À propos des fichiers CAF

CAF (Apple Core Audio · Format audio)

Lancement 2005 Par Apple

Apple Core Audio (.caf) est un format de fichier pris en charge par KaijuConverter pour l’archivage, l’échange professionnel et la conversion multiplateforme.

Famille

Audio Files

Extension

.caf

Type MIME

audio/x-caf

Utilisable comme

Entrée

L'histoire

COMMENT CAF
A VU LE JOUR.

CAF — Core Audio Format — shipped with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger in April 2005 as Apple’s answer to WAV’s 4 GB file size limit. By the mid-2000s professional audio was bumping into that ceiling: a 24-bit 96 kHz multi-track recording could overflow WAV in under an hour. CAF uses 64-bit chunk sizes, so file size is effectively unlimited.

Inside Apple CAF is used for system sounds, GarageBand projects, Logic Pro session audio, and iOS app sound effects. It supports any codec that Core Audio can decode: PCM, Apple Lossless, AAC, IMA ADPCM, and more. Outside Apple, CAF is rare — most non-Apple audio tools stick with WAV or BWF for interchange. If you get a .caf file, it’s almost certainly from a macOS or iOS development workflow.

CURIOSITÉS ET
ANECDOTES.

CAF uses 64-bit file sizes — you can record continuously at 96 kHz/24-bit for days without hitting a limit.

iOS app developers often ship short sound effects as CAF because Core Audio decodes them with minimal CPU.

Logic Pro stores every track in a project as CAF — switching to WAV forces re-encoding.

CAF supports "annotations" — arbitrary text chunks that can carry song lyrics, timing cues, or session notes.

GarageBand files (.band) internally embed CAF audio for each track.

POINTS FORTS ET
LIMITES.

Points forts

Unlimited file size (64-bit offsets).
Can hold any Core Audio codec (PCM, ALAC, AAC, etc.).
Native Apple ecosystem support.
Rich annotation and metadata capabilities.

Limites

macOS/iOS-centric — limited non-Apple tool support.
Not a delivery format — exists for workflow, not consumption.
Proprietary but documented.
No broad industry adoption; WAV / BWF dominate interchange.

Tailles et poids typiques

iOS app sound effect (short)

10-200 KB

1 hour Logic Pro track (24-bit 48 kHz)

~620 MB

Multi-track session (10 hours, 32 tracks)

100+ GB

Spécifications techniques

MIME type: audio/x-caf
Extension: .caf
Container: Chunked, 64-bit sizes
Codecs: PCM, ALAC, AAC, IMA ADPCM, µ-law, Opus, FLAC
Max size: 2^64 bytes (effectively unlimited)

CONVERTIR DEPUIS
CAF

caf mp3 caf wav caf flac caf aac caf m4a caf ogg caf opus caf wma caf aiff

Cas d'usage courants

macOS/iOS audio development