Batch converting AIFF to WAV

Question

I have a few dozen AIF files that I need to convert to WAV. I have converted a few by opening them in Audacity and exporting them to WAV, but this is very slow. I would like to convert them all in batch. Is there a way to do this on OS X?

Solution

If you want to go for a shell solution, you can do it with ffmpeg.

• Option 1: download ffmpeg and extract the executable ffmpeg file. Copy it to a directory that is in your executable path, e.g. /usr/bin.

  sudo cp ~/Downloads/ffmpeg /usr/bin/ffmpeg
  sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/ffmpeg
  

• Option 2: Use Homebrew and brew install ffmpeg.

Now, in the folder with the AIF files, run this:

for f in *.aiff; do ffmpeg -i "$f" "${f%.aiff}.wav"; done

Comments

[Lily Hahn]

This worked, thanks! Is there any way I can add compression?

[slhck]

What kind of compression do you have in mind? WAV usually stores uncompressed PCM audio. ADPCM is sometimes used. You can also put MP3 data in a WAV container. Use the ffmpeg -i input.aiff -c:a adpcm_ms output.wav, for example, for Microsoft ADPCM. You can check ffmpeg -encoders for all encoders supported.

[AbsoluteƵERØ]

brew install ffmpeg is quicker than all of the downloading and modding the app.

[AbsoluteƵERØ]

But this requires that you load the files into itunes. If you're using something like sound samples, that's not necessarily what you want to do, especially if you have itunes set to keep files organized.

[slhck]

@AbsoluteƵERØ True, I added that option.

[awfulHack]

slightly simpler command: find . -name "*.aiff" -exec ffmpeg -i {} {}.wav \;