MP3 to AIFF? (OCTAmed format) using a PC

[scafe]

Being a student and owning both a Windowz pc and a stock A1200 i have been interested in using my A1200 as an Mp3 media box for my HiFI but read in a previous post this wasnt possible without a kickass acellerator or some parrell port decoder thingy, which having seen the scidimatics cant build. However someone mentioned you could playthem using multiview in a format called AIFF (for octamed) at the expence of size. I was wondering if there was a way of converting/encodeing to this format on the PC. rather than using the shell on the A1200 :-?  :-D

[AmigaFreak]

Try using Audacity, thought Im not sure it can save to AIFF, but I know it can open them.

[AmigaFreak]

Aw man, I just checked, and I dont think Audacity actually saves to AIFF, though I know that Coaster on Macintosh does.

[restore2003]

Goldwave and soundforge support aiff exporting  :-)

[Morley]

Dexster is a shareware sample editor/converting prog that saves in tons of different formats, including AIFF.

Get it from download.com, free to try, 30$ after using it 10 times? Is anyway sthraightforward to use and splendid IMHO.

-EDIT-

49.95$ to register, just some annoying requesters if you don't register it. Spyware free afaik.

[Karlos]

@scafe

AIFF is Audio Interchange File Format and is not specific to Octamed or any other package. It's an IFF format for 16-bit PCM audio originally designed by Apple.

You can decode mp3 to AIFF in all sorts of ways. Soundforge, winamp (also amigaamp and various amiga mp3 players can decode to AIFF files).

The best way to play AIFF (and other uncompressed PCM formats) streaming from disk is with play16, a no nonsesne CLI based player that supports 14-bit calibrated output without a sound card or AHI (it can use the latter also).

AIFF is generally uncompressed. Hence, the size issue is a major one. If you want CD quality stereo sound, you will need 44100x2x2 = 172.27K/s. Or to put it another way, you'll need a spare 606Mb of hard disk space for an hour's worth of music.

[Morley]

Hippoplayer is also brilliant to play aiff's and .wav files. Has a simple and easy GUI. Get it if you don't want to mess with CLI.

[Doobrey]

scafe wrote:
i have been interested in using my A1200 as an Mp3 media box for my HiFI but read in a previous post this wasnt possible without a kickass acellerator or some parrell port decoder thingy, which having seen the scidimatics cant build.

 Last time I looked, Eyetech were selling the MAS MP3 decoder ready made.
 It`s well worth it for several reasons.

 1. It`s output is way way better than the 8 bit Amiga output you`d get from playing AIFFs, even if you tried the pseudo 14bit AHI mode.

 2. MP3s take around 10x less space on the HD, and since you said it`s a stock A1200, I`m guessing your HD is smaller than 4GB.
 A 4Gb HD will only hold about 6-7 CDs worth of uncompressed audio,compared to 60-70 in MP3.
 Also, how do you plan to get the files from the PC to the A1200?..transferring 650Mb over a 10Mbit PCMCIA network card isn`t speedy, and I don`t even wanna think how long it`d take over a null modem cable...  :-o

[scafe]

thanks 4 the audiocity tip, it can save to aiff with a quick change in the prefs, Iv also taken a look at bthe MAS decoder on the eyetech web, but its a tad expensive.

[scafe]

i have a 1gb HD but when i said stock what i ment was it had no accellorator (excuse the spelling) board or additional ram, iv got a EZIDE interface and its been mounted into a babyAT desktop case, i was going to burn to aiff files to a CDRW and transfer them that way.  Space isnt really an issue because i wansnt planning on storeing all of my MP3's on the unit to startwith untill i set up some sort of network between my pc and the A1200 then i could shuffle files to and fro individually, though what this would be like using the lpt ports, when shuffleing 50mb files around, im sure is laughable!  :lol:  still thanks for the advice all :-)

[guest1955]

Incidently, does anyone know where I can find one of the MAS IC's? I tried searching for "MAS" in Maplin.co.uk and I get nothing.

[Karlos]

@scafe

Well, if you are planning to burn the audio to CD and transfer to your amiga's HD then you might try exporting the aiff audio at 22050Hz rather than 44100. The reason is that unless you are using a doublescan display on the amiga, Paula won't be able to play back the audio any faster than 28kHz.

So, given that limitation, 22kHz AIFF makes sense and it doubles your storage space. Make sure you resample it with antialias filtering enabled (thats a doddle in soundforge, for instance).

Given paula's general limitations, it's unlikely you will notice much degradation in quality at 22kHz, especially if antialiased first.

You could even go for 8-bit audio, but I wouldn't bother since 14-bit calibrated playback of 16-bit audio is noticably better than 8 bit. At least to my ears :-D