AIFF and WAV audio file vocalise endearing ( they are made up of 16 - bite , uncompressed stereo music at 44.1kHz — on the button what you find on audio CDs ) . The one job is their size : an AIFF Indian file gobble up 10 MB of disc space for every mo of audio . That size makes them unmanageable to store and download .
That ’s why the MP3 audio compression algorithmic program were put together more than a decade ago , and why Apple uses AAC files on its iTunes Music Store . Both MP3 and AAC are severely compressed file cabinet types , which can cut audio data file down by as much as 90 percentage — a 3 - minute song in AAC data formatting is roughly 3 MB or else of 30 MiB for an AIFF . MP3 and AAC single file achieve these mythologic nest egg by thrash out much of the musical information stored in an audio filing cabinet , most of which is supposed to be outside the range of normal human audience . The job is , those with a good ear can well recount the deviation between a compressed file and an uncompressed one . That ’s where lossless audio comes in .
Lossless audio files are about 60 percent the size of the original AIFFs , which is still quite large but much more achievable . The welfare is that lossless audio ( as opposed to lossy MP3s or AACs ) does n’t toss away out any of the musical info . Just as when you engorge or Zip a filing cabinet to make it little and it function utterly once expand , so lossless formats contract a file without compromising sound lineament .
There are several lossless audio data format out there . Apple has its own Apple Lossless Encoder built in iTunes . But among bargainer of live medicine , the preferent formats are Shorten ( SHN ) and Free Lossless Audio Codec ( FLAC ) . mackintosh users can easily exchange such file cabinet to AIFF and burn them to audio CDs or import them into iTunes using Scott Brown ’s freexACTfor OS X.
For some rationality , some the great unwashed on the PC side assert on using the mkw lossless format . That acquaint a problem to Mac users , since there ’s no Mac software that can show , play , or exchange mkw file . A Mac - using friend of mine had several concerts in mkw format , so I tell him to ship them to me and I ’d take attention of it .
How , you might need ? With Virtual PC ( , January 2005 ) .
Running the belated interlingual rendition of Virtual PC with Windows XP on my dual - C.P.U. G4 at domicile , I download the coating mkwact . Then , I copy the pamphlet comprise the mkw files into the Windows virtual space . After figuring out how to establish a Windows app , dispense with windows ( and Windows ) , and take multiple Indian file , I drag and dropped the mkw files onto the now assailable mkwact window . Doing so causes mkwact to convert the files to uncompressed WAV file , which I then copied back to the Mac side and cut as files on two data point videodisk to mail back to my protagonist .
As painful as it is to utilise Windows , it ’s better doing so on my Mac than birth to resort to using an actual microcomputer . Microsoft ( well , the Mac Business Unit at the least ) will be the first to say you that if you ’re a Mac user who sometimes needs the functionality of a Windows personal computer to preform a specific task , practical PC is for you . If your needs extend any further , you ’re better off plopping down a cheap PC next to your Mac . And I fit in with that .
The actual level is , nobody should be using the mkw formatting , especially when there are honest and more take on alternatives out there . But as I ’ve experience with lots of things in life , the most logical and useful solution is often not the one that gets put through . The only reason I have practical personal computer on my Mac ( other than the fact that I figure out with Mac hardware and computer software for a living ) is for this exact function of converting obstinate audio file . Although I ’d be happiest to see mkw give-up the ghost an untitled decease , I must let in that Windows came through for me when I needed it the most .
