Can "Stuffit" be used for AIFF files?

I want to deliver 2 gigs of AIFF files (Domestic and M&E stereo tracks of an indie feature) over the internet.

To upload 2 gigs to my iDisk takes forever.

Are AIFF files "Stuffable"? And if so, would the files be compromised in any way?

Many thanks,

Harry

yes you can certainly "stuff" them,
or even "Archive" or "Compress" them directly by right clicking on them, and choosing the appropriate function.
(Archive is 10.4 lingo, Compress is 10.5)

this does nothing to the quality at all, and the files un-stuff, zip, compress to be the same files you ziped

AIFFs wont shrink an awful lot, maybe 10% or a bit more.

uploading is just a long and boring process, im afraid.
is for me, anyway.


nick

Thanks for the info, NIck. A bit disappointing that thye only shrink by 10%.

Best

Harry

> AIFFs wont shrink an awful lot, maybe 10% or a bit more.

Normally, yes. But zipping doesn't always yield consistent results. For example, if the file has sparse waveforms, it will zip into a smaller file -- just as a movie file that has a lot of plain black or white (eg. alpha mattes, lots of titles) or little motion will zip into a smaller file. If your files are sound mixes, they will probably also have lots of blank space, so the zipping will have a more pronounced result than, say, zipping a complete, unbroken music track. Definitely worth a try.

However, my recommendation would be that you zip up only a couple of files at a time. Smaller files are less likely to hang up during an upload, so that you can actually whittle them down a few at a time rather than wait three hours only to have the computer freeze up on you. And many uploads can't "pick up where they left off" if an error occurs.


www.derekmok.com

Thanks for the reply, Derek.

All the best,

Harry

Personally I'd make them into AAC or MP3 instead. Sure you're losing a bit of quality but if you keep the bitrates high enough very very few ears will ever be able to tell. Then the person on the receiving end can convert back to AIF if they need them for editorial. I do this all the time.

Noah

Final Cut Studio Training, featuring the HVX200, EX1, EX3, DVX100, DVDSP and Color at [www.callboxlive.com]!
Author, RED: The Ultimate Guide to Using the Revolutionary Camera available now at: [www.amazon.com].
Editors Store- Gifts and Gear for Editors: [www.editorsstore.com]

> Personally I'd make them into AAC or MP3 instead.

For final mix on a feature? No way. Take the time and send the big files. Or just do it the old-fashioned way and mail a data DVD or even USB flash drive. A 2GB upload is really not that big a deal anymore. I sometimes get HD-sized Animation files over an FTP site -- 2 to 4GB.

On important deliveries I tend to recommend doing both -- upload the files while sending a hard copy as security, to ensure we don't miss deadlines.


www.derekmok.com

The hold up is iDisk. It's convenient, and simple when you don't have an FTP site or something similar, but iDisk always takes a long time to upload.

2GB isn't all that big these days. For the future, I'd look into companies that do this for a living. YouSendIt, ShareFile, and others are available for a price, and depending on what you pay, can have very quick uploads.

Time=money I'm afraid.

Andy

> The hold up is iDisk. It's convenient, and simple when you don't have an FTP site or something
> similar, but iDisk always takes a long time to upload.

It's been over a year since I used iDisk, but last I used it, I remember the problem wasn't so much speed (though the uploads did take a little longer), but the fact that the progress bar was useless -- it would fill up almost instantly once you drag the file, but then you'd wait an indeterminate amount of time with the bar at full. And if it freezes, there's no way to tell. I wonder if that's been fixed?


www.derekmok.com

I haven't had it freeze on me, but it still does that progress bar thing where it's "closing file" forever.

andy

iDisk is ok for small files but IMHO way too slow for big stuff. If you transfer files over the net a lot, I recommend:

[www.cachefly.com]

Worth every penny.

Noah

Final Cut Studio Training, featuring the HVX200, EX1, EX3, DVX100, DVDSP and Color at [www.callboxlive.com]!
Author, RED: The Ultimate Guide to Using the Revolutionary Camera available now at: [www.amazon.com].
Editors Store- Gifts and Gear for Editors: [www.editorsstore.com]