SoundSheriff 👮‍♂️

Convert audio and extract sound from videos directly from Windows right-click. No uploads. No confusing apps. No subscriptions.

Features

• Convert audio to WAV, FLAC, AIFF, Opus, Vorbis, MP3, or AAC.
• Convert video to MP4, WebM, MOV, AVI, or MKV.
• Extract audio from video files.
• Convert stereo audio to mono.
• Resample audio to common sample rates.
• Normalize audio for streaming services.
• Compress videos to Discord-friendly H.264/AAC .MP4 files under 10 MiB.
• Preserve metadata where the operation supports it.

Supported File Types

Audio context menu entries are registered for:

.wav .aiff .flac .mp3 .wma .opus .ogg .aac .m4a

Video conversion, compression, and audio-extraction entries are registered for:

.mp4 .avi .mov .webm .mkv

Install

Download the latest SoundSheriffSetup.exe from the project releases and run it. The installer supports English, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Bengali, Russian, Indonesian, Urdu, Japanese, Turkish, Korean, French, German, and Dutch. For languages without a bundled Inno Setup translation, the installer uses English text while applying localized context menu labels.

How it works

SoundSheriff adds custom Explorer context menu entries through the Windows registry. Each menu action runs a PowerShell script invoking FFmpeg commandline binaries for the actual processing.

When an action runs from Explorer, SoundSheriff opens a small progress window with a scrollable FFmpeg log. The console process is started hidden; the window captures FFmpeg output and updates progress from FFmpeg's machine-readable progress stream.

Development Setup

Clone the repository on 64-bit Windows.

git clone <repo-url>
cd SoundSheriff

Download the local FFmpeg tools used by the scripts and installer:

download-ffmpeg.bat

This populates:

bin\ffmpeg.exe
bin\ffprobe.exe
licenses\FFmpeg-LICENSE.txt
licenses\FFmpeg-README.txt

The FFmpeg executables are intentionally not committed to Git. They are large third-party binaries and are ignored by .gitignore.

Running From Source

The scripts resolve FFmpeg through src\SoundSheriff.Tools.ps1. They first look for bundled tools in bin\, then fall back to PATH.

You can run a script directly, for example:

powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\src\Convert.ps1 "C:\path\song.wav" flac
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\src\Normalize.ps1 "C:\path\song.wav"
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\src\ConvertVideo.ps1 "C:\path\video.mov" mp4
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\src\CompressVideoDiscord.ps1 "C:\path\video.mov"

For context menu testing during development, either install the built installer in a disposable Windows environment or import context_menu.reg manually as administrator after making sure C:\Program Files\SoundSheriff points at the files you want to run.

If C:\Program Files\SoundSheriff is a symlink to your development checkout, running the installer will write through that symlink and may overwrite local files. Treat that setup as a development convenience, not as an installer test.

Building The Installer

Prerequisites:

• 64-bit Windows.
• Inno Setup 6.
• FFmpeg tools downloaded with download-ffmpeg.bat.

Build:

build-installer.bat

The output is:

dist\SoundSheriffSetup.exe

If the build fails because the output file is in use, close any running SoundSheriff installer window and run the build again.

Project Layout

assets\SoundSheriff.iss      Inno Setup installer script
assets\sheriff.ico           Context menu / uninstall icon
bin\.gitkeep                 Placeholder for local FFmpeg binaries
bpm\                         Experimental BPM detection source
context_menu.reg             Windows Explorer context menu registration
src\SoundSheriff.Tools.ps1   FFmpeg/FFprobe resolver
src\SoundSheriff.UI.ps1      Progress window and combined FFmpeg log
src\SoundSheriff.Runner.ps1  Hidden worker process used by the progress window
src\Diagnose-SoundSheriff.ps1    Installed-machine compatibility checks
src\Localize-SoundSheriffContextMenu.ps1  Installer-selected menu translations
src\CompressVideoDiscord.ps1 Video compression to Discord-sized .MP4
src\Convert.ps1              Audio conversion commands
src\ConvertVideo.ps1         Video conversion commands
src\ExtractAudio.ps1         Video audio extraction commands
src\Mono.ps1                 Stereo-to-mono command
src\Normalize.ps1            Two-pass loudness normalization
src\Resample.ps1             Sample-rate conversion
download-ffmpeg.bat          Fetch pinned FFmpeg binaries for local builds
src\download-ffmpeg.ps1      FFmpeg download implementation
build-installer.bat          Build the Inno Setup installer
licenses\                    Third-party FFmpeg license/source notes

FFmpeg And Licensing

SoundSheriff invokes FFmpeg as separate command-line programs. Release builds bundle Gyan's FFmpeg 8.1.1-essentials_build-www.gyan.dev, which is licensed under GPL v3. The exact source commit, archive checksum, and bundled license files are recorded in:

THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md
licenses\FFmpeg-SOURCE.txt

Before publishing releases, make sure the repository license is compatible with the bundled FFmpeg build.