SHN vs VOC
A detailed comparison of Shorten Audio and Creative Voice — file size, quality, compatibility, and which format to choose for your workflow.
Shorten Audio
Audio FilesShorten (SHN) is one of the earliest lossless audio compression formats, developed by Tony Robinson. It was widely used in the live music trading community for sharing concert recordings before FLAC became the dominant lossless format.
About SHN filesCreative Voice
Audio FilesVOC (Creative Voice) is an audio file format created by Creative Labs for Sound Blaster sound cards. It was a dominant PC audio format in the DOS gaming era, supporting multiple data blocks with different sample rates within a single file.
About VOC filesStrengths Comparison
SHN Strengths
- Lossless.
- Historical artifact of 1990s music trading.
- Modern decoder availability.
VOC Strengths
- Retro-gaming archive format.
- Supported by DOSBox and SoX.
- Block-based structure allows streaming.
Limitations
SHN Limitations
- Historically royalty-encumbered.
- Obsolete for new recordings.
- FLAC offers better compression.
VOC Limitations
- Legacy — no new content since mid-1990s.
- Limited sample rates (up to 44.1 kHz).
- No metadata.
Technical Specifications
| Specification | SHN | VOC |
|---|---|---|
| MIME type | audio/x-shorten | audio/x-voc |
| Extension | .shn | .voc |
| Algorithm | Linear prediction + Rice coding | — |
| Successor | FLAC | — |
| Codecs | — | PCM 8/16-bit, ADPCM |
| Hardware origin | — | Sound Blaster Pro (1991) |
Typical File Sizes
SHN
- Full concert recording 300-500 MB
VOC
- DOS game sound effect 5-50 KB
- Short speech sample 30-300 KB
Ready to convert?
Convert between SHN and VOC online, free, and without installing anything. Encrypted upload, automatic deletion after 60 minutes.
Frequently Asked Questions
SHN (Shorten Audio) is an audio file format used to store sound recordings — music, voice, podcasts, sound effects. The format defines how the audio samples are compressed (or stored raw), what bitrates are supported, and how metadata such as title, artist, album, and cover art is embedded. It is part of the audio files family.
SHN (Shorten Audio) is an audio formatoo de arquivo used to store sound recordings — music, voice, podcasts, sound effects. The formato defines how the audio samples are comprimido (or stored raw), what bitrates are suportado, e how metadata como title, artist, album, e cover art is embedded. It is part of the audio arquivos family.
VLC, foobar2000, and the default media players on Windows and macOS handle SHN natively. On mobile, iOS Music and Android media apps vary in their support — popular formats work everywhere; niche ones may need a dedicated app. If playback fails on a device, converting to MP3 or AAC usually solves it.
VLC, foobar2000, e the default media players no Windows e macOS handle SHN natively. On mobile, iOS Music e Android media apps vary in their support — popular formatoos funcionar everywhere; niche ones may need a dedicated app. If playback fails em um device, convertendo to MP3 ou AAC Geralmente solves it.
Upload the SHN to KaijuConverter and pick MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, OGG, or any other target. Our FFmpeg pipeline decodes the audio and re-encodes to the target format at sensible default bitrates (VBR ~190 kbps for music, 96 kbps for speech). Metadata and cover art travel with the audio where both formats support them.
SHN can be lossy or lossless depending on the specific variant. Lossy variants (smaller files) discard some audio detail during compression in ways tuned to be inaudible; lossless variants preserve every sample exactly but produce larger files. For distribution, lossy at high bitrate is standard; for archival, lossless wins.