Ableton Forum

Hi

been recording some vinyl to start DJing from Ableton

before I get too far in, I thought I should ask..

am I better off recording to wave files or AIFF?

I know the quality is the same I'm just wondering about what one is less processor intensive

got a Mac so assuming maybe AIFF, but if there's no different I might stick to wave

if anyone's got the lowdown on this, I'd appreciate it. Cheers

oh yeah - I might want to back it all up on CD too if that makes a difference...

dont think it makes any difference... wav / aiff are just filetypes, the process remains the same and they are both uncompressed audio files.

u might also want to check out amadeus 2:
http://www.hairersoft.com/Amadeus.html

Q: What is an RIAA curve?
A: In general, LP’s are engraved with reduced bass levels and increased treble levels. In the sixties, the
RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) introduced a standard filter that was used on most
recordings since then. The filter “RIAA” available from “Filters” in the “Effect” menu allows to com-
pensate this filter in order to reproduce LP recordings in the correct way.

Both WAV and AIFF are derivatives of the IFF file type, so the processing power required to read/write to them is almost equivilent.

However, I personally prefer AIFF, as it has a better design and fewer compatibility problems (even though compatibility problems with WAV are no longer common).

i've actually tried renaming AIFF file's extension to WAV and it still works! so my theory is that they are both the same.

for[e]sight wrote:i've actually tried renaming AIFF file's extension to WAV and it still works! so my theory is that they are both the same.

Are you using a mac? If so, then it's no magic... macs are just smart enough to tell the difference based on the MIME file type, not just the 3-character extension.

Because, I can assure you, internally the two formats are quite different.

sqook: i've tried it on a PC years ago, and recently on a Mac too.