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Files from Mac to PC, I´m dumbfounded...


Analogaddict

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I´m working with a producer right now who uses Logic on a PC. The basic tracks are done, and we´re about to record keyboards now. I use Pro Tools Le and DIGI 001 on a G4 with a Formac cd burner and Toast 6.0 burning software. After bouncing my tracks to disc, I usually burn them as data files - AIFF - instead of audio, format is Mac OS/Hybrid PC. Importing these files into Logic on a Mac is no problem, and the producer´s PC finds the files. Still, he can´t open them into Logic or anywhere else; does anybody know what I´m doing wrong??? Do I have to burn this stuff as audio???

 

Thankful for help, we´ll start recording next week...

 

/J :freak: nas

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Originally posted by b_3guy:

I could be wrong but I don't think a PC sees .aif files & they have to be .wav's. I ran into this before.

PC's can see .aif files, it depends on the particular application. For instance, Cool Edit Pro can open .aif files. I'd be surprised if Logic PC couldn't open .aif files.

 

Perhaps when saving these files on the Mac, there's some option of saving them in a PC-compatible way? I don't know Logic so can't say.

 

Not an expert on this, but I know that one of the quirks of mac files is that they have a "data fork" and a "resource fork". Macs distinguish different file types by stuff saved in the resource fork. PC's don't do this, they save everything in one file with no forks, and they distinguish files by the extension - .aif, .wav, etc. For a PC to open a native Mac file, it would have to figure out how to deal with the forks. I think most PC apps would ignore the resource fork - the operating system isn't designed to know what to do with it. I think when Mac files get imported to a PC, the two forks might get saved as a two separate files, and the one you want to open on the PC is the data fork. But it's possible that a cross-platform app like Logic is designed to deal with this in the background automatically.

 

Take the above with a grain of salt.

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Windows is equipped to deal with .aif files on a system level. There's really no difference between a .wav and an .aiff file, (grain of salt again) I think an .aiff is just a .wav with a resource fork. A PC will just ignore the resource fork. Is it possible you saved the files as interleaved stereo files, and your PC is having a problem with this? Maybe they need to be saved as separate left and right files. Or vice versa.
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Originally posted by dementia13:

Windows is equipped to deal with .aif files on a system level. There's really no difference between a .wav and an .aiff file, (grain of salt again) I think an .aiff is just a .wav with a resource fork. A PC will just ignore the resource fork. Is it possible you saved the files as interleaved stereo files, and your PC is having a problem with this? Maybe they need to be saved as separate left and right files. Or vice versa.

The resource fork thing isn't specific to aif files, it's a mac thing. According to the CoolEdit Pro help file, .aif if "a good choice for PC/Macintosh cross-platform compatibility". Apparently on the Mac, these are known as .AIFF, but on the PC, the extension is .AIF. This may or may not make a difference when you're loading the file on a PC.

 

Here's the entire quote from Cooledit help:

 

"Apple AIFF (.AIF, .SND)

 

This is Apples standard wave file format. Like Windows WAV, AIFF files support mono or stereo, 16-bit or 8-bit, and a wide range of sample rates. Cool Edit Pro only supports the PCM encoded portion of the data, even though this format (like Windows WAV) can contain any one of a number of data formats.

 

The AIFF format is a good choice for PC/Macintosh cross-platform compatibility. Before you open AIFF files in Cool Edit Pro, add the .aif or .snd extension to the file and load it using the Apple AIFF file filter. When transferred to a Mac, you can add the four character code AIFF in the files resource fork to have it recognized (The Macintosh identifies a file through its resource, which is stripped away when a file is opened on a PC. However, many Mac applications that support AIFF can recognize the PCM data without this identifier.)"

 

I wonder if it's legal for me to quote the help file without their permission? :D

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Originally posted by dementia13:

Is it possible you saved the files as interleaved stereo files, and your PC is having a problem with this? Maybe they need to be saved as separate left and right files. Or vice versa.

I saved them as separate left and right,I´ll try stereo interleaved too.

 

Originally posted by GuestUser:

The resource fork thing isn't specific to aif files, it's a mac thing. According to the CoolEdit Pro help file, .aif if "a good choice for PC/Macintosh cross-platform compatibility". Apparently on the Mac, these are known as .AIFF, but on the PC, the extension is .AIF. This may or may not make a difference when you're loading the file on a PC.

Thanks again, I´ll check out CoolEdit!

 

:thu::thu::thu:

/J :D nas

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