TITLE
    Audio Interchange File Format: Sound Files To Windows (7/94)
Article ID:
Created:
Modified: 		10020
4/6/92
7/13/94
TOPIC



    I'm looking for information on the Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF). Is it a standard on Macintosh? Is it supported under Windows? How can I move sound files to DOS/Windows?

DISCUSSION


    The AIFF sound files are the standard file format defined by Apple and several third-party developers for sampled (digitized) sound.

    However, Windows support is a different issue. Windows uses its own file format for digitized sound. A simple AFE transfer won't provide a usable sound file in the Windows/MS-DOS environment. If Windows did support the AIFF file format, then an AFE transfer would be appropriate.

    The AIFF sound file has header information which can be followed by a variety of "chunks." One of these chunks represents a linear sampling of audio waveforms stored as bytes. A general overview of AIFF files is in Chapter 22, The Sound Manager, of Inside Macintosh VI. A more complete description of the AIFF file format is available from APDA.

    Nothing in the Windows/MS-DOS world can directly understand the header information. Therefore, you need to do a file conversion. The only utility commercially available that we know of (as of July, 1994) is "SoundEdit 16" from MacroMedia. SoundEdit 16 can read Macintosh formatted (AIFF) files and then create Windows Wave files as output. To locate a vendor's address and phone number, use the vendor name as a search string.

    Article Change History:
    12 Jul 1994 - Added the MacroMedia utility SoundEdit 16

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Document Information
Product Area: Monitors-Displays
Category: General Topics
Sub Category: General Topics

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