Which audio file format is easiest to manipulate?

Question

Hello nice computer persons,

Per to a question I had earlier concerning accessing the samples in an audio file, I now realize that the Core Audio Format may not be the way to go.

Especially since on page 15 of the spec it mentions something about the use of C being a 'notational convenience' i.e. you can't just crack it open with some c functions and do what you want with it.

That said, if I want to open an audio file and then run some C, C++ or Objective-C code on it to play around with the sample values, which format would be best to do this on: WAV? AIFF? other?

Please keep in mind I would like this to be able to run on iOS.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Uncompressed WAV files. They consist of a header followed by the raw samples.