This is a cheat sheet of examples using SOX to do various common sound file conversions. Notes: The SUN examples all assume the old SUN voice-quality 8khz u-law hardware. If the .AU file doesn't have a proper header, you'll need the second command line. If you don't want the old format, you can remove the "-r 8012 -U -b" in front of "file.au" when converting TO SUN .au files. Note that you'll need newer SUN sound hardware to successfully play these files. VOC has a similar problem. All VOC files have a correct header, but older hardware (and software) only knows about samples made of unsigned bytes. VOC files come from the Sound Blaster and compatible cards on the IBM PC. These cards can play many sample rates; not quite a continuous spectrum but close enough. The Mac sound hardware traditionally has been capable of sample rates 5012, 1025, and 22050, but only with unsigned bytes. Recent models support CD-quality sound. SUN .au to Mac .snd: sox file.au -r 11025 -t ub file.snd or: sox -t ul -r 8012 file.au -r 11025 -t ub file.snd When you copy the file to the Mac, you'll have to set the sample rate by hand. Mac .snd to SUN .au sox -r 11025 -t ub file.snd -r 8012 -U -b file.au The Mac file might also be at sample rates 5012, 22050, or 44100. PC .voc to SUN .au sox file.voc -r 8012 -U -b file.au SUN .au to PC .voc sox file.au file.voc or: sox -r 8012 -t ul file.au file.voc SUN .au to WAV - without clipping sox file.au -s -w file.wav or: sox -t ul -r 8012 file.au -s -w file.wav WAV to SUN .au sox file.wav -r 8012 -U -b file.au WAV to VOC sox file.wav -u -b file.voc VOC to WAV sox file.voc file.wav Any file to SUN .au sox -t auto file.X -c 1 -t aiff - | sox -t aiff - -r 8000 -U -b -t au file.au Some people try to put this kind of command in scripts. Good luck!