importing audio files created on a mac to a PC

I recently recorded a band and they wanted the audio files for themselves so they could mix it on their PC.

I have a mac and use Logic 5.5 and I just burnt the files as they are in other words, in whatever format Logic creates them. I presume they are Sound Designer II files. Anyway, they couldn't import them into whatever sequencer they were using (I think it was Cubase).

Has any mac owner ever faced the problem of importing audio files created on a mac into a sequencer on a PC before and if so, is there another way around it other than to convert all the files to WAV's first?

 

We use WAVELAB and it imports just about anything such as .AIFF, .WAV, SDII. And it will import other file types as long as you know the bit depth and sampling frequency. Most PC programs like .WAV files but most will import .AIFF as well. There are a couple of shareware and freeware file converts available in case nothing else works.

http://www.newfreeware.com/audio/1947/

and

http://www.newfreeware.com/audio/1899/

and

http://www.harmony-central.com/Software/Windows/awave.html

and

http://www.harmony-central.com/Software/Windows/batch-converter.html

and

http://www.harmony-central.com/Software/Windows/waveconvert-pro.html

I am sure there are others that people know about.

Best of Luck

Hope this helps.

 

ok refresh my memory again, what is aiff and what software uses it?

 

From Sonar Help Menu about file import:

"The File-Import-Audio command supports the following digital audio file types:

Wave (extension .wav)
MPEG (extensions .mpeg, .mpg, .mp2, and .mp3)
Apple AIFF (extensions .aif and .aiff)
Active Streaming (extension .asf)
Next/Sun (extensions .au and .snd) "

I'm sure that many other packages if not most for PC will do the same for you and AIFF. I must have been under the wrong impression if that's cakewalks definition I've always called it AIFF Audio Interchange File Format.

BTW I'm not up on MAC and its files but if they are timestamped then you probably want to export them to a Broadcast Wave File etc that maintains the timestamp. This is especially true if you are talking about working with multiple tracks that need to be in time with each other.

Hope what little I know here is of some help.

 

Karambos,

I had the same problem but in the opposite direction. I use SONAR and the guy whose band I was recording had a friend mix and master it in ProTools.

I ended up exporting each track to an individual .WAV file. I had to make sure all of the tracks "lined up" and were "consolidated", ie punch points removed so that each track looked like one long sample and the beginnings of the tracks lined up in time (the ends of the tracks aren't as important). Made for a lot of data but it apparently worked at the other end with no problems.

There may have been another (better?) way to do this but .WAV files are probably "importable" by most software.

Cheers.

 

karambos,
The dilema could lie in a number of things. First..can they read the cd you gave them at all? You have to make sure you burn a hybrid disk that can be read by both mac and pc..other wise the files won't show up at all.
Second you should find out what file format your saving them to in logic as not all programs are compatible with all file formats. AIFF is going to be your best bet. You can set-up logic so it will automatically generate AIFF files when you record...and all your audio files will be AIFF. This is highly recommended as AIFF files are the most compatible between platforms. AIFF files are also what cd players read...just fyi.

AIFF stands for Audio Interchange File Format and is the standard file format in the audio industry.
.Wav files are also a very good option and the audio standards for pro-tools sessions set by the RIAA and major record labels requires file formats to be .wav for sessions.
You might look into setting logic for these types of files. I'm not sure what's going on in Germany regarding this..but this is how it is over here in the states.

Cubase should be compatible with whatever file format logics using..so you might want to consult them on how their trying to import...maybe it's an issue on their end.