AIFF: conversion steps
- Upload your AIFF file to start.
- Convert AIFF to AAC.
- Download the AIFF file.
About AIFF files
Apple's uncompressed audio format
AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) was developed by Apple in 1988 on the basis of the Electronic Arts IFF format, and it normally stores uncompressed PCM audio in big-endian byte order.
Professional audio on the Mac: Logic Pro and GarageBand projects, sample libraries and CD-quality masters.
AIFF: what conversion changes
Converting AIFF re-encodes audio.
AIFF: settings to change
Before you convert AIFF files, you can adjust: Audio codec, Rate control, Audio bitrate, Quality (VBR), Sample rate, Channels, Normalize loudness, Trim start, Trim duration, and Keep tags.
Limits of the AIFF format
AIFF files are as large as WAV files, about 10 MB per minute of CD-quality stereo, and some Windows programs handle them less readily than WAV.
Common questions about AIFF
Why is my AIFF file so large? Like WAV, it stores every sample uncompressed, so switching to a compressed format is the only way to shrink it — lossless ALAC keeps every detail, MP3 trades some quality for size.
Why convert audio to AIFF? For Mac production work: it is uncompressed like WAV, and iTunes, Logic and the rest of Apple's toolchain read it natively.
Will an AIFF file play on Windows? AIFF is native to macOS and Safari, Windows needs a player that supports it, and browsers other than Safari generally do not play it. WAV is the equivalent uncompressed format that Windows opens without help.