AIFF to FLAC Converter

AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format)

The AIFF extension is an audio format file developed by Apple Computer in 1988 based on Electronic Arts' IFF format, and is most commonly used in Apple Macintosh computers. Contains CD-quality audio that is stored in an uncompressed lossless format. The content of the file is uncompressed PCM data, a digitized analog audio signal. Like any uncompressed file, AIFF files take up much more disk space than their compressed counterparts: one minute of stereo audio at 44.1 kHz sampling rate and 16 bits takes about 10 MB. The standard file extension is .AIFF or .AIF, for the compressed version the .AIFC extension must be used. AIFFs are widely supported and can store LPCM, they are suitable file formats for storing and archiving the original recording.

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec)

FLAC is a codec that compresses a lossless audio file. These files are often used in professional recording studios. However, this format implies some compression of information, so the same song in FLAC format can take up to half less memory than the original CD. And if, for example, you copy music from a CD into this format, it will not differ in any way from the original, regardless of its bit rate or frequency range. The compression ratio and bit rate vary depending on the complexity of the material to be compressed - for example, singing with a guitar lends itself to compression better than recording a symphony orchestra. FLAC is often used to create audio collections and are used for listening on premium equipment.