Audio Interchange File Format: Sound Files To Windows

I'm looking for information on the Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) that I've seen sound files available in. Is AIFF a standard with Mac OS? Can it be used with Windows? How can I move sound files to DOS/Windows?
AIFF sound files are the standard file format defined by Apple and several third-party developers for sampled (digitized) sound.

However, Windows only works with AIFF in a few applications. Windows uses .WAV files as its own file format for digitized sound. Unless the application you are using in Windows works with AIFF files, a simple transfer of the sound file won't provide a usable Windows sound file.

The AIFF sound file has header information that can be followed by a variety of "chunks." One of these chunks represents a linear sampling of audio waveforms stored as bytes. A general overview of AIFF files is in Chapter 22, The Sound Manager, of Inside Macintosh VI. A more complete description of the AIFF file format is available from Apple's developer web site at:

http://www.apple.com/developer/

Nothing in the Windows/MS-DOS environment can directly understand the header information. Therefore, you need to do a file conversion. There are several Macintosh applications and shareware utilities that allow you to convert AIFF files into WAV files.

Published Date: Feb 19, 2012