.VOI Recorder

Description

.VOI Recorder is an audio file format conversion utility that converts IBM's proprietary "Sub-Banded Code" audio files to and from standard WAV file format. Sub-Banded Code .VOI format files are used by Mwave telephony applications to store incoming telephone messages and outgoing greetings used by Telephone Answering Machine (TAM) applications. Before .VOI Recorder, there was no way to convert these files to/from WAV format.

With .VOI Recorder you can create a greeting in a WAV file, and edit it to your heart's content using one of the many popular WAV file editors available as Free/Shareware. The resulting WAV file can then be converted to .VOI format and used as the greeting for your TAM application.

The interface is similar to M$ Sound Recorder, and can be used to record and play .VOI files.

Note: If you think you have some .voi (or .tam) files that you want to convert, make sure they are truly .voi files by examining the first six bytes with a hex editor or hex dump utility. You should find "00 00 00 00 80 80" in a valid .voi file. Anything else is most likely a Voyetra .voi file, and .VOI Recorder can't help with that. However, there are always exceptions. I have one .voi file that looks like it might be a bit different. I'm hoping to test it out soon.

Special Requirements

Over the years, I've received emails from folks who wanted to convert old .VOI files so that they could listen to them again. Here's all the advice I can offer:

These days, I would recommend buying a 486-class PC on ebay, and installing DOS6.22 and Win3.1 on it (Win95 might be ok given the latest drivers for an Mwave card). Then get an Mwave modem/sound card (make sure it includes ALL its driver diskettes!) and install it along with its drivers. Both of these should be easily obtained on ebay. (Note: Some of the earlier Mwave drivers do not support the WAV/VOI conversion, so I would recommend getting an OfficeF/X card which was one of the last Mwave cards made. The 2.03 drivers have the needed tpswave.dll file, and I have these drivers if you need them.) My guess is that the hardest thing to get would be a working 500meg (or so) hard drive. Those are rare these days. A hard drive that is too big might not be compatible with a 486 machine. My approach is usually to look for a machine on ebay that is complete (hard drive, video card, memory, etc...) and that the seller claims to have tested thoroughly.

If you do manage to get an Mwave system running, let me know as I have one or two .voi files sitting around waiting to be converted for people. Thanks.

Changes

Initial Version.

Version Information

10/17/1995: Initial version, voirec10.zip is version 1.0.

Known Problems

Conversion under Win95

Some older Windows 3.1 Mwave drivers do not support VOI to/from WAV conversion under Windows 95. Later Mwave drivers specifically made for Windows 95 are reported to work fine.

"MCI_OPEN for Message Driver failed, RC=x'107'" message.

That means "Invalid Device Name", and it indicates that you don't have "TPSWAVE.DLL" installed on your machine. The most likely reason is that you have tried to run .VOI Recorder without Mwave drivers installed, or without an Mwave card. It is also possible that the Mwave TAM drivers are not installed.

Note: For other errors, consult mmsystem.h. MCI errors start with MCIERR_BASE which is 256 (x'100'). The Mwave MCIFTDD.H header also has more error messages. Search for MCIERR_CUSTOM_DRIVER_BASE in MCIFTDD.H.

Status

FreeWare

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Copyright ©2007, Ted Felix