and while we're at it, can you help me run the Talking Moose?

February 18, 2008 9:36 AM

When we were in college, the lovely Mrs. Haddock professed her love in several sweet sound files that I'd like to be able to hear again. Please help bridge the gap between a PowerBook 520 and a Quadra 650 running System 7 and a MacBook running Leopard.

Something like 13 years ago, my wife sent me five sound files that I'd like to be able to hear again. At least one would have been recorded on the internal mic on a PowerBook 520 running System 7, using whatever software Apple had bundled to make short recordings. The other four were, I think, pulled off the "Internet" using Mosaic, and she gave them new names to make a little sentence. It was all very sweet, and I'd like to hear my wife's voice again as a 20-year old.

I seem to recall that these sound files played without additional software (i.e., SoundEdit) on my Quadra 650--just double click and you're hearing the recording. I think they also could be set as alert sounds in the Control Panel.

Flash forward to 2008, and Leopard doesn't know what program to open them in--it just calls them "UNIX executable files." I'm not sure what extension to append, and forcing iTunes to open them doesn't do anything. I've tried .wav, .aiff and .mp3 already, with no success. I don't have access to any Macs running anything before OS 10.3.

Thanks in advance for any help!

posted by Admiral Haddock to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Best answer: Perhaps this?

Sweet story.
posted by rokusan at 9:38 AM on February 18, 2008

Soundedit used a proprietary sound file format. I still have it on my machine that boots into System 9. If you want I can convert them to AIF or MP3 for you.
posted by Aquaman at 9:45 AM on February 18, 2008

Response by poster: Rokusan, that's exactly what I needed (I had been fixated on the UNIX executable side of the question, and not the System 7 side). The program worked like a charm--and it turns out that of the five, three were recordings of her. It's incredible to hear that young voice again. Many thanks--you've made my day/week/month.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 9:50 AM on February 18, 2008

Best answer: First step: try VLC. It handles old formats such as AU (likely for the 'files pulled off the internet' in the Mosaic era) and SND, which I think is what System 7 used.

A few more options: SoundConverter is OS X native (and $10). Mini vMac may be your friend if you want to run System 7: you can stick the files in a disk image, mount it and test it out. FileJuicer may also help.
posted by holgate at 9:52 AM on February 18, 2008

ah, beaten on preview, but it's a lovely story.
posted by holgate at 9:53 AM on February 18, 2008

Response by poster: Thanks to all for the answers (and a special shoutout to Aquaman for offering to do the conversion)--I am very grateful to have these sound files back. I feel like I really should get my hands on an old PowerBook to run legacy stuff (Blobbo!). In fact, if you could just send me back in time, that would be nice.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 10:00 AM on February 18, 2008

(In case you were serious about the Talking Moose...)
posted by nicepersonality at 11:32 AM on February 18, 2008

i recently converted some old System 7 sounds using my old SoundJam app that was still in my OS 9 setup (i'm still on Tiger on my PPC Mac, so I can still run OS 9 virtually). worked effortlessly.
posted by kuppajava at 11:37 AM on February 18, 2008

I miss the Moose. Thanks NP.
posted by rokusan at 7:32 PM on February 18, 2008