Aug 18, 2010 Update: In the comments section, folks are having problems performing CAF to MP3 conversions on PCs running Windows. Try using the free Audacity cross-platform sound editor, and see if this works for you. There are two related YouTube video clips (Clip 1 | Clip 2) that offer further assistance with using Audacity. Good luck, and let us know in the comments if this worked.
Apr 07, 2009 Update: If you’re looking for a way to mass-convert multiple CAF files, try using Switch to perform the task.
The iMovie application that comes included with every Mac OS X has a couple of cool sounds, jingles and other audio and music clips that can be used when creating movies.
The file format for these files are .caf, which stands for Core Audio Format. Read all about this format here.
The iMovie sound files are located in the Library > Audio > Apple Loops > Apple > iLife Sound Effects folder.
If you need to convert these files, or your own CAF files, into another format, say MP3 or AAC, you’ll need to use the included Garageband application to perform the conversion.
Step 1 – Launch Garageband, and select Create New Music Project.
Step 2 – Select a location and file name to save the project. We’re not going to be saving any project files, but this step is mandatory so we’ll just play along with it. After the conversion has been completed, you’ll have to manually delete this file, so choose a convenient location such as the Desktop
Step 3 – The default screen appears. You’ll see a keyboard and a single Grand Piano track. Click the red X to close the keyboard.
Also, delete the Grand Piano track as we won’t be needing it.
Step 4 – Launch iMovie, and bring up the Music and Sound Effects browser by using the menu, or pressing the shortcut keys [command + 1].
Step 5 – Have a look at the files that come with iMovie in the browser.
Use the pick list to select the type of iLife Sound Effect you want. Double-clicking the title of the sound effect previews the clip.
If you prefer, you could also click once on the title, and then click on the Play button.
Step 6 – Once you have decided on the clip you want to convert (I chose Forest Evening from the Ambience set in this example), arrange the Garageband and iMovie windows so that they’re next to each other. Click and hold the iMovie clip, and drag it to the Garageband window. Don’t release your mouse button yet. You’ll see that Garageband will automatically create a new track for you. Try to drag the clip as far left as it will go, making sure that the starting point of the clip falls on Beat 1.
Now, release your mouse button, and the track is created. If you did it wrong and didn’t get it to start on Beat 1, you could always drag the blue bar that represents the track, and drag it to the left. Or you could always delete the track and start over. If you want to confirm that the track was successfully imported into Garageband, click the Play button. Click the Play button again to stop.
Step 7 – Now you begin the conversion process in Garageband. Select Export Song to Disk from the Share menu.
The default conversion options are shown.
I select MP3 Encoder from the “Compress Using:” list.
I then choose Custom from “Audio Settings”. I do this in order to select the level of MP3 quality I want to encode the clip with.
I opt for 192 kbps Bit Rate, Use VBR, Highest VBR quality and Use Joint Stereo. I also uncheck Filter Frequencies Below 10Hz. Click the Default Settings button anytime you want to revert to the default values. Click OK once you’re done.
Step 8 – Verify your conversion settings and then click the Export button.
Choose a location for the MP3 file and enter a name for it. In this case, I just followed the title of the original .caf clip.
Step 9 – After a few seconds, or longer, depending on the complexity and length of the original clip, you’ll see your brand new MP3 file.
{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
Do you know a way to automate this procedure so that it converts multiple files? Is the OS X Automator utility a possibility?
That’s a lot of work to convert just one file…
Switch, the free program advertised at the top of this page will convert .caf to a multitude of formats incl. mp3, aiff, wav..ect…and quite quickly in batch format. I’m on a G4 1.3mhz Powerbook and it’s converting at the rate of about three .caf files per second.
Very very helpful. Thank You.
I must be missing something. SWITCH does not seem to support .caf at all. I downloaded it, tried to convert my CAF, it won’t even recognize it. There is also not a single note about support for CAF formats in HELP.
Confused …
I need some help with switch too. it says source format could not be read. How did you guys get switch to convert these files?
Great tutorial, congrats!!!!!
I’m with J-Rich and Robert, I downloaded SWITCH and it doesn’t support .cafs at all and won’t convert it. Am I missing something too?
To anyone else out there who, like me J-Rick and Robert, couldn’t get this SWITCH software above to convert .CAFs, the software below (Audacity) works fine and can be downloaded for free from here:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows
To convert to .mp3 for the FIRST TIME ONLY, you’ll also need to download the following (free) .dll file and open it when requested to:
http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?lame_enc
You’ll only have to do this ONCE, it won’t be required when converting any .caf/.mp3 files subsequently.
I’ve actually managed to convert a batch of CAF files using Switch.
Switch will download additional files the first time you perform a CAF conversion.
I’m curious to know the source of these CAF files that many seem to want to convert. My own test CAF files are from the iLife audio effects folder.
Great article – and an excellent discussion point.
To answer your question about where the CAF files are coming from, a friend of mine has made a voice recording on an iPhone and it has saved it in that format. Seems it’s Apple’s own proprietary standard (as if Quicktime wasn’t enough!)
@james and everyone else – ok, so, if you’re attempting to convert CAF files from the iPhone and are facing problems with it, perhaps you could upload a sample somewhere (maybe use drop.io – it’s free and uses Amazon’s S3 storage service) and allow me to attempt conversion of that sample with Switch.
I don’t own an iPhone, so the only CAF files I’ve converted using Garageband and Switch are those that came with iLife.
step 7 doesn’t show up for me… well specifically the conversion options… how do i get to that?
Thank you – this was just what I needed. Translates well to iMovie 09 as well.
My CAF files came from the iDicto app for the iPhone. I can get them off the phone and into Safari, but they won’t play. The system says it doesn’t have any software to play them and the converters don’t seem to recognize these either.
Angela, after you click on ‘Share – Export Song To Disk’ you have the two drop down menu’s. After you change the first to mp3, change the 2nd drop down to ‘Custom’. That will cause a new window to appear titled ‘MP3 Encoder’. This window provides the options of Bit Rate, VBR Quality, Stereo/Mono, etc.
Everybody … try Switch and see if it works.
@Rob Mark – I don’t know why you’re not able to play CAF files in QuickTime – I downloaded an iDicto sample from TUAW and it worked fine for me.
Ermm…. I thought it is pretty easy to convert it. Just open the caf file using QuickTime (I use version 7.1.3), then export it “Sound to Wave” to get a wav file, then use any program which converts wav to mp3. That’s what I did. I believe that it is easy to find a program which converts wav format to mp3 format.
By the way, my caf files came from the iPhone app called “Ambience”.
i want to covert caf to mp3 in window
how can make this?
@rana – try using Switch.
Remember to read about the file. The file (CAF) contains an ungodly amount of data beyond the music – for use in soundtracks or for GarageBand. It stores audio data as well as text annotations, markers, channel layouts, and other information – similar to a .AIFF or .WAVE file, but does not have a 4GB size limit and can store ***any number of audio channels**** – that’s one hell of a file, and because it is using a compression algorithm, it is not the gigantic file that was there for the previous OS (Tiger 10.4) which used a lossless format, but it required 10x the disk space per file.
The CoreAudio API is not “just another proprietary format” – if you’re working with Final Cut Pro, Shake (in the pro world) and/or GarageBand or Logic Audio (in the pro world).
Especially where creating audio masterpieces (or junk!) in Dolby 5.1 or 7.1 (or the format of your preference) is the goal!!
Please add this link to my above comment:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MusicAudio/Reference/CAFSpec/CAF_overview/CAF_overview.html
I have just converted Voicenotes files from caf to mp3 using audacity recommended by Blake on the 4th March, and it works a treat, excellent recommendation.
Thanks for all the help, as it was driving me round the twist.
I just used Switch to convert a caf file from QuickVoice Pro on the iPhone, imported it into iTunes, and burned to CD, and all worked fine. This was a test using a band concert song, and what I need it for is recording an audition CD for my kid. Going from caf file in the Finder directly into GarageBand worked fine too.
Switch works for MOST .caf files. I managed to convert the majority of Logic Studio’s loops to mp3. There are a few files that mysteriously cause Switch to crash, only putting a minor thorn in the batch process. They were easy to locate as I could see (in alphabetical order) where the list of mp3s stopped. I simply skipped the one or two erroneous files and reset the batch. Not sure why some files don’t work, but I’m content to have successfully converted about 90%.
PERFECT tutorial. Thanks!
GREAT Stuff worked perfectly. Thanks!
I’m using iwork09 and my .caf file is not a part of imovie, so how do I access it for garageband? My .caf file is a hd recorder app on my ipad.
Very nice tutorial, except I ran into problems even though the file played. The first ring(listening to my cell phone) skype plays the new mp3 file, the 2nd ring plays a very short “blip” and then silence. The third ring starts this all over again. I have less experience with imovie and garageband than i do singing around the campfire with lady gaga.
If you have Final Cut you can convert .caf easily into .aiff
Put the track you want to convert on the timeline, set in and out. Then click File – export- aduio to aiff. That’s it.
.aiff you can convert it into .wav or .mp3 with itunes
Thank you so much! This saved me having to pointlessly buy Logic Pro 9; you are the man!
thanks for sharing this great info, while i prefer bigasoft audio converter
it can not only convert caf to mp3, but also convert ogg to mp3, flac to mp3, aac to mp3, wav to mp3 and more
the following takes converting flac to mp3 as an example
http://www.bigasoft.com/articles/how-to-convert-flac-to-mp3.html?xmyma
it is dead easy!
Thanks for the helpful tutorial.
muito bom. salvou meu dia!!!! parabéns…. muito bom a explicação, bem detalhada, nem precisava tanto.
Thank you so much!! Great tutorial!! Very helpful.
Easily Convert CAF to WAV, MP3, AAC, M4a, OGG on Windows and Mac at
http://www.bigasoft.com/articles/how-to-convert-caf-audio.html
Thanks a million! The version of Switch I have here wouldn’t handle the .caf file. But your solution worked perfectly. I’ll add that you can drag the .caf file straight from Finder into GarageBand — just make sure you then drag the audio clip to the left edge of the frame.
I now have 49 minutes of usable .mp3 file.
Tony
Audacity will open .caf and will convert to MP3 and other formats. .caf files are produced by Quick Voice, the iPhone/iPad recorder app. Those files can be edited in Audacity, which is cross-platform, and then saved as you like.
THANK’S a lot !!!
you helped me to export .caf file to mp3 .
thanks again!!! it took me many hours to find the way. only through your clear explanation it has been possible for me to solve that problem.
i exported tracks i recorded of poems for a performance that will happen tonight in Switzerland. with you help.
thanks again.
filips
The Freemake.com converter works perfectly for me. It converts .caf files to mp3 with ease. Try it!
THANK YOU!! It worked perfectly by your instructions. Major thanks!!!
Permute does this .caf to .mp3 conversion by drag&drog.
http://fuelcollective.com/permute
{ 1 trackback }