Converting Wav to AIff

[18thTomorrow]

Hey Macrumors,
I'd like to tweak some system sounds, it's impossible to find any real great aiff sounds. Does anyone know of a good program or converter (preferably freeware) that I can use to convert my wavs to aiffs?

Thanks
Britt

[7on]

iTunes

[18thTomorrow]

I don't want to sound like a noob, but...how?

I sort of tried but couldn't find a way.

[Duff-Man]

Duff-Man says....in iTunes prefs, in the importing section, change the "import using" box to "aiff encoder" then import the .wav.....oh yeah!

[7on]

Yeah, but don't forget that after dragging into iTunes you also got to click "Covert to Aiff". Should be in the menus somewhere.

[abhishekit]

Yeah, but don't forget that after dragging into iTunes you also got to click "Covert to Aiff". Should be in the menus somewhere.

To clarify a bit more, if you change your import settings to Aiff, then ctrl+click on any song in your library, you can select convert to aiff. This 'convert to xxx' depends on what you have in the import setting..

[wrldwzrd89]

To clarify a bit more, if you change your import settings to Aiff, then ctrl+click on any song in your library, you can select convert to aiff. This 'convert to xxx' depends on what you have in the import setting..
Once you've set iTunes to convert files to AIFF (using the AIFF encoder, in the Import tab), select the files in your library you want converted, then choose "Convert Selection to AIFF" in the Advanced menu.

[ScotRobson]

Once you've set iTunes to convert files to AIFF (using the AIFF encoder, in the Import tab), select the files in your library you want converted, then choose "Convert Selection to AIFF" in the Advanced menu.

Is there any way of doing that to your entire library without ending up with two of each song?

Thanks
Scot

[wrldwzrd89]

Is there any way of doing that to your entire library without ending up with two of each song?

Thanks
Scot
No - stupid iTunes won't delete the originals automatically after you convert. You have to delete the old files yourself. It's HIGHLY annoying, and I wish Apple would include a convert and replace feature to solve this problem.

[dvdh]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong . . . .but aren't Aiff and Wave exactly the same format?? I have always just changed the extensions on .wav to .aif to make them .aif and vise versa. Afterall, when you insert an audio CD into you Mac, the files will showup as Aiff, but the same CD in your PC will show as Wave.

[wrldwzrd89]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong . . . .but aren't Aiff and Wave exactly the same format?? I have always just changed the extensions on .wav to .aif to make them .aif and vise versa. Afterall, when you insert an audio CD into you Mac, the files will showup as Aiff, but the same CD in your PC will show as Wave.
No they aren't the same. WAV and AIFF are both raw audio formats, but the big difference between them is "byte order". Think of it this way - WAV is "backwards"; AIFF is "forwards".

Here's a more technical explanation:
PowerPC processors are big-endian (most significant byte first); Intel x86 processors are little-endian (least significant byte first). AIFF is like PowerPC - it's big-endian. WAV is like x86 - it's little-endian.

[dvdh]

Cool . . . that means I learned something new today . . . thanks.

[BornAgainMac]

Quicktime Pro works for converting WAV to AIFF. It probably could be Applescripted to performing this task on entire directory. Then you can control if you want to delete the original and not have to mess with your iTunes library. I use iTunes to convert AIFF to MP3s/AAC.

[ScotRobson]

Quicktime Pro works for converting WAV to AIFF. It probably could be Applescripted to performing this task on entire directory. Then you can control if you want to delete the original and not have to mess with your iTunes library. I use iTunes to convert AIFF to MP3s/AAC.

Yeah I see. All my music is in mp3 but i want to convert it all to either AAC or Apple lossless any suggestions which one to choose?

And how would i go about Applescripting quicktime pro to do that? It sounds good in theory.

Thanks
Scot

[MarkCollette]

Yeah I see. All my music is in mp3 but i want to convert it all to either AAC or Apple lossless any suggestions which one to choose?

And how would i go about Applescripting quicktime pro to do that? It sounds good in theory.

Thanks
Scot

In the case of converting from mp3 to AAC, you will actually lose some quality when converting, so I wouldn't recommend doing this.

In the case of converting from mp3 to lossless, you will take up more disk space, but playback might use less CPU. I wouldn't bother.