All the Audio Format Differences: Which One Should You Use?
Three classifications of audio formats
Characteristics and differences of different audio formats
Which audio format is right for you?
You already know MP3, but what about AAC, FLAC, OGG or WMA? Why are there so many audio file formats and is there any best audio format?
Comparison of audio formats
Audio files come in various types and sizes. While we’re all probably familiar with MP3, what about AAC, FLAC, OGG, or WMA? Why are there so many audio standards? Is there a better audio format? Which ones are important and which ones can be ignored?
All audio formats are divided into three main categories, and once you know what the categories mean, you can choose the format within the categories that best suits your needs.
uncompressed audio format
Uncompressed audio consists of actual sound waves that have been captured and converted to digital format without any additional processing. So uncompressed audio files tend to be the most accurate, but take up a lot of disk space: about 34MB per minute for 24-bit 96KHz stereo.
Audio file format: PCM
PCM stands for Pulse Code Modulation, a digital representation of the original analog audio signal. Analog sounds exist as waveforms. To convert a waveform into digital bits, the sound must be sampled and recorded at specific intervals (or pulses).
This digital audio format has a “sample rate” (how often the samples are made) and a “bit depth” (how many bits are used to represent each sample). There is no compression involved. Digital recordings are almost accurate representations of analog sounds.
