dBpoweramp AIFF Codec

AIFF is an audio format typically used on Apple computers, there are two types of AIFF files: AIFF linear (uncompressed) & AIFC (compressed), AIFF uncompressed is the most common. AIFF files created with this codec contain linear audio, making this a lossless codec. This codec cannot decode or encode AIFC files.


Supported by this Codec

  • Encoding: Yes   [.aif]
  • Multi-processor Encoding: Yes   (with dBpoweramp reference)
  • Decoding: Yes   [.aif, .aiff ]
  • ID Tag Reading: Yes
  • ID Tag Writing: Yes
  • Unicode Tagging: Yes
  • Supports Album Art: Yes
  • Gapless Encoding & Decoding: Yes
  • Explorer Audio Popup Information: Yes
  • Unicode Filenames: Yes


Compression Options

Setting bits, channels and frequency to [as source] ensures the wave file matches the quality of the source.

Codec Background

AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) is one of the two most-used audio file formats used in the Apple Macintosh operating system. The other is Sound Designer II (SDII). AIFF is sometimes referred to as "Apple Interchange File Format."

The extension for this file type is ".aif" of ".aiff" when it is used on a PC. On a Mac, the file extension is not needed. A Mac file uses a Type and Creator resource to identify itself to the operating system and the applications that can open it.

An AIFF file contains the raw audio data, channel information (monophonic or stereophonic), bit depth, sample rate, and application-specific data areas. The application-specific data areas let different applications add information to the file header that remains there even if the file is opened and processed by another application. For example, a file could retain information about selected regions of the audio data used for recalling zoom levels not used by other applications.

The AIFC variation of the AIFF specification was conceived to allow compressed audio to be contained within AIFF files. A number of platform specific compression formats were allowed, which have since been superseded by more efficient compression methods such as MP3, WMA, OGG, etc..


ID Tag Details

ID3v2 tags are written, with full compatibility with iTunes.


Command Line

dBpoweramp Reference allows compressions from the command-line, commands specific to this codec:

-bits="8"                      sets the bit depth to 8 bits. Possible values are 8, 16, 24, 32.
-freq="8000"                sets the sample rate to 8kHz. Possible values are: 8000, 11000, 12000, 16000, 22050, 24000, 32000, 44100, 48000, 96000, 192000
-channels="1"            sets the number of channels to 1. Possible values are 1 to 8.

Example:   "c:\program files\illustrate\dbpoweramp\coreconverter.exe" -infile="c:\afile.wav" -outfile="c:\outfile.aif" -convert_to="Aiff" -bits="16" -freq="44100" -channels="2"

Terminology

Encoding:  compress and write audio track,
Decoding:  uncompress and read the track,
ID Tags:  meta data such as artist & album are embedded inside the audio file,
Lossless:  compression without audio quality loss,
Lossy:  audio quality is sacrificed (how much depends on bitrate and codec used) to achieve smaller files,
Gapless:  allows the decoder to decode audio stream without gaps (silence),
Explorer Audio Popup:  a dBpoweramp function, hold the mouse over a supported audio file and details contained are displayed,
Multi-processor Encoding:  for multi core processors multiple files can be compressed at once fully using all cores.
Command Line:  text interface, where commands are typed (start >> run >> cmd  to get to the command line)

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