Blaster hardware. |
output.voc
|
Specifies the output filename and triggers FFmpeg to use the VOC muxer based on the .voc file extension. The resulting file will be a valid Creative Voice File with the standard 'Creative Voice File' header, readable by DOSBox, legacy DOS applications, and VOC-aware audio tools. |
Common Use Cases
- Extracting speech or music from MPEG-1 VCD rips to use as sound effects or dialogue in a retro DOS game being developed or modded
- Converting broadcast MPEG-2 audio clips into VOC files for playback in DOSBox or other DOS emulators that expect Sound Blaster-compatible audio assets
- Archiving audio from old MPG home videos or training tapes into a raw, uncompressed format that requires no codec to decode — useful for long-term preservation pipelines targeting legacy systems
- Supplying audio assets to 1990s game engine tools (such as editors for Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, or early Quake-era engines) that accept VOC files as their native sound format
- Stripping and converting the audio narration from an educational MPEG video for use in a vintage multimedia kiosk or embedded system running DOS-based software
- Preparing audio samples from MPG footage for use in tracker music software or retro demoscene productions that consume VOC-format samples
Frequently Asked Questions
The MPG file's audio is already lossy-compressed (typically as MP2 at 192kbps or similar), so there is an inherent quality ceiling set by the original encoding. Converting to VOC does not apply any additional lossy compression — the audio is decoded from MP2 and stored as raw PCM, which is lossless from that point forward. The result is as faithful to the original MPG audio as technically possible, though any quality lost during the original MPG encoding cannot be recovered.
The default pcm_u8 codec reflects the historical design of the VOC format, which was built around the capabilities of the original Sound Blaster card and DOS-era hardware that operated primarily in 8-bit audio. This means the dynamic range is limited to about 48dB, which is noticeably lower fidelity than CD audio. If you need higher fidelity, you can modify the FFmpeg command to use '-c:a pcm_s16le' instead, which stores signed 16-bit little-endian PCM — still within the VOC specification and supported by modern VOC-aware software and emulators like DOSBox.
Yes, FFmpeg will carry the sample rate from the decoded MPG audio stream into the VOC file's header by default. MPG files commonly use 44100 Hz or 48000 Hz audio. However, if you are targeting hardware or software that expects a specific sample rate (such as 22050 Hz for many DOS games), you should add '-ar 22050' to the FFmpeg command to resample accordingly, since some legacy VOC playback engines may not handle arbitrary sample rates.
The command shown is designed for a single file, but on your desktop you can adapt it for batch processing using a shell loop. On Linux or macOS, you can run: 'for f in *.mpg; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -vn -c:a pcm_u8 "${f%.mpg}.voc"; done'. On Windows Command Prompt, use: 'for %f in (*.mpg) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -vn -c:a pcm_u8 "%~nf.voc"'. The browser-based tool processes one file at a time, so the desktop FFmpeg command is the recommended path for bulk conversions.
No. The VOC format has no facility for embedding metadata such as title, artist, or album tags — it is a raw audio container with only a minimal header describing codec, sample rate, and bit depth. Any ID3-style or MPEG metadata present in the source MPG file will be silently dropped during the conversion. If metadata preservation matters, consider extracting to a format like FLAC or WAV instead.
The '-vn' flag tells FFmpeg to ignore all video streams in the MPG file and produce an audio-only output. It is essential here because MPG is a video container — without '-vn', FFmpeg would attempt to include the video stream in the output, which the VOC format cannot contain, causing an error. Including '-vn' explicitly ensures a clean audio extraction regardless of how many video or subtitle streams the MPG file contains.
Technical Notes
The VOC format is a chunk-based binary format introduced by Creative Labs in the early 1990s. It begins with a 26-byte file header ('Creative Voice File') followed by typed data blocks containing audio samples and metadata chunks like sample rate and codec type. When FFmpeg writes pcm_u8 VOC output, audio samples are stored as unsigned 8-bit integers (range 0–255, with silence at 128), which is the most universally compatible mode for legacy Sound Blaster hardware and DOS emulators. The source MPG audio — typically MP2 encoded at 128–192kbps — must be fully decoded before writing to VOC, making this a transcode rather than a remux. One important limitation is that VOC does not support multiple channels in all playback contexts; stereo audio from an MPG source will be written as stereo PCM in the VOC file, but some classic DOS applications and emulators may only play the left channel or mix it unexpectedly. If mono compatibility is needed, add '-ac 1' to the FFmpeg command to downmix to mono before encoding. File sizes will be substantially larger than the source MPG audio because uncompressed PCM at 8-bit/44100Hz stereo produces approximately 88KB per second, compared to MP2's roughly 24KB per second at 192kbps.