Audio File Types. Audio File Types. aiff. iff

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1 Audio File Types aiff The audio file interchange format (aiff) was developed by Apple Computers from the Electronic Arts'.iff format. This type of file supports uncompressed CD-quality audio and is typically used to store standard CD audio. Standard aiff files are 16-bit, twin channel files using a sampling rate of 44.1 KHz. aiff files typically have an.aif extension but can also have an.aiff extension as well. aiff files are not supported by..aif(.aiff) iff Apple GarageBand Coq Microsoft Player The Interchange File Format (iff) was created by Electronic Arts and may contain image, text, or audio data. It is typically used for interchanging different types of data across applications and platforms. It is widely supported and can be used as the basis for several other file formats, including aiff. An iff file consists of chunks which have four letter identifications. There are three principle chunks : FORM, LIST and CAT each of which may contain text, numerical data, or raw data. The FORM chunk specifies the format of the file, the LIST chunk includes the properties of the file and the CAT chunk contains the rest of the data. iff files used by The Sims and The Sims Online can be edited using IFF Snooper for the Mac platform or IFF Pencil for. NPA Games design and Development/Media Assets/Outcome 1 Page 1

2 .iff IFF Snooper XnView Coral PaintShop Photo Pro X3 ACD Systems Canvas 12 ACD Systems Photo Manager 12 IrfanView mp3 The Moving Picture Experts Group mp3 file format is a compressed audio format that uses Layer 3 audio compression. The mp3 file format us typically used to store music files and audio books on a computer s hard drive providing near-cd quality sound in a file approximately 1/10 th the size of a aif or wav file. The sound quality of an mp3 file depends upon the bit rate used for compression. The higher the bit-rate the better the sound quality, but this comes at the expense of a larger file size. Common bit rates are 128, 160, 192, and 256 kbps. mp3 files are supported by most portable music players, such as the Apple ipod and can also be played on the Amazon Kindle. There is good support for mp3 files as shown in the accompanying table..mp3 VideoLAN Media Player VideoLAN Media Player XMMS Amorak Microsoft Media Player Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate NPA Games design and Development/Media Assets/Outcome 1 Page 2

3 ra The Real Audio.ra format is a common format for playing audio clips within a Web browser. It uses a proprietary Real compression algorithm and can use various codecs to compress audio with variable bit rates. The.ra format is used by RealPlayer, an audio and video streaming program and may be used to reference a streaming audio file online or may contain audio data. It is supported by, and..ra J. River Media Center wav The wav format was developed by Microsoft and is a standard digital format for storing waveform files and allows audio recordings to be saved with different sampling rates and bitrates. The wav format is similar to the aif file format but is based upon the Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF), rather than the Audio Interchange File Format (aiff). wav files are frequently saved as 44.1 KHz, 16-bit, stereo files, which is the standard format used for CD audio. wav files are typically seen on -based computers, whereas.aif files are more common on Macintosh systems. NPA Games design and Development/Media Assets/Outcome 1 Page 3

4 .wav aa Apple QuickTime Player MMMS Microsoft Media Player Apple QuickTime Player Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate The Audible Audio Book File (aa) format is designed for storing spoken word audio and supports chapter markers, bookmarks, etc., in the form of audio books. You can convert aa files into mp3 files using programs such as SoundTaxi Media Suite, Tunebite and TuneCab. Audible files are supported by the Apple ipod, Creative Zen, SanDisk Sansa, various GPS devices, and the Amazon Kindle..aa acm Audible AudiblePlayer Audiable AudiableManager Nero Multimedia Suite 10 RapidSolution Tunebite 8 SoundTaxi Media Suite TuneCab The Interplay Audio File (acm) file format developed by BioWare is a compressed audio file used by Interplay video games, such as BioWare and Fallout. Files contain compressed audio stored in a proprietary format, which may be converted to NPA Games design and Development/Media Assets/Outcome 1 Page 4

5 other audio file types, such as wav files. It is supported only on the platform. Bioware Infinity Engine with ACM plugin ACM/WAVC to WAV converter Acm2wav NPA Games design and Development/Media Assets/Outcome 1 Page 5