Support Sonarc format #565

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opened 2025-08-15 11:14:54 +00:00 by martinwguy · 0 comments

martinwguy commented

2025-08-15 11:14:54 +00:00

(Migrated from codeberg.org)

Support Sonarc format

Description

wiki.multimedia.cx's article Sonarc says:

Sonarc is a lossless audio compression format by Richard P. Sprague
and published by the company Speech Compression. The documentation
accompanying v2.1i (the latest known version of the software)
indicates a copyright date of 1994.
[...]
The algorithm operates on 8- or 16-bit PCM samples in either
mono or stereo configurations. It typically achieves 2:1 to 3:1
compression ratios for suitable audio, while falling back to
an uncompressed mode for data which falls outside of its coding model.

and gives detail of its file format, though its LPC compression algorithm is unknown.

SONARC.DOC in the snrc21i.zip they provide says:

Sonarc features variable-rate compression which can be
reversed to precisely reconstruct the original, uncompressed signal.

and the zip file contains executables to compress and decompress to/from
its WAV, VOC and RAW variants.

justsolve.archiveteam.org's article Sonarc says:

There are three file formats associated with it:

.WV: A WAV file that uses Sonarc compression.
.VC: A format used when Sonarc compresses VOC format.
.SNC: A format used when Sonarc compresses raw PCM data.

with examples of each file type and

Really Rare Wares says:

Sonarc was probably among the first lossless compressors - the version featured here
dates back to 1994. Due to its age, it's not very efficient.

Officially, it is a shareware program, but to my knowledge there are no limitations.
Registration is now impossible because the author completely disappeared.

Conclusion

Since 1881690, sox_ng recognises the Sonarc codec ID 0x0021 in WAV files and says they're unsupported.

We may be able to decode (maybe encode) its uncompressed variants.

Its compressed variants probably mean reverse-engineering from its DOS EXEs.

# Support Sonarc format ## Description [`wiki.multimedia.cx`'s article *Sonarc*](https://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php/Sonarc) says: > Sonarc is a lossless audio compression format by Richard P. Sprague > and published by the company Speech Compression. The documentation > accompanying v2.1i (the latest known version of the software) > indicates a copyright date of 1994. > [...] > The algorithm operates on 8- or 16-bit PCM samples in either > mono or stereo configurations. It typically achieves 2:1 to 3:1 > compression ratios for suitable audio, while falling back to > an uncompressed mode for data which falls outside of its coding model. and gives detail of its file format, though its LPC compression algorithm is unknown. `SONARC.DOC` in the [`snrc21i.zip`](ftp://ftp.elf.stuba.sk/pub/pc/pack/snrc21i.zip) they provide says: > Sonarc features variable-rate compression which can be > reversed to precisely reconstruct the original, uncompressed signal. and the `zip` file contains executables to compress and decompress to/from its WAV, VOC and RAW variants. [`justsolve.archiveteam.org`'s article *Sonarc*](http://justsolve.archiveteam.org/wiki/Sonarc) says: > There are three file formats associated with it: > > .WV: A WAV file that uses Sonarc compression. > .VC: A format used when Sonarc compresses VOC format. > .SNC: A format used when Sonarc compresses raw PCM data. with examples of each file type and [Really Rare Wares](https://web.archive.org/web/20090403024415/http://www.rjamorim.com/rrw/sonarc.html) says: > Sonarc was probably among the first lossless compressors - the version featured here > dates back to 1994. Due to its age, it's not very efficient. > > Officially, it is a shareware program, but to my knowledge there are no limitations. > Registration is now impossible because the author completely disappeared. ## Conclusion Since 1881690, `sox_ng` recognises the Sonarc codec ID `0x0021` in WAV files and says they're unsupported. We may be able to decode (maybe encode) its uncompressed variants. Its compressed variants probably mean reverse-engineering from its DOS EXEs.