Audio Interchange File Format

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Audio Interchange File Format ( AIFF) is a file format ( container format ) for storing LPCM audio data. It was developed by company Apple and is used as the default audio format on the Macintosh. AIFF based on the structure developed by Electronic Arts IFF universal format. Regular audio CDs save your audio signal in PCM format, which stores nearly identical to the actual user data compared to AIFF. The counterpart to AIFF in systems running Microsoft Windows is the format RIFF WAVE.

Compared to other audio formats such as MP3, Vorbis or the different variants used in AIFC offers LPCM ( Linear Pulse Code Modulation) data compression. This involves on the one hand the disadvantage that when you save in AIFF files results in large amounts of data, on the other hand, the audio data are lossless and can be processed without additional computational effort.

Due to the above the other market share distribution by Apple Macintosh computers in recording studios and music production, the AIF format in these areas is very widespread.