importing .aiff's

[Grekim]

I got an unsupported format message (using SAWLite).

[TotalSonic]

I've had similar problems with some aiff files that I have received recently - and I believe the root of the problem is that these are the relatively new "little endian" encoded aiff's which I don't believe Bob has enabled support for yet.

To deal with these I've been using FMJsoft's Awave Audio to batch convert these when I receive them - http://www.fmjsoft.com

It would be awesome in an update for "little endian" aiff support to be included in SAW's aiff import abilities.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[Grekim]

Thanks for the link. I don't need to convert very often, although recently a client brought in tons of aiff's as tracks for me to mix. I can use Cubase to do it, but I'm trying to simplify how much software is really needed on my machine. The problem today was some of my aiff's from Mac OS 9, so nothing new and fancy.

[Bob L]

Until I can look into that, you can convert them in any number of conversion utilities to aif files that SS does read or to wav files.

Bob L

[TotalSonic]

Until I can look into that, you can convert them in any number of conversion utilities to aif files that SS does read or to wav files.

Bob L

Bob -
Thanks for looking into this.

fwiw -
Here's some info I got from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Interchange_File_Format that might hopefully shed some light on the new problems:



With the development of the Mac OS X operating system, Apple quietly created a new type of AIFF which is, in effect, an alternate little-endian byte order format.

Almost nothing is documented about the purpose of this ***8212; one source[citation needed] describes it as making the writing of data to audio CDs more efficient, but the then secret plans for transition to the Intel platform may explain both the format switch and the fact that it is an extremely obscure subject that has never been discussed explicitly by Apple.

Because the AIFF architecture has no provision for alternate byte order, Apple used the existing AIFF-C compression architecture, and created a "pseudo-compressed" codec called sowt. The only difference between a standard AIFF file and an AIFF-C/sowt file is the byte order; there is no compression involved at all.

Apple uses this new little-endian AIFF type as its standard on Mac OS X. When a file is imported to or exported from iTunes in "AIFF" format, it is actually AIFF-C/sowt that is being used. When audio from an audio CD disc is imported by dragging to the Mac OS X Desktop, the resulting file is also an AIFF-C/sowt. In all cases, Apple refers to the files simply as "AIFF", and uses the ".aiff" extension.

What meaning sowt may have as an acronym or abbreviation does not appear to be documented, but it is probably the reverse of "twos", the big-endian designation for twos-complement format.

For the vast majority of users this technical situation is completely unnoticeable and irrelevant. The sound quality of standard AIFF and AIFF-C/sowt are identical, and the data can be converted back and forth without loss. Users of older audio applications, however, may find that an AIFF-C/sowt file will not play, or will prompt the user to convert the format on opening, or will play as static.
All traditional AIFF and AIFF-C files continue to work normally on Mac OS X (including on the new Intel-based hardware), and many third-party audio applications continue to use the standard AIFF big-endian byte order.

Note: As of Mac OS X version 10.4.9, many programs are only able to export AIFF-C. QuickTime Pro, and Digital Performer 5.11 for example, will export AIF-C when AIFF is selected as the export format. This can be verified by highlighting any newly created AIFF, and selecting "Get Info" from the "File" Menu. This was not the case with OS 10.4.8 and earlier. This is not, however, observed in all programs. iTunes and Logic Express, for example continue to properly export AIFF files.

This change presents potential compatibility issues between systems which use only AIFF, and files written in OS 10.4.9 as AIFF-C. For example, the Alesis HD24 hard disk recorder can work with AIFF files; however, AIFF-C files, like those created in Mac OS X 10.4.9 are not compatible.

So "nice" of Apple to just come up with a new file format and then not even alert developers at all to help head off any compatibility problems!

I'm wondering why the heck they didn't instead go with AES/NARAS recommendations for forward digital archiving and just eliminate the aiff format instead in favor of wav. Oh well - that would have been too smart - instead we get a new sub-species of a format that's disguised as another!

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[Perry]

Interesting. I recently had a problem opening some aif files from a guy and we couldn't figure out why because he brings me stuff to work on every once in a while and a while back there were no problems doing this. Now suddenly there's a problem.

He's bringing more on Monday. I suspect these aren't going to open either.

(shaking head) .. it never ends. :rolleyes:

[DaveS]

That explains a problem I had recently when a client sent some files to me to make some CDR's - none of my programs recognized them. Now I know....

Thanks for the info!


Dave
Recordable Media Services

[Grekim]

Until I can look into that, you can convert them in any number of conversion utilities to aif files that SS does read or to wav files.

Bob L

It's just a minor inconvenience. I assumed I was doing something wrong as usual :)

[Perry]

Bob -
........

So "nice" of Apple to just come up with a new file format and then not even alert developers at all to help head off any compatibility problems!

I'm wondering why the heck they didn't instead go with AES/NARAS recommendations for forward digital archiving and just eliminate the aiff format instead in favor of wav. Oh well - that would have been too smart - instead we get a new sub-species of a format that's disguised as another!

Best regards,
Steve Berson

Payback for the Firewire debacle??? :rolleyes: :)

[Naturally Digital]

I've had this problem recently and emailed Bob about it.

FWIW I've had good luck opening the file in the latest beta of Audacity and re-saving as-is. The files then open fine in SAW.

[TotalSonic]

Same deal with the "new" AIFF developed by Apple, if I understand it correctly. Works fine on Macs and Mactels, and apps that run on the Mac OS, no?

Sure it does - but it shows to me a distinct (and possibly deliberate) lack of consideration by Apple to the published advice of the 2 largest audio engineering organizations in ways of how to eliminate future file format incompatibilities. Instead of going with what was recommended (i.e. bwf wav) as what is hoped/intended for a unified PCM file format they instead created what is essentially a new format, disguised it under an old extension, and then let PC DAW app developers discover this on their own.

The conspiracy theorist in me almost is willing to believe that they deliberately set out to introduce file compatibility problems in PC's - but the rationalist in me just thinks that Apple simply doesn't care what audio engineers want so that their work is made easier.


I wonder what version of AIFF is exported by Pro Tools or Logic by default? Steve's link lists iTunes and Digital Performer as culprits of exporting the bad juju when selecting AIFF.

It's been around 50/50 here recently regarding whether I can open received aiff's directly with SAW or not (which is why I finally purchased FMJsoft's Awave Audio as a "swiss army knife" type batch converter to deal with these things).

So far I think the culprit has been mainly iTunes and DP - as I usually don't have problems with PT generated files - but I'm not completely sure about this - I guess I need to ask and then note what app generated the files I receive that are problematic.



Is there a program that will identify this format/version?


Apparently on a Mac in the browser you can just choose "Get Info" from the File menu (or just hit Apple-I) to see the file type.
For PC I don't know what would work though to identify the byte order it has been encoded with.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[Grekim]

So far I think the culprit has been mainly iTunes and DP

Yeah, I the aiff's were exported from DP v3. And transferred by CDR using ISO 9660.

[Rabbit]

Apparently Adobe Audition 3 supports the format.. From the help file:

"AIFF is the Apple® standard audio file format. AIFF supports mono or stereo files, 16***8209;bit or 8***8209;bit resolution, and a wide range of sample rates. Adobe Audition supports only the PCM***8209;encoded portion of the data, even though this format (like Windows WAV) can contain any one of various data formats.

AIFF is a good choice for cross***8209;platform compatibility in both Windows and Mac OS. Before you open AIFF files in Adobe Audition, add the .aif or .snd extension to the file and open it by using the Apple AIFF file filter. When you transfer an AIFF file to a Macintosh, you can add the four character code “AIFF” in the file’s resource fork to have it recognized. (The Macintosh identifies a file through its “resource,” which is removed when a file is opened on a Windows computer. However, many Mac OS applications that support AIFF can recognize the PCM data without this identifier.)"

Not being a Mac guy and never having had to deal with .aiff files before, I'm curious about this Adobe statement; "AIFF is a good choice for cross***8209;platform compatibility in both Windows and Mac OS."

This seems like a stretch to me but maybe I'm just in the dark here. Any comments are appreciated.

Happy 4th to my fellow Americans... and to the rest... have a good day. :D