If you are a DJ, the format was “AIFF”.
Hello, today I would like to ask all the people who play mainly digitally, such as PC, USB and CD. What is the format of the music data? Does the format matter to you?
I have changed the format I handle twice in the last 5 years. The problems and solutions I saw in it are summarized here as a memo.
What is the file format?
Music files are treated as data, so handling depends on how they are recorded. Typical formats are as follows.
uncompressed format
WAV
AIFF
lossless compression format
FLAC
A THE C
lossy compression format
MP3
CAA
Many people have heard of WAV and MP3, but there are other formats as well. If you split it easily, the sound quality is higher and the file size is larger as you go. Conversely, the lower you go, the lower the sound quality and the smaller the file size.
There are pros and cons to each format, but MP3 and AAC weren’t an option based on my personal preference of not wanting to use lossy compressed audio sources (see reasons below).
When I was a beginner I handled all the songs with WAV
I just thought the sound quality was good so I handled it as WAV without thinking about anything. However, tragedy struck suddenly one day.
When I switched from Serato DJ to Traktor Pro, the artist name and song comments brilliantly disappeared. Despair when I realized that I had to re-enter the artist name of the songs that had more than 1000 songs at that time.
The cause is that the WAV format can’t handle metadata like artist information (it seems to exist as a spec, but the software side doesn’t support it), so the DJ software side is said to have kept the artist information. metadata separately from the music. file ie. When DJ software is migrated, the information contained in the DJ software is not inherited, which is why this kind of tragedy occurs.
Hey wait, this is the strongest! it was ALAC that seemed to me
So, I searched for a format that could handle metadata and found ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec). An important feature of this format is the so-called “lossless compression” specification, which allows you to compress the file size without degrading the sound quality.
Since the sound quality does not deteriorate, the file size is smaller (albeit a little) while maintaining the same sound quality as WAV, and it is the strongest format that can handle meta information.
As the name of Apple suggests, it is a format developed by Apple, but the DJ software is compatible and can be used on Windows.
I reformatted all the songs I have for ALAC, spent a lot of time until I finished typing the artist name and managed to safely set up the environment. This makes it possible to mirror meta information no matter where traktor, serato or rekordbox is loaded.
