What music file is the most recommended? Part 2

FLAC is a well-known free audio compression codec, which is characterized by lossless compression.

Unlike other lossy compression codes such as MP3 and AAC, it does not destroy any original audio data, so it can restore the sound quality of music discs. It has been supported by many software and hardware audio products since 2012. Now major websites have FLAC music downloads, and publishers usually take the .cda audio track directly into .flac after buying the CD to ensure quality lossless original CD.

AAC, the full name for Advanced Audio Coding, is a file compression format designed for sound data. Unlike MP3, it uses a new encoding algorithm, which is more efficient and has a higher “price ratio”. Using the AAC format may make people feel that the sound quality is not significantly reduced and that it is more compact. Apple iPod and Nokia mobile phones support audio files in AAC format.

Ogg’s full name should be OGGVobis (oggVorbis) is a new audio compression format, similar to MP3 and other music formats. Ogg is completely free, open, and patent-free. OggVorbis files have the extension “.ogg”. The Ogg file format can be continually improved in size and sound quality without affecting older encoders or players.

In a nutshell, MP3 is an audio compression technology. Since the full name of this compression method is called MPEG Audio Layer3, people call it MP3 for short. Ability to compress files to a lesser degree with little loss of sound quality. And it keeps the original sound quality very well. It is precisely because of MP3’s small size and high sound quality that the MP3 format has become almost synonymous with online music.

WMA is a very common music file format, which is a convenient audio file for storage and can be used in files encoded in many formats. The outstanding feature of WMA is that it is smaller than MP3 (with the same sound quality), and it can also increase the copyright protection function. Some common WMA-enabled applications include Windows Media Player, Windows Media Encoder, RealPlayer, Winamp, and more. Other platforms such as Linux and hardware and software on mobile devices also support this format.

MIDI did not first appear on the computer, it was produced by electronic musical instrument manufacturers for the “communication” of different types of electronic musical instruments. Since it uses digital technology, of course, it is naturally easy to connect with the computer. . Today, MID files are mainly used for original instrumental compositions, amateur performances of popular songs, game soundtracks, and electronic cards.

What music file is the most recommended?

Music is an art that reflects the real-life emotions of human beings.

The melody of music is slightly different between different countries and different ethnic groups due to cultural differences, but music can infect everyone. Friends who like to listen to music will download audio files on mobile phones and music players to listen to them. So how much do you know about music files? What are the common music file formats? Which is the most recommended? Let’s get to know it through this article.

APE is one of the popular lossless compression formats for digital music, especially in mainland China, which has a wide user base. The data after restoring APE is the same as the original file. APE is compressed by Monkey software audio. The developer is Matthew T. Ashland, the source code is open, and it is famous for its “monkey” logo on the frontend. . ape has error checking capability but does not provide error correction function.

WAV format is a sound file format developed by Microsoft, also known as wave sound file. It is the first digital audio format and is widely supported by the Windows platform and its applications. The WAV format supports many compression algorithms, supports a variety of audio bits, sample rates, and channels. It adopts a sampling frequency of 44.1 kHz and a quantization number of 16 bits. Therefore, the sound quality of WAV is almost the same as that of CD, but WAV format requires storage space Too large to facilitate communication and broadcast.

Audio Compression (Format) Part 2

Lossy Audio Compression

Lossy compression, which approximates some of the information in the original file to obtain a smaller file.

The compressed file size is 5 to 20 percent of the original size (lossless file compression is 50 to 60 percent of the original size).

Lossy compression is an irreversible process, but lossy compression takes into account human psychology and the recognition of the auditory system in the compression results.

So even though the compressed file is small, it is almost indistinguishable to the listener.

Due to the unrecoverable nature of lossy compression, this format is not suitable for jobs that require repeated archiving and reading.

For example, when a musician modifies the content of a piece of music, lossy compression is more suitable for the end user, and the most common lossy compression algorithm is MP3 .

The compression method commonly used for lossy data compression is Modified Discrete Cosine (MDCT), which uses the characteristics of the human hearing threshold and auditory masking to discard unimportant sound information.

Research that combines the auditory recognition of the human brain with the hearing threshold of the human ear is called acoustic psychology.

It is important to note that while lossy compression theoretically causes loss of the original file, this loss is not necessarily noticeable to the human ear. [1]

Audio compression (format)

Audio compression (different from dynamic compression) is a type of data compression used to reduce the transmission bandwidth requirements of streaming audio media and the storage size of audio files.

According to the compression method, it can be divided into lossless compression and lossy compression.

Lossless audio compression
Although lossless compression reduces the storage size of the audio, it can retain all the information of the original file and there is no difference between playback and the original file. It can be evaluated from the following aspects: compression speed, compression ratio, decoding speed, software and hardware support, stability, and error rate.

Lossless compression is a reversible process that uses information redundancy for data compression.

According to the source encoding theorem in information theory:

{\displaystyle R={\frac{K}{N))}

where is the length of the input message. north

kes the length of the output message.

If it is less than the mutual information of the two, the transmitted data will be incorrect, so lossless compression is impossible. R

However, messages transmitted in real life often have information redundancy, so lossless compression is still feasible.

An example of the use of information redundancy for compression is as follows:

Suppose the message to be delivered today is which seats in a classroom are vacant.

Instead of sending a series of messages with individual information for each seat, it saves message size by directly sending which rows of seats are free.

Therefore, the compression ratio of lossless compression is also related to the consistency of the data source. The higher the consistency, the higher the compression ratio.

Shorten is one of the first lossless compression formats; later came Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC), Apple Lossless (ALAC), Monkey’s Audio (APE), and WavPack (WV).