Audio Coding Part 7
WMA format
WMA is the file format encoded by Windows Media Audio, developed by Microsoft, WMA is not aimed at the standalone market, but at the network!
The competitor is the well-known Real Networks in the online media market. Microsoft claims that at a bit rate of just 64 kbps, WMA can achieve sound quality close to CD. Unlike the previous encoding, WMA supports the anti-copy function. Supports adding protection via Windows Media Rights Manager, which can limit playback time, number of playback times, and even playback machine, etc. WMA supports streaming technology, that is, play while reading, so WMA can easily realize online streaming. Because it is a Microsoft masterpiece, Microsoft has added support for WMA in Windows. WMA has excellent technical characteristics. With vigorous promotion, this format has been accepted by more and more people.
AR format
RA is the RealAudio format, which is a format that many Internet users have come into contact with. Most online audition music websites use RealAudio. This format is completely targeted at the Internet media market and supports very rich features. The biggest flickering point is that this format can control its bitrate according to the bandwidth of the audience and improve the sound quality as much as possible on the premise of ensuring fluency. RA can support a variety of audio codecs, including ATRAC3. Like WMA, RA not only supports reading and playing, but also supports the use of special protocols to hide the real network address of the file, in order to realize the online playback-only viewing method without downloading. This is very important for record companies and record sales companies. Under vigorous promotion from various parties, RA and WMA are currently the most widely used audio media formats for online listening on the Internet.
mono format
APE is a lossless compression format provided by Monkey’s Audio. Monkey’s Audio provides plugin support for Winamp, which means that the compressed file is no longer a simple compressed format, but an audio file format that can be played as MP3. The compression ratio of this format is much lower than other formats, but it can be truly lossless, so it has won favor with many enthusiasts. Among the many existing lossless compression schemes, APE is a format with outstanding performance, satisfactory compression ratio and fast compression speed, which has become the only choice for many friends to communicate with fever music in private. .
Broadcast Format Features
All types of audio coding have their technical characteristics and applicability in different occasions, we will briefly explain how to apply these audio coding flexibly.
PCM encoded WAV
As mentioned above, PCM encoded WAV file is the format with the best sound quality and on Windows platform all audio software can support it. There are many functions in WinAPI provided by Windows that can play wav directly, so when developing multimedia software, wav is often used in large numbers for event sound effects and background music. PCM encoded wav can achieve the best sound quality with the same sample rate and sample size, so it is also widely used in audio editing, non-linear editing and other fields.
Features: The sound quality is very good and it is supported by a lot of software.
Suitable for: multimedia development, saving music and sound effects.
