What is a AIFF file?
Apple's standard uncompressed audio format
The AIFF file format was developed by Apple and is based on the Electronic Arts .IFF file format. Standard CD audio AIFF files are sampled at 44.1KHz, are 16-bit, and have two channels for stereo sound. You’ll usually see the extension .AIFF from files that were saved by macOS machines. AIFF files are uncompressed and do have larger file sizes to accomodate the higher quality audio that are stored on them.
Common uses for AIFF files
- Professional music production
- Broadcast audio
- Lossless audio archiving
- macOS audio applications
- GarageBand exports
- Professional DAWs
Who works with AIFF files?
Mastering engineers, film and TV post-production teams, and sound designers on Mac-based systems use AIFF as a working and delivery format because it preserves the full resolution of the original recording. Sample-library creators and audio-restoration specialists also favor it when handing off material between studios.
AIFF vs WAV: which should you use?
AIFF and WAV both store uncompressed PCM audio, so at the same sample rate and bit depth their sound quality and file sizes are essentially identical. The difference is structural: AIFF uses Apple's IFF-based chunk layout with big-endian byte order, while WAV uses Microsoft's RIFF layout with little-endian order. Choose AIFF when working in macOS tools like Logic Pro and WAV for Windows-centric workflows; for transcription or transcoding purposes the two are interchangeable.
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