How do I use afconvert to convert all the files in a directory from wav to caf?

Question

I have a directory with about 50 wav files that I need to convert to caf, because AudioServicesCreateSystemSoundID() returns an error for some of them (but not all).

Here's an example of the command I've used successfully for a single file:

afconvert -f caff -d LEI16@44100 -c 1 whistle.wav whistle.caf

How do I do this quickly - not one-by-one for each file?

You should look at the other answers. You marked a Windows-specific answer for a Mac question. — Yongwei Wu, Oct 17 '13 at 04:01

score 36 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 10 '11 at 14:40

36

Similar approach for bash: for i in *.wav; do afconvert -f caff -d LEI16@44100 -c 1 $i ${i%.wav}.caf; done

edited Feb 10 '11 at 14:40

jmlane

2,109
1
16
24

answered Oct 11 '09 at 18:33

Randall

361
1
2
2

score 9 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 03 '11 at 16:33

9

On Windows, use the %~ni syntax.

for %i in (*.wav) do afconvert -f caff -d LEI16@44100 -c 1 %i %~ni.caf

edited Dec 03 '11 at 16:33

Danyal Aytekin

4,106
3
36
44

answered Aug 13 '09 at 13:12

lavinio

23,931
5
55
71

I see, it removes the last filename extension. Cool! – mahboudz Sep 02 '09 at 05:35
I tried to use that command but it gave mi this error: -bash: syntax error near unexpected token `(' – José Joel. Jan 12 '10 at 15:02
1

That's because this particular `for` command is for the Windows command processor, not for the bash *nix shell. – lavinio Jan 13 '10 at 13:57
9

Why is a Windows-specific answer marked as correct for a Mac question? It looks irrelevant to me. – Yongwei Wu Oct 17 '13 at 04:01
"afconvert" doesn't run on windows – Oren Bengigi Apr 05 '16 at 23:51

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 02 '15 at 14:25

5

for file in *.wav; do afconvert -f caff -d LEI16@44100 -c 1 "$file"; done

Hit the Return key directly after done.

Simple :)

edited Jun 02 '15 at 14:25

Greenonline

1,330
8
23
31

answered Aug 19 '13 at 08:12

AABSTRKT

49
1
2

score 5 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 29 '21 at 09:28

5

found this:

##
## Shell script to batch convert all files in a directory to caf sound format for iPhone
## Place this shell script a directory with sound files and run it: 'sh converttocaf.sh'
## Any comments to 'support@ezone.com'
##
 
for f in *; do
    if  [ "$f" != "converttocaf.sh" ]
    then
        /usr/bin/afconvert -f caff -d LEI16 "$f"
        echo "$f converted"
    fi
done

Customize the afconvert options then save it as a text file called 'converttocaf.sh', place it in the directory of files you want to convert and run it from Terminal.

It works with files with spaces in their names.

edited Jan 29 '21 at 09:28

Cœur

37,241
25
195
267

answered Jun 30 '10 at 16:21

Ward

3,318
3
30
50

1

combined it with a bit of syntax from Randall's answer and my own conversion settings and it worked great! Thank you! – horseshoe7 Jul 25 '11 at 20:19

Jankeesvw · Answer 5 · 2016-06-09T13:44:11.990

5

For the people who are using OSX and are a bit afraid of Terminal scripts I created a little application with Automator, this application converts the files you select.

Download here

edited Jun 09 '16 at 13:44

answered Dec 06 '11 at 08:59

Jankeesvw

711
8
18

I just updated the link, it's now available at: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/135074/convert-to-caff.zip – Jankeesvw Jun 09 '16 at 13:44

score 1 · Answer 6 · edited Jun 02 '15 at 14:24

1

If you are dealing with filenames that contain spaces on Linux, try the following code:

SAVEIFS=$IFS 
IFS=$(echo -en "\n\b"); for i in *.wav; do afconvert -f caff -d LEI16@44100 -c 1 $i ${i%.wav}.caf; done

edited Jun 02 '15 at 14:24

Greenonline

1,330
8
23
31

answered Feb 24 '12 at 22:14

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 07 '14 at 04:12

Python script on OSX. Default data format of the .caf is ima4. Default directory is '.'

Make a file called wav2caf.py, put it in your path, make it executable, fill it with:

#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import sys
import os
import argparse
import glob

def main():
    # handle command line args
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='A program that converts .wav to .caf files.', formatter_class=argparse.RawTextHelpFormatter)
    parser.add_help = True
    parser.add_argument('-f', '--folder', dest='folder', type=str, default='.', help='folder of files to convert')
    parser.add_argument('-d', '--data', dest='data', type=str, default='ima4', help='data format of .caf')
    args = parser.parse_args()

    # process files in folder
    os.chdir(args.folder)
    for filename in glob.glob("*.wav"):
        name, ext = os.path.splitext(filename)
        command = 'afconvert -f caff -d ' + args.data + ' ' + filename + ' ' + name + '.caf'
        os.system(command)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Converts all .wav to .caf in current directory:

wav2caf.py

Converts all .wav to .caf in specified directory:

wav2caf.py -f Desktop/wavs/

Converts all .wav to .caf with data type 'aac ':

wav2caf.py -d 'aac '

How do I use afconvert to convert all the files in a directory from wav to caf?

7 Answers7

Linked