Sustainability of Digital Formats
 Planning for Library of Congress Collections

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Identification and description

Full name	Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) with LPCM Audio
Description	AIFF wrapper containing an LPCM sound bitstream.
Production phase	Used primarily as a initial- or middle-state format, including use as a master file for audio captured live digitally or reformatted from analog sources.
Relationship to other formats
Subtype of	AIFF, Audio Interchange File Format
Contains	LPCM encoded audio

Local use

LC experience or existing holdings	None
LC preference	General preference for recorded sound is WAVE_LCPM.

Sustainability factors

Disclosure	Fully documented; see AIFF and LPCM.
Documentation	See AIFF and LPCM.
Adoption	Widely adopted among Apple users engaged in professional audio work; some adoption beyond, although most Windows users select WAVE_LPCM, which is functionally equivalent. AIFF_LPCM is used as the master format by the Harvard University Library Digital Initiative audio reformatting activity.
Licensing and patent claims	See AIFF and LPCM.
Transparency	See AIFF and LPCM.
Self-documentation	See AIFF.
External dependencies	None
Technical protection considerations	None known to the compilers of this document.

Quality and functionality factors

Normal rendering	Good support.
Fidelity (support for high audio resolution)	Excellent to good, depending upon encoding parameters selected.
Support for multiple sound channels	[Possible use of two-channel encoding with multiplexed data to provide support for additional channels. ?]
Support for downloadable or user-defined sounds, samples, and patches	None
Functionality beyond normal rendering	None

File type signifiers

Tag type	Value	Note
Filename Extension	aif
Macintosh file type	AIFF
Internet Media Type	audio/aiff audio/x-aiff sound/aiff audio/x-pn-aiff	Selected from The File Extension Source. Internet Media Type for AIFF not found at http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/.
Magic numbers	Hex: 46 4F 52 4D 00 ASCII: FORM	From The File Extension Source.

Notes

General
History

Format specifications

URLs
• McGill University page listing specification documents.
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Useful references

URLs
• AIFF by Paul Bourke of Australia (http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~pbourke/dataformats/aiff/)
• AIFF and AIFC format notes from the Object Systems Group, University of Geneva, Switzerland (http://cui.unige.ch/OSG/info/AudioFormats/ap02.html)
• The File Extension Source (http://filext/com/)

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