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——— Usage ———
SndConverter Pro™ is an application that allows you to convert batches of sounds from one format to another, downsample certain sounds, convert sounds with 16-bit samples to 8-bit, change sampling rates, compress and decompress sounds, and filter the sound names, among other options. The formats currently supported are:
• AIFF and AIFF-C files (Audio Interchange File Format and AIFF with Compression)
• SoundEdit™ data files (Hint: you can also convert PC sounds, thanks to this format)
• Mac OS sound files
• Mac OS suitcases
• Sound Mover™ suitcases — this category includes applications containing sounds and HyperCard™ stacks: basically, you can extract ‘snd ’ resources from any file.
To convert a file or several files to one of the other formats, you can open the files from the Finder™: simply select the files to be converted and drag them to the SndConverter Pro icon (i.e. “drop the icons on the application”). I find that leaving the application on the desktop makes instant access a breeze — or you could put an alias to it there. You can even drop a folder of sounds on SndConverter Pro, and it will convert every sound within, no matter how many folders deep they are. The same goes for disks: drop a floppy icon on the application, and all its sounds will be converted (not recommended with hard disks though! <grin>). Of course, you can also use the Open… command in the File menu.
Once you have opened the file(s), you will be asked for a format to convert them to. You also have the option of moving the old file(s) to the Trash once they have been successfully converted (SndConverter Pro doesn’t overwrite the old files, it creates new ones). You can retrieve them from the Trash in the Finder if you change your mind, as they will not be deleted until you empty the Trash.
You can also choose to compress or uncompress sounds, unless you are converting to SoundEdit format (which doesn’t support compression), among other options. Simply click the Options… button and you will have the option of leaving the sounds in their current state, uncompressing the sounds, or compressing them in either 3:1 or 6:1 ratios. When compressing, you can specify whether you’d only like the sounds compressed if they are sampled at 22kHz, or not. This option is provided (and defaults to on) as compressing 11kHz or less sounds will result in rather poor quality. Note also that compressing sounds is a lossy process, particularly with 6:1 compression: the quality of the sounds will be decreased when you compress them, and this quality will not be recoverable by decompressing. Nevertheless, I find sounds sampled at 22kHz and compressed with 3:1 compression to be only slightly inferior to sounds sampled at 11kHz without compression, and the compressed sounds take less space. Also provided in the compression dialog are checkboxes to activate or deactivate setting sampling rates explicityly, downsampling, and 16-bit to 8-bit conversion, for your convenience (see the Preferences description below for more information on these feature). Your choices are stored in the preferences file.
When you click Convert, the sounds will quickly be converted, and you will be kept informed of the operation with a progress window. During this process, you can quit at any time, skip the current sound, stop the whole conversion, or switch to the Finder or another application and convert in the background. You can even drop more files on the application while in the background.
It has many behind-the-scenes features, including being able to convert to the desktop if the converted sounds can’t be saved on the same disk as the source; using the Temporary Items folder, and much more.
——— Preferences ———
The preferences dialog lets you customise SndConverter Pro to your individual tastes. I believe that the user should always be in control, hence the “Userware” in the name Dejal Userware — short for “user-friendly software.” The prefs dialog features multiple “pages” of radio buttons, checkboxes, and entry fields, each page grouping certain kinds of functions. You can switch between pages simply by choosing them from a popup menu. Here follows a description of the various pages:
— Conversion page —
• “Put Multiple Files in a New Folder”: if this is checked, when there will be multiple sound files (e.g. several System 7 sounds or SoundEdit files), they are put into a new folder (which is given an appropriate name). If this option is off, or there will only be one output file, a folder is not created. This defaults to on.
• “Convert to the Desktop”: if this is checked, the converted files are always placed on the desktop. If it is off, the file(s) are converted into the same folder and disk as the file(s) that are being converted, if possible. Aliases can cause a bit of confusion: if you drop an alias to a file on SndConverter Pro’s icon, the converted file will be placed in the folder of the original file, not the folder of the alias. Also, the original will be moved to the Trash if requested, not the alias. If the disk is locked or it doesn’t have enough room, SndConverter Pro will ask if you want to convert the sounds to the desktop (startup disk) instead (provided that it wasn’t the startup disk you were trying to convert it to in the first place, and it would fit there). This is off by default.
• “Set Sampling Rate Explicitly”: if this is checked, you will be prompted with a dialog asking for a sampling rate for each sound before it is converted. That dialog contains radio buttons to select the most common sampling rates, plus a field where you can enter any other rate. Also included is a button to allow you to listen to the sound at the new rate, buttons to stop the conversion and continue, a checkbox to use the specified rate for all of the following sounds in the batch, and a checkbox that adds the condition that the rate is only used for sounds that lack a rate (e.g. old SoundWave sounds). This option is off by default.
• “Downsample 22.2kHz to 11.1kHz”: if this is checked, any sounds sampled at 22.2kHz (or close to that) will be downsampled (halved in size). I find that there is almost always very little perceptible difference in quality between 22k and 11k sounds, but 22k sounds take twice the space. Sounds at 11k or less aren’t downsampled, since doing so almost always DOES have a noticeable effect. See the next pref for a related option. This option is on by default.
• “Confirm Before Downsampling”: if this is checked, and the above option is on, you will be asked if you want to downsample each sound before it is done. Via this dialog, you will be able to listen to the sound both before and after downsampling, so you can compare any difference in quality. I’m sure you’ll agree with me that there is hardly ever a significant difference. This is a very useful feature. This option defaults to on also.
• “Convert Sounds with 16-bit Samples to 8-bit”: if this is checked, sounds that have sound samples that take 16-bits are converted to samples that take 8-bits. Sound samples are the individual pieces of data that make up the digitised sound; on the Macintosh, they are normally 8-bit, but they can be a higher resolution in situations like professional sound design, audio CDs, and other situations. The more bits, the better the quality, but 16-bit sounds also take twice the space of 8-bit sounds. This option is on by default.
• “Confirm Before Converting to 8-bit”: if this is checked, and the above option is on, you will be asked if you want to convert each sound beforehand, in the same way you can when downsampling. This is on by default.
— Names page —
• “Converted Suffix”: here you can specify a suffix to add to the end of files or folders to hilight the fact that they’ve been converted. If you leave it blank (as I personally do), the item will have the same name as the original. Duplicate names (however they may occur) are handled in the same way that System 7’s Finder does. The default is “.cvt”.
• “Folder Suffix”: here you can indicate which folder suffix you prefer, if any. Many people have a standard for a naming folders, e.g. I have “ ƒ” on the end of all my folder names, e.g. “SndConverter Pro ƒ”, “System 7 ƒ”, etc. If you prefer “ Folder” or nothing, type that in instead, and SndConverter Pro will add it to the end of folders it creates while converting. The default is “ ƒ”.
• “Creator for AIFF Format”: this edit field and popup menu allows you to specify the creator code for sounds converted to the AIFF format. You can choose your favourite sound editing application; if the one you want isn’t listed in the menu, you can type in its creator code. I would appreciate hearing of any that you’d like added to the menu, too. The default creator is SoundEdit Pro.
• “Creator for SoundEdit Format”: this is the same as the above for SoundEdit format sounds. It defaults to SoundEdit.
• “Capitalise First Letter of Names”: if this is checked, the first letter of each sound name is converted to uppercase if it isn’t already. I like all my sounds to have consistently tidy names. This defaults to off, since you might not be as picky.
• “Intelligent Word-Caps”: if this is checked, “significant” words (longer than 3 letters) have their initial letter converted to uppercase. e.g. it will (in combination with the previous preference) change “my test of sound recording” into “My Test of Sound Recording”. This also defaults to off.
• “Auto-Rename Too Long Sound Names”: if this is checked, any sounds contained in a suitcase (or application, HyperCard stack, etc) with a name longer than the system can handle for a file name will be automatically shortened (placing a “…” on the end). If this option is off, you will be asked to rename the sound (and you will be able to play the sound to hear what it is about). Any colons (“:”) in the name will be automatically replaced with a em dash (“—”) in either case. This option is off by default.
• “Dumb-to-Smart Quotes”: if checked, “dumb” quotes (like ", ') in sound names will be changed to “smart” or curly quotes (like “, ”, ‘, ’) appropriately. If unchecked, the quotes will be left intact. This option defaults to off.
— Progress page —
• “Morph Icons (Animation)” / “Show Reading / Writing Format Icons”: if Morph Icons is chosen, an animated sequence of metamorphosing (morphing) icons is shown in the progress dialog, morphing between the icons of three sound formats. If Show Reading / Writing Icons is chosen, the icon shown reflects the format being read or written, e.g. if converting System 7 suitcases into SoundEdit documents, it will be a System 7 suitcase icon while reading each sound and a SoundEdit icon when writing. This defaults to Morph Icons.
• “Progress Bar Pattern”: if this box is clicked on, the pattern used for the progress bar can be changed. This is most useful for B&W users, but is of some use to colour users. You can simply cycle through the available patterns (white, light grey, grey, dark grey, and black) when clicking on the pattern box or prompt. The default pattern is black (though B&W users might want to try light grey).
• “Display Sound Number”: If this box is checked, a sequential number will be displayed before each sound name in the progress window, starting from 1 and counting up to the number of sounds (indicated in the top portion of the window). This is useful to see how many sounds have been done or are remaining. This option is on by default.
• “Display Size”: If checked, the size of each sound — expressed in kilobytes (K) — is displayed in the progress window. This is on by default.
• “Display Sampling Rate”: If checked, the sampling rate of each sound is displayed in the progress window while writing the sound (it can’t be displayed while reading, since it needs to be read from the sound information). The sampling rate is expressed in kHz, e.g. 22kHz, which means thousands of cycles per second. This means, for example, that sound sampled at 22kHz will take 22k of disk space per second of sound, if uncompressed. If the sound is compressed, the compression ratio is also shown after the sampling rate: either 3:1 or 6:1. This pref is off by default.
• “Display Playing Time”: If this option is checked, the time that the sound is likely to take to play is displayed while writing the sound (like “Display Sampling Rate”, above, this cannot be determined until the sound has been read). This option defaults to off.
— Automation page —
• “Auto-Open if Nothing from Finder™”: if this box is checked, you will automatically be asked for a file via the standard file dialog if you launch the application by double-clicking on the application (instead of dropping files on it or whatever). This feature defaults to off.
• “Auto-Quit When Done”: if this is checked, SndConverter Pro will automatically quit when there is nothing left to do, provided you have done something. E.g. if you double-click on the application, it will wait for you to open a file or files, then once that is finished it will automatically quit. If you drop some files on the application from the Finder with this option on, it will convert them then return you to the Finder once finished. This is off by default.
• “Ask for Format Every Time”: if this is checked, the dialog asking for a conversion format is displayed every time you use the Open… command or drop some files on the application. If you are doing several small batches, all converting to the same format, you may prefer to turn this off, in which case the dialog will only be displayed once, the first time after the application is launched. This option defaults to on.
• “Save Trash Setting”: if this option is checked, the state of the “Move Original to the Trash if Successful” checkbox (in the format dialog) is preserved for the next time you use SndConverter Pro. If the save option is unchecked, the trash checkbox will always be unchecked. This is on by default.
• “Show Splash-Screen on Startup”: if this is checked, a title dialog is displayed when the application is started. You can only uncheck this box if the application is registered, and the Registered Name matches the Owner Name in the Sharing Setup control panel. This is as a small protection from illegal copies of the application — if your Registered Name is slightly different from your Mac’s Owner Name and you want to disable the splash-screen, please contact Dejal Userware and I’ll be happy to provide you with a new code.
— Notification page —
• “Play When Complete”: This popup menu and the following two all contain a number of standard options at the top of the menu with a list of all the available sounds (in your System or opened by Suitcase™ or similar products) below. Selecting one of these options will, in the case of this popup menu, cause that sound (or kind of sound) to be played when a conversion is successfully completed. The sound will not play when an error causes the process to be terminated. The Current Sound will be played by default for this event. These sounds are especially useful if you are converting in the background with SndConverter Pro’s windows hidden. The available options are:
- Silence: No sound will be played for this event.
- System Beep: The default system alert sound (chosen in the Sound control panel or a replacement like Riccardo Ettore’s excellent SndControl) will be played.
- Current Sound: The sound being converted (if loaded) will be played.
- A list of the currently available sounds: Choosing one of these will cause that sound to be played for this event.
• “Play If Need Attention”: Selecting one of the options described above in this popup menu will play that sound (or whatever) if SndConverter Pro needs to put a dialog on the screen, for example when downsampling with the “Ask First” option on, or if a sound lacks sampling rate information. The System Beep will be played by default.
• “Play If Error Occurs”: Selecting from this popup menu one of the above options will cause that sound (or kind of sound) to be played if an error occurs, when the error alert is presented. The System Beep is the default selection.
I suggest you leave the defaults as they are initially, and try out the various options, then customise things to your personal tastes.
——— SndConverter Lite ———
I used to have a cut-down budget version of SndConverter Pro, called SndConverter Lite. I have since discontinued SndConverter Lite, as there isn’t any real need for it in todays world of fast modems and large hard disks. Registered users of SndConverter Lite can upgrade to SndConverter Pro for a small fee.
——— Dejal Userware CD-ROM ———
The Dejal Userware CD-ROM is available. It includes copies of all publically-available software from Dejal Userware, plus the complete Dejal Sound Library, containing thousands of sounds taking over 400Mb! The sounds are organised into numerous categories. The Dejal Userware CD-ROM is available either by itself, or as part of the Dejal Sound Utilities CD-ROM bundle, where you can register for SndConverter Pro, SndPlayer, and SndCataloguer and also receive a copy of the CD-ROM at a discounted price. See Dejal Register to order.
——— QuickEncrypt™ ———
If you’re at all concerned about security, you may be interested in QuickEncrypt™, a fast and secure encryption tool from Dejal Userware. You’ll find it on the Dejal Userware web site, CD-ROM, distribution floppy, and many online services, CD-ROM discs, etc.
——— Compatibility ———
SndConverter Pro requires Mac OS 7.0 or above. (Releases prior to 2.3 will work under Mac OS 6.) It should work on every machine that supports Mac OS 7, and has been tested on almost all Macs presently available. It is 32-bit compatible, and “fat”, so runs native on both 680x0 and PowerPC computers. Please let me know if you have any problems.
The usual disclaimers apply: David Sinclair and Dejal Userware accept no responsibility for any incidental or consequential damage of any sort as a direct or indirect result of using this software. The software is provided “as-is”, and no warranties are made as to its fitness for a particular purpose or whatever. I would be very interested to hear of any problems, though. <grin>
