Need to convert System 7 Sounds

Question

Level 1

108 points

Need to convert System 7 Sounds

I have 20-year old sounds, from the System 6 or 7 OS, that I would like to convert to play on my El Capitan iMac. They show up as Unix executable files. Remember back in those days, Macs used resource forks with no extensions.

I have used the following apps but have not been successful:

FileJuicer

FileJuicer 4.36 (read that this version was supposed to work)

Audacity

SystemSounds

QuickTime Player

I think back in those days, these files were of type SFIL. But I cannot find an app that will convert them to a modern format. Anyone have an idea for a converter or a conversion process? Thanks in advance.

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Jan 31, 2016 1:40 PM

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Answer 1

Tobin Anthony Author

Level 1

108 points

Jan 31, 2016 2:13 PM in response to Tobin Anthony

UPDATE: I was able to get some of the files to using the Import Raw option in Audacity. I then saved them to the correct sample rate. But not all files came through. Any further suggestions on the correct Audacity settings would be welcome. TIA.

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Answer 2

Jan Hedlund

Level 7

22,201 points

Jan 31, 2016 4:26 PM in response to Tobin Anthony

Would it be correct to assume that you do not have access to an old (pre-1998) Macintosh computer? Otherwise, you could possibly have found something useful under the following links (see also abstracts and index files):

http://umich.edu/~archive/mac/sound/soundutil/

http://archive.info-mac.org/_Graphic_&_Sound_Tool/_Sound/

http://www.knubbelmac.de/software/audio/

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Answer 3

Feb 1, 2016 12:48 PM in response to Tobin Anthony

You can run an old Mac OS (up to 7.1 in Mac vMini, 7.5 - 8.1 in Basilisk II, and 8.1 - 9.0.4 in SheepShaver, all produced by Emaculation) on your Intel Mac. Then make sure you import your sounds to those emulators, assuming you're not talking about built-in sounds like alerts (which will already be there), and capture them by playing them and recording using Audacity or Audio Hijack or similar.

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