SNDFILE-CONVERT(1)

💖 SNDFILE-CONVERT 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because we're talking about sndfile-convert, the sndfile-convert(1) general commands manual page, and it's giving format-shifting icon. ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

sndfile-convert — convert sound files from one format to another 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

sndfile-convert [-override-sample-rate=rate]
                [-endian=little | big | cpu] [-normalize] [encoding]
                input output

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so basically, sndfile-convert takes sound files and flips them from one audio format into another, no cap. it's the glow-up station for your audio files. 💅

⚠️ heads up bestie: the output file gets overwritten if it already exists. no little "are you sure?" popup, no takebacks. she just does it. 🙈

🎀 Formats 🎀

the format of the output file is decided by the filename extension, periodt. here's the full roster of file formats she recognizes right now:

• wav — WAV (Microsoft)
• aif — AIFF (Apple/SGI)
• au — AU (Sun/NeXT)
• snd — AU (Sun/NeXT)
• raw — RAW (header-less)
• gsm — RAW (header-less)
• vox — RAW (header-less)
• paf — PAF (Ensoniq PARIS, big-endian)
• fap — PAF (Ensoniq PARIS, little-endian)
• svx — IFF (Amiga IFF/SVX8/SV16)
• nist — SPHERE (NIST SPeech HEader Resources)
• sph — SPHERE (NIST SPeech HEader Resources)
• voc — VOC (Creative Labs)
• ircam — SF (Berkeley/IRCAM/CARL)
• sf — SF (Berkeley/IRCAM/CARL)
• w64 — W64 (SoundFoundry WAVE 64)
• mat — MAT4 (GNU Octave 2.0 / Matlab 4.2)
• mat4 — MAT4 (GNU Octave 2.0 / Matlab 4.2)
• mat5 — MAT5 (GNU Octave 2.1 / Matlab 5.0)
• pvf — PVF (Portable Voice Format)
• xi — XI (FastTracker 2)
• htk — HTK (HMM Tool Kit)
• sds — SDS (Midi Sample Dump Standard)
• avr — AVR (Audio Visual Research)
• wavex — WAVEX (MS WAVE with WAVEFORMATEX)
• sd2 — SD2 (Sound Designer II)
• flac — FLAC (FLAC Lossless Audio Codec)
• caf — CAF (Apple Core Audio File)
• wve — WVE (Psion Series 3)
• prc — WVE (Psion Series 3)
• ogg — OGG (OGG Container format)
• oga — OGG (OGG Container format)
• mpc — MPC (Akai MPC 2k)
• rf64 — RF64 (RIFF 64)

like, that's a menu. she ate. 👑

💜 Options 💜

here's every option she recognizes, no skips:

• -override-sample-rate=rate — forces the input to use a sample rate of rate Hz. yes ma'am, we're overriding it.
• -endian=little — output file gets little endian data.
• -endian=big — output file gets big endian data.
• -endian=cpu — output file matches whatever the CPU's endianness is.
• -normalize — normalizes the audio data in the output file. ✨

🌈 Encodings 🌈

that optional encoding parameter? yeah, it lets you set the data encoding for the output file. these are the encodings supported rn:

• -pcms8 — signed 8 bit pcm
• -pcmu8 — unsigned 8 bit pcm
• -pcm16 — 16 bit pcm
• -pcm24 — 24 bit pcm
• -pcm32 — 32 bit pcm
• -float32 — 32 bit floating point
• -ulaw — ULAW
• -alaw — ALAW
• -ima-adpcm — IMA ADPCM (WAV only)
• -ms-adpcm — MS ADPCM (WAV only)
• -gsm610 — GSM6.10 (WAV only)
• -dwvw12 — 12 bit DWVW (AIFF only)
• -dwvw16 — 16 bit DWVW (AIFF only)
• -dwvw24 — 24 bit DWVW (AIFF only)
• -vorbis — Vorbis (OGG only)

if you don't specify an encoding for the output file, sndfile-convert will try to use the encoding of the input file. but bestie, lowkey that doesn't always work 😭 — because most container formats (like WAV, AIFF, etc.) only support a small subset of encodings (like 16 bit PCM, a-law, Vorbis, etc.). it's giving "we tried our best."

⭐ EXIT STATUS ⭐

sndfile-convert exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. simple as that, fr fr. 💀

🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

http://libsndfile.github.io/libsndfile/

👑 AUTHORS 👑

Erik de Castro Lopo <erikd@mega-nerd.com>.

okay that's the whole page bestie, you're officially a sndfile-convert girlie now 💅 this was the Debian edition of the SNDFILE-CONVERT(1) manual, dated November 2, 2014 — slay, mwah, go convert something 🎀💖✨