Converting AIFF files to WAV?

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 8:04 am

Hi everyone,

My bandmates and I have just finished the first mixdown of nine recordings and would like to place them all onto a cd in order to listen to them on other systems and judge what needs to be fine-tuned or blended better, etc.

The problem is that we recorded six tracks using Mac's GarageBand and the remaining three using Cubase LE. We had both of these programs during recording, however being newbies to the world of recording, we opted to use the more newbie recording program--Garageband, to record our songs. The drummer laid down the first six songs (all straight-forward 4/4 songs, on Garageband) and then discovered the remaining three that had either tempo changes, signature changes, or both, couldn't be mapped out with Garageband. We then forced ourselves to use Cubase, learned how to create a drum map successfully, and were pleased with the results of the recordings in general.

Sorry for the life story, I just figured I'd clear up any questions on why there are both AIFF files (from GarageBand), and WAV files (from Cubase), that need to somehow be on the same cd for the same band.

We tried very hard on the recording and mixing processes so we'd hate to have to suffer through seeing our files be converted to mp3's, which will almost defeat our efforts, just to fit on a cd. Is there any way that we could either convert the AIFF files into WAV, or vice versa, to make that not have to happen? Just to let you know, we usually burn cd's via Windows Media Player, which we tried to use when we recognized the problem.

P.S. We are newbies so sorry if this is a silly question.

Moderator Joined: Sep 12, 2002 Posts: 1880 Location: NYC

the only difference between aiff and wav is the header info. If you use a halfway decent program to burn your CD, it won't care if you mix and match aiff and wav.

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 8:55 am

Michael,

I'd be willing to purchase a good disc-burning program in order to accomplish this. What would you recommend and where would I be able to find it?

Thanks,

Dan

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 9:13 am

Can't you set iTunes to import as ** then burn an audio disc from there? I haven't used Garageband in a while but, can you import files into garageband to create an audio montage? You likely could import the songs into garageband and it should automatically convert them to aiff.

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 9:27 am

hueseph,

I haven't tried that yet because the drummer owns the MacBook and takes the computer back to his place after practice...Interesting idea, though.

Like I said earlier, I wouldn't be completely against purchasing good cd burning software that is compatible with both AIFF and WAV formats as I've only Windows Media Player to operate with. Any suggestions?

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 9:53 am

If you have a pc with a burner, both EZcd and Nero should convert to the appropriate format when you burn an audio cd. There are free audio coverters out there though just do a google search. I won't post a link 'cause it just gets so awfully close to being spam at that point. If you wan't I'll PM you with a link when I get home.

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 10:09 am

That would be great hueseph, only because I wouldn't want to select a bad download or something. If it's a safe software download, I'm all for it, but I just don't want to ruin anything--be it the files or my computer, if you know what I mean.

Thanks again,
Dan

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 4:25 pm

Almost *any* audio program will convert PCM to PCM... Reaper, Audacity - Anything.

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