IRCAM to CAF Converter

IRCAM sound files originate from the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique — one of the world's foremost computer music laboratories, founded by composer Pierre Boulez in Paris. The format was created in the early 1980s to serve the research needs of IRCAM and has since been adopted by academic and artistic communities working at the intersection of science and sound. An IRCAM file begins with a 1024-byte header containing a magic number, sample rate, channel count, and an encoding type field that supports linear PCM (16/32-bit integer and 32-bit float), mu-law, and A-law variants. The header block also accommodates free-form annotation text, allowing researchers to embed experiment metadata directly in the audio file. Because the payload is uncompressed by default, recordings maintain full fidelity through successive analysis and resynthesis cycles — essential in psychoacoustic experimentation. Software such as Csound, libsndfile, and SoX reads and writes the format natively. Key advantages include a well-defined header that eliminates parsing ambiguity, support for floating-point samples essential in scientific DSP work, and deep roots in the computer music community ensuring continued tooling.

CAF (Core Audio Format) is a flexible audio container developed by Apple and introduced with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger in 2005. Built to overcome limitations of older formats, CAF eliminates the 4 GB file size ceiling that constrains WAV and AIFF, theoretically supporting unlimited length. The container accommodates virtually any codec — AAC, ALAC, MP3, linear PCM, IMA ADPCM, and more — within a unified wrapper. Its chunk-based architecture stores audio alongside rich metadata including channel layouts, marker regions, annotations, and MIDI data. A defining advantage is handling extremely long recordings: broadcasters and field recordists can capture hours of continuous audio without size boundaries. Flexible codec support is another strength, as one container works whether the content is high-resolution 24-bit/192 kHz lossless audio or compressed speech. Apple's Core Audio framework provides native support on macOS and iOS, ensuring low-latency playback in professional applications like Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro. For Apple ecosystem workflows requiring both versatility and scale, CAF is an exceptionally capable choice.