AIFF
Apple's uncompressed studio audio.
Where it came from
AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) was developed by Apple in 1988, based on the IFF container from Electronic Arts. It was Apple's answer to the sampling workstations of the era.
Because it stores raw PCM with no compression, AIFF became a favorite in pro audio and mastering, where every lost bit matters. Think of it as WAV's Apple cousin.
How it works
AIFF wraps uncompressed PCM samples in IFF "chunks": COMM holds format info, SSND holds the raw audio. No quality loss, but large files — a 3-minute track is ~30 MB.
UWC converts AIFF ↔ WAV/MP3 and more in the audio studio, entirely in your browser via Web Audio.