This is a cheat sheet of examples using SOX to
do various common sound file conversions.

Notes:

The SUN examples all assume the old SUN voice-quality 8khz u-law
hardware.  If the .AU file doesn't have a proper header,
you'll need the second command line.  If you don't want the
old format, you can remove the "-r 8012 -U -b" in front of 
"file.au" when converting TO SUN .au files.  Note that
you'll need newer SUN sound hardware to successfully
play these files.

VOC has a similar problem.  All VOC files have a correct
header, but older hardware (and software) only knows
about samples made of unsigned bytes.  
VOC files come from the Sound Blaster and compatible
cards on the IBM PC.  These cards can play many 
sample rates; not quite a continuous spectrum
but close enough.

The Mac sound hardware traditionally has been capable of
sample rates 5012, 1025, and 22050, but only with unsigned
bytes.  Recent models support CD-quality sound.

SUN .au to Mac .snd:

	sox file.au -r 11025 -t ub file.snd
or:
	sox -t ul -r 8012 file.au -r 11025 -t ub file.snd

When you copy the file to the Mac, you'll have to set
the sample rate by hand.

Mac .snd to SUN .au

	sox -r 11025 -t ub file.snd -r 8012 -U -b file.au

The Mac file might also be at sample rates 5012, 22050, or 44100.

PC .voc to SUN .au

	sox file.voc -r 8012 -U -b file.au

SUN .au to PC .voc 

	sox file.au file.voc 
or:
	sox -r 8012 -t ul file.au file.voc 

SUN .au to WAV - without clipping
	
	sox file.au -s -w file.wav
or:
	sox -t ul -r 8012 file.au -s -w file.wav

WAV to SUN .au
	
	sox file.wav -r 8012 -U -b file.au

WAV to VOC
	sox file.wav -u -b file.voc

VOC to WAV
	sox file.voc file.wav

Any file to SUN .au

sox -t auto file.X -c 1 -t aiff - |  sox -t aiff - -r 8000 -U -b -t au file.au

Some people try to put this kind of command in scripts.
Good luck!