aiff or wav, which is better to use in your DAW using OSX?

[DRESIE]

Hi Guys,

Whats better to use on a mac aiff or wav. There is little or no sound quality difference i believe but is there a processing benefit to using aiff on a mac.

Please let me now or is it not worth considering about?

Cheers

Dre

Reason 4 Ableton 7, Macbook Pro 2.4 (uni late 2008)

[mihai]

wav is microsoft's format, aiff is apple's format. use whichever you feel like, they're both the same in quality.

[re.mark]

aiff is better for Trance, whilst wav is better for Electro.

[DRESIE]

Is there any technical details for and against.
Thanks

[fishmonkey]

if i remember right, i think the AIFF format has better support for metadata (tags and stuff)...

[Machinesworking]

Is there any technical details for and against.
Thanks

WAV can support most DAWs arrange linear timeline windows. Meaning if you transfer from Pro Tools to Logic it will place all files in the correct tracks at the correct time. Not sure if Ableton support this with Live, or how 'clever' this really is? I did a transfer with some WAV files a while ago in some DAW or another and it did work pretty nicely.... sorry for being vague, it was a couple years ago...

AIFF supports Apple Loop data, and used to be capable of longer audio files, but I'm certain that's not the issue anymore.

Long story short, if you plan on bouncing to Pro Tools or some other Windows specific DAW, then use WAV. If you plan on using Logic or Garage Band in any way use AIFF. Doesn't really matter that much.

[DRESIE]

The last post is exactly the sort of answer thinking must be out there.

Thanks Machinesworking