Choose the sound format well into 2020

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Although many dematerialized music rhymes with MP3, it is recommended to take a tour of the owner in existing dematerialized formats to choose the audio format well when digitizing their CD / Vinyl.

What is an audio format?

An audio format is to simplify a kind of container where dematerialized music is stored: it is important to choose it carefully when ripping a CD, because its properties will directly affect the quality of the file created.

Therefore, selecting audio format is a crucial step and it is advisable to guarantee three things with priority: the quality, functionality, and the fact that they are standard and legible on a maximum of devices, whether on a PC or MAC computer, but also on your smartphone / car radio …

It is also important to understand that in general, and although there are exceptions, the choice of audio format consists of placing the cursor in the middle between the quality on the one hand and the space occupied by the media on the other. storage.

Choose audio format: which challengers?

select aac-ogg-wma mp3 audio format
The 4 semi-amazing audio formats with destructive compression.

MP3:
Give glory where honor is due. MP3 is just as popular as it is underrated: it will have done a lot for dematerialized music by itself and has enabled millions of people around the world to discover a new way to listen to their music.

MP3 is a format of strong and destructive compression, in other words, a large part of the musical signal will be suppressed (priority, frequencies inaudible to the human ear … but not only!), And therefore offers a quality that only becomes good for from 256/320 kbps.

Is this a good opportunity today? Not being the best from a quality standpoint, choosing mp3 audio format today allows you to be sure that you can listen to it on all devices released for 10 years. MP3 is dematerialized music, what jeans should wear: versatility and the highest “acceptance rate” in the world.

Note that it is also advisable to choose mp3 audio format if you have limited storage space on a smartphone, for example because it is (in the company of AAC / WMA / OGG) the type of format that requires least space.

AAC:
This format is similar to “Apple MP3”. It has the same qualities and shortcomings as the previous one with some details: slightly better at the same speed, on the other hand it is far less standard: except for the fact that manufacturers have made explicit agreements (and pay because they require a license) , we find in Practice much fewer AAC compliant devices.

So it should be avoided unless you only have Apple products around you (even the car radio? I doubt it) and even in this case they are all perfectly mp3 compatible.

WMA
If AAC is Apple’s MP3, WMA Microsoft is MP3. Even less widespread because it doesn’t benefit from iTunes / Music Store / iPOD steamroller (who still remembers Zune’s iPod killer? Miscrosoft)

Again, forget the same qualities and shortcomings as MP3, but even less standard, therefore urgent. I even advise you to convert your existing WMA files to MP3 at a similar or slightly higher bit rate to ensure durability. Therefore, choosing WMA audio format today is not a good idea.

OGG:
We also find it under the name “vorbis”, we also have an mp3 clone here, except it is compatible with the free world (understand free) a bit in the same format as Linux.

Ogg is a completely free format unlike the previous ones, but despite this it is very confidential and is generally used only by those who take a pro-free dogmatic stance. While this position is quite respectable, selecting OGG audio format in 2014/2015 does not seem like a good idea because it is not widely distributed and above all it is like MP3, a destructive format.

WAV:
WAV is the first format on the list that does not deteriorate the quality extracted from the CD, and therefore offers an identical bit rate of 1411 kbps and therefore provides optimal quality.

However, the format shows its age and is limited in several ways: no space optimization (one second of silence = one second of noise) and no metadata or album cover management.

Therefore, choosing Wav audio format is similar to generating very heavy files and simply impossible to organize properly in a music database.

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An overview of the main audio formats that can be found on your computer

Codec for mp3, mpc, flac, mono, ogg vorbis and more.

For convenience, audio formats can be divided into unprofitable (unprofitable) and unprofitable (or unprofitable without losing quality).

The idea of loss formats (most common among ordinary users) stems from the idea that the human ear misunderstands all the sounds that are in a standard WAV file at 44,100 samples per second.

In this way (as in the JPG format of the images) we will drop the high frequencies, which are thought to be less different from our hearing. The more these frequencies are reduced, the more space is allocated to our track (for example, 3 MB instead of 6 MB for a few minutes of song or much more) … but it also degrades the quality of the result, as the cut frequencies are no longer so “inaudible”.

Converting to WAV from lossy formats does not provide any benefit (unless you have to process the track and save it several times, in which case the quality loss will be limited to the first step); There are also programs that are able to bring some of these high frequencies back into our tracks, such as Steinberg Clean Plus or others (such as the first versions of Easy CD Creator or other, even more professional ones), but by doing the job properly , more than No they can do a lot.

Unbearable (lossy) formats try to reduce the space occupied by the track without touching the sound; the degree of compression will be much less than the loss, but there will be no loss of quality. If it is converted back to WAV (possibly processed), the sound will be identical to the previous one.

To listen to audio tracks in various formats, we recommend using audio players that can support different formats, such as AIMP and Foobar2000.

Lost audio formats (lossy quality)

WMA (.wma): Windows Media audio format, compressed and very similar to mp3. Microsoft audio compression format. Files compressed in this format are approximately 20% smaller than MP3 files

MP3 (.mp3) is briefly suitable for the MPEG 1 III layer and identifies audio files that use this algorithm. This is a standard that removes inaudible sounds from the human ear. This way the 128 kbps mp3 track takes up 1/11 of its space in .wav or audio CD format.
Some rate 128-bit bits as “CD quality”; In fact, the frequencies that are reduced to save hard disk space are not so “inaudible”. 192 The results are starting to get good and at only 320 kbps we can talk about the quality of CDs … Until a few years ago the quality of mp3 was considered high, but now with the advent of more modern sound cards, 24 bits: we continue to use mp3 compared to other formats like like ogg or mpc, more for its diffusion and compatibility than the quality of the result. A 600 MB album in wav format will take up about 50 MB in 128 mp3 format.

To convert an audio track to mp3, it’s a good idea to use the Lame mp3 codec (free) in all the best conversion programs (download).

AAC (.aac and .mp4): A lossy format that delivers high quality (currently the highest among lossy formats), at least one step higher than mp3. A feature of this format is the ability to protect DRM from being freely copied from one platform to another (unless applications are used to protect it).

AC3 (ac3). This is the audio format used by DVDs. We usually find it at 384 kbps (and 6 channels), but it is also possible that you only have it at 2 channels and lower speeds. One of the free programs that supports it (and allows, for example, to reduce the bit rate) is BeLight (Besweet).

OGG VORBIS (.ogg) is a great open source codec. It is able to give better results than mp3, especially at low bit rates (higher quality, less space), which is less than 128 kbps (download). It is compatible with virtually all audio players (both software and audio).

MusePack (.mpc): Very large output format, especially at high bit rates (more than 192 kbps and above). The results are much better than mp3: just listen to one 192 kbps mp3 encoded track and one mpc track at the same bit rate to immediately feel the difference (in some cases without words …). Many people considered this to be the best lossy audio format, at least until mp4 was released. It is compatible with WinAmp through plug-ins and, on average, with more advanced players such as Foobar 2000.

Digital audio formats

Below is a non-exhaustive list of the most widely used digital audio formats.

AIFF – Audio Exchange File Format

Apple uses a standard audio format. This can be considered the wav equivalent of a mac environment. Audio data is organized according to PCM encoding and is not compressed. There is also a condensed option defined as AIFF-C or AIFC.

AAC – Advanced Audio Encoding

This format is based on MPEG2 and MPEG4 lossy compression standards. It was created as a successor to the mp3 format, which uses a slightly better algorithm. This allows you to get slightly better quality for the same speed.

ALAC – Apple Lossless Audio Codec

This is Apple’s lossless audio format. Also called ALE (Apple Lossless Encoder).

ATRAC (.mp3) – acoustic coding of adaptive transformation

Old Sony audio format with ATRAC compression. Files always have a .mp3 extension, but you need the ATRAC3 driver to open them. MiniDisc was a commercial advertising product that took advantage of this type of format. The codec was later improved by subsequent enhancements such as ATRAC3 (1999), ATRAC3plus (2002), and ATRAC Advanced Lossless (2006).

AS

This is the standard audio format used by Sun, Unix, and Java operating systems. Data encoding can be PCM (uncompressed) or compressed with μ-law, a-law G729 codecs. The Au audio format was introduced by Sun Microsystems. It was a format used on NeXT systems and early websites. Initially, the file did not have a header (the original data from the file) because the encoding was unique: 8 bits with µ-law compression and a sampling rate of 8000 Hz. The latest version of this format contains a header consisting of six blocks. 32 bits, an optional block of information, and finally audio data.

FLAC is a free lossless audio codec

It is an audio codec with lossy compression (without losing information). Data compression can reach 50-60% without losing quality.

M4P

It is a patented version of the MP4 AAC format with a DRM (Digital Rights Management) system developed by Apple to download music from the iTunes Music Store.

MPEG-4 Part 14 or MP4 (formerly ISO / IEC 14496-14: 2003) is a storage medium for multimedia data. It is mainly used to store audio / video data, but can also be used to store other types of data, such as still images and subtitles. Like all modern formats, this format allows data to be sent over the Internet in real time: this feature is implemented by adding a data path for transmission control. The only extension for files that use this codec is .mp4.

MP3 – MPEG layer III audio recording

It is currently the most widely used audio format. The MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 III audio layer, commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented lossy format. It is used for digital music use at the user (non-professional) level.

OGG

It is an open source container that supports a variety of formats, the best known being the Vorbis audio format. This format offers MP3-like audio compression, but is less common. The big difference with mp3 is the absolute free format. In terms of performance, with the same parameters, Vorbis is slightly more efficient than MP3.

The Ogg cache can handle multiple independent streams at the same time: audio, video, text (such as subtitles), and additional data (metadata).

RA and RM

This is a format developed by Real Audio to transmit audio over the Internet. The .Ra format allows you to store all the audio files you want to transfer in one file. The codec enables transmission from very low quality to high accuracy.

RAW

A RAW file can contain any type of data, but in reality it is mainly used for PCM-encoded (uncompressed) audio data. Thus, unlike the uncompressed audio format (wav, aiff), a flat file does not contain headers with information about the data itself (usually the header contains information about: sampling rate, quantitative bits, channels, type of markup used for the ideas). A typical file extension for this type is: .raw, .pcm, without the extension.

Vox

This audio format uses Dialogic ADPCM (Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation). This performs 4. compression. Vox files are similar to wave files, except that they do not have a header, so you need to specify frequency information.

Better audio formats

You have decided to digitize the music tracks in your audio CD collection by transferring everything to your computer. You started to examine the possibility of converting it into a format that is more convenient for you.

With a little experience in this area, however, you would like to get some advice on the subject so you can make the best decision. How do you say? Things are exactly the same and you want to know if I can help you by giving you the best audio formats? Of course yes, that’s exactly what he wanted to do.

If you allow me a few minutes of your free time, I can actually use threads and characters to tell you which audio formats are most popular, what strengths and weaknesses they have and what purposes they may be more or less convenient for. Contact. Condition to choose those who you think are actually right for you. To complete the information and give you an even more comprehensive overview of the topic, I will also indicate at the end of the article which tools you can use to carry out various conversion processes. You will find that once you have read this manual, there is no longer any doubt about what to do.

In order to? How about putting the conversation aside and finally getting to the point? Yes? Excellent! So I suggest that you don’t waste any more time and immediately focus on the topic. Make yourself comfortable in front of your trusted computer and read everything below. I am sure you can say that you are happy and satisfied with what you have learned. As always, I hope you enjoy reading.

MAIN AUDIO FORMATS

Even the audio formats differ in their versatility and level of compression, and even if they are not as numerous as the video formats, it is better to look at the properties to get satisfactory results according to the requirements of our work.

Microsoft Wave [Extension: WAV] It is Microsoft’s proprietary format and is certainly the most widely used. This diffusion depends on commercial aspects and the fact that it is the most supported among the competitors. It has various compressions and is a versatile and highly editable format. For this reason, it is suitable for general digital audio, both for multimedia publications (although there are certainly better formats) and for desktop video (real standard). An excellent program for processing wave files (but also other formats) is CoolEdit.

MPEG Audio (extension: MPG / MP3) MP3 stands for MPEG1 Layer3. The MPEG algorithm, the basis of MP3, emerged from the need to develop a world standard for the representation of moving images and audio. This standard was developed in 1988 for the treatment of audio and video signals and has the special feature of compressing files and reducing them by 12 times compared to their natural size.

This high-compression format is based in particular on theories of psychoacoustics: each individual has a hearing that is sensitive to frequencies from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, and in particular the man perceives sounds between 2 and 4 kHz better. In addition, some sounds mask nearby frequencies so that you cannot hear all of the sounds.

These considerations have led to the development of an algorithm that eliminates all “redundant” noise for the human ear and achieves a high level of file compression and sound quality that is comparable to the digital and can be downloaded directly to your PC.

MP3 enables good results, making small and high quality playback compatible. An established audio standard is the MPEG Layer3 version, which produces very small files of excellent quality, an excellent compromise when duplicating and creating audio files on CD. The XingMPEG encoder is an excellent software for creating MP3s.

Given the prevalence and importance of the topic on a legal level, let’s find out what it is and what benefits we can achieve by using this MPEG format.

An audio CD generally contains 60 to 78 minutes and is characterized by a quantization level of 16 bits and a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz, ie 44,100 samples per second. The quantization level describes the maximum number of intensity levels that a single sample can hold: for example 8 bits = 256 levels (28), 16 bits = 65,356 levels (216). The higher the number of levels that the signal can assume, the more precise the signal reproduction.

There is approximately 650 MB of data on a normal audio CD.

Conventionally, to reduce the size, we can work in two ways: 1) Reduce the quantization: that is, convert the samples from 16 bits to 8 bits, but lose the dynamics, quality and get a lot of noise; 2) Reduce the sampling frequency. As a result, the frequency range would decrease in the event of a loss of resolution.

The MPEG format, on the other hand, reduces the amount of information stored and therefore significantly reduces the size of the files by filtering out unimportant audio information according to the models developed on this basis. From research on the perception of the human ear, you decide which information is important and which is not . These studies have enabled us to know how our brain analyzes sounds, except irrelevant ones that are imperceptible (e.g. ultrasound).

The MPEG audio format also performs this process of removing intelligent weak signals. So if there is a strong signal, the weakest signal is not perceived.

When using a high compression rate, the MPEG encoder eliminates parts of audible information that are still of minor importance. With a slight compression rate, the difference to the uncompressed original is minimal.

Layers I, II, III can be viewed as the layers through which the MPEG format has evolved. All layers are based on the same perceptual coding scheme, the complexity of which increases for each of them. Layer II has superior quality at lower bit rates than Layer I; However, the most complex coding system currently available is Layer III,

MP4 (Extension: MP4) is an audio compression technology recently launched by Global Music Outlet (GMO) under license from AT&T Labs (January 99). As you understand, it is a further development of the MP3 format and seems to offer the ability to offer it a higher compression factor, which should even reach a factor of 16. Although the name is very similar, conceptually it has nothing to do with layer 3 and is actually in direct competition with it. Compressed MP4 files are presented as executable Win9x or WinNT files and offer the relatively encapsulated player.

Audio exchange (extension: AIF / AIFF) Format created to standardize the various audio standards between PC and Machintosh.

Microsoft NetShow (Extension: ASF) Audio extension of the format for streaming audio / video on the web.

Yamaha SoundVQ [Extension: VQF] Audio format released by Yamaha in direct competition with MP3.

Everything you need to know about audio files … compressed and uncompressed

Regardless of whether you’re listening to MP3 files or high-definition audio, it’s time to find out exactly which file format is best for your needs.

As you organize your digital music collection, you may be impressed by the number of different audio file formats you have collected over the years. For this reason (and since a good review doesn’t hurt anyone) we’d like to deepen the discussion of the most common audio file formats, explain the differences and explain why you should be interested in learning more about them. Whether you’re listening to low quality MP3 files, slightly better AAC tracks, or high definition audio in FLAC or WAV, it’s time to find out exactly what you’re dealing with and which file format best suits your needs.

File formats and codecs

Below is a list of all common audio file formats and the differences between them.

-AAC (no high resolution): Apple’s alternative to MP3. It’s a compressed audio format, but it sounds better than MP3 and is used to download music from iTunes and stream via Apple Music.

-AIFF (high resolution): Apple’s alternative to WAV, but with better metadata support. It’s an uncompressed and lossless format, but it’s not very popular.

-DSD (High Resolution) – The uncompressed single bit format for super audio CDs. It is available in the 2.8 MHz, 5.6 MHz and 11.2 MHz variants, but due to its high-quality codec it is (currently) not suitable for streaming.

-FLAC (High Resolution) – This lossless compression format supports high-resolution sampling rates, takes up about half the WAV space, and stores metadata. It is license-free and is the preferred format for downloading and storing albums in high resolution or CD quality. The disadvantage is that it is not compatible with Apple (therefore it is not compatible with iTunes).

-MP3 (not high definition): Lossy, compressed format that guarantees small file sizes, but is far from the best possible audio quality. However, it is still very convenient for storing music on smartphones and other mobile devices and is widely used.

-MQA (High Resolution) – A lossless compression format with high resolution files for more efficient transmission. It is used for high-resolution streaming from Tidal Masters and other similar services.

-OGG (not high resolution): Sometimes you can find him by his full name, Ogg Vorbis. An open source and compressed alternative to MP3 and AAC that is not limited by patents. This format is used (at 320 kbit / s) to stream Spotify.

-WAV (High Resolution) – The standard format in which all audio CDs are encoded. Excellent sound quality and no compression, which means large files (especially for high-resolution files). However, metadata (album art, artist information, and song title) are hardly supported.

-WMA Lossless – An uncompressed embodiment of Windows Media Audio, but is no longer supported by smartphones or tablets.

The 10 most common audio formats: which one to use?

Audio files are available in all types and sizes. And although we are all familiar with MP3, what do you think of AAC, FLAC, OGG or WMA? Why are there so many audio standards? Which are important and which to ignore?

It’s actually quite easy to find that all audio formats fall into three main categories. Once you know what the categories mean, you can simply choose a format within the category that best suits your needs.

Uncompressed audio formats

Uncompressed audio consists of actual sound waves that have been captured without further processing and converted into a digital format. As a result, uncompressed audio files are usually the most accurate, but take up a lot of space, about 34MB per minute for 96-bit and 96-bit stereo.

Audio file format: PCM

PCM stands for Pulse Code Modulation, a digital representation of analog audio signals. Analog tones exist as waveforms, and in order to convert a waveform into digital bits, the tone must be sampled and recorded at certain intervals (or pulses).

This digital audio format has a “sample rate” (how often a sample is taken) and a “bit depth” (how many bits are used to represent each sample). No compression is required. The digital recording is an almost exact representation of the analog sound.

PCM is the most common audio format used on CD and DVD. There is a PCM subtype called Linear Pulse Code Modulation, in which samples are taken at linear intervals. LPCM is the most common form of PCM, so the two terms are almost interchangeable at this point.

Audio file format: WAV

WAV stands for Waveform Audio File Format (at some point also called Audio for Windows, but no longer). It is a standard developed by Microsoft and IBM in 1991.

Many people believe that all WAV files are uncompressed audio files, but that’s not exactly true. WAV is actually a Windows container for various audio formats. This means that a WAV file may contain compressed audio, but this is rarely used.

Most WAV files contain uncompressed audio in PCM format. The WAV file is just a container for PCM encoding, so it is more suitable for use on Windows systems. However, Mac systems can generally open WAV files with ease.

Audio file format: AIFF

AIFF stands for Audio Interchange File Format. Similar to how Microsoft and IBM developed WAV for Windows, AIFF is a format developed by Apple for Mac systems in 1988.

Similar to WAV files, AIFF files can contain several types of audio formats. For example, there is a compressed version called AIFF-C and another version called Apple Loops that is used by GarageBand and Logic Audio. Both use the same AIFF extension.

Most AIFF files contain uncompressed audio in PCM format. The AIFF file is just a container for PCM encoding, making it more suitable for use on Mac systems. However, Windows systems can generally open AIFF files with ease.

Lossy compression audio formats.

Lossy compression occurs when some data is lost during the compression process. Compression is important because uncompressed audio takes up a lot of space.

In other words, lossy compression means that the sound quality and fidelity for smaller files are affected. If you are hurt, you will hear artifacts and other oddities in the audio. But if done correctly, you won’t feel the difference.

Audio file format: MP3

MP3 stands for MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3. It was released in 1993 and is becoming increasingly popular. It is the world’s most popular audio format for music files. There is a reason why we had “MP3 players” but no “OGG players”!

The main purpose of MP3 is in three ways: 1) removing all audio that is out of the normal human hearing range, and 2) reducing the quality of inaudible sounds, then 3) compressing all the other audio as efficiently as possible.

Almost every digital device in the world with audio playback can read and play MP3 files, be it PC, Mac, Android, iPhone, Smart TV or anything else. If you need a universal device, MP3 will never disappoint you.

Note: MP3 is not the same as MP4!

Audio file format: AAC

AAC stands for Advanced Audio Coding. It was developed in 1997 as the successor to MP3 and although it has become popular as a format to be used, it has never surpassed MP3 as the most popular.

The compression algorithm used by AAC is much more advanced and technical than MP3. So if you compare the same recording in MP3 and AAC format with the same bit rates, the AAC generally has better audio quality.

Although MP3 is a more popular format, AAC is still widely used today. In fact, this is the standard audio compression method used by YouTube, Android, iOS, iTunes, later Nintendo laptops, and later PlayStation.

Audio file format: OGG (Vorbis)

OGG represents nothing. In fact, it’s not even a compression format. OGG is a multimedia container that can contain all types of compression formats. However, Vorbis files are most commonly used. Therefore, these audio files are called Ogg Vorbis files.

Vorbis was first released in 2000 and is growing in popularity for two reasons: 1) it conforms to the principles of open source software and 2) it works significantly better than most other lossy compression formats (ie) this results in a smaller file size for an equivalent sound quality.

MP3 and AAC are so strong that OGG struggles to get into the spotlight – not many devices support them natively, but they do improve over time. It is currently used primarily by supporters of hardcore open source software.

Audio file format: WMA (lossy)

WMA stands for Windows Media Audio. It was first published in 1999 and has gone through several developments since then, always keeping the same name and WMA extension. It is a proprietary format created by Microsoft.

Similar to AAC and OGG, WMA should fix some of the errors in the MP3 compression method, and it turns out that WMA’s approach to compression is very similar to that of AAC and OGG. Yes, in terms of the quality of objective compression, WMA is really better than MP3.

However, since WMA is proprietary, it is not supported by many devices and platforms. In addition, it offers no real advantage over AAC or OGG. If MP3 is not good enough, it is only more practical to use one instead of WMA.

Audio formats with lossless compression.

The opposite lossy compression is lossless compression, in which the size of an audio file is reduced without loss of data between the source audio file and the compressed audio file.

The disadvantage is that lossless compressed audio files are larger than lossy compressed audio files, up to 2 times 5 times larger for the same source file.

Audio file format: FLAC

FLAC is an abbreviation for Free Lossless Audio Codec. Maybe a bit on the nose, but it has quickly become one of the most popular lossless formats since its launch in 2001.

The good news is that FLAC can compress an original source file by up to 60 percent without losing a single bit of data. What’s even better is that FLAC is a free, open source audio file format, so there are no intellectual property restrictions.

FLAC is compatible with most major programs and devices and is the primary alternative to MP3 for music. You basically get the full quality of uncompressed audio with half the file size. That is why many see FLAC as the best audio format.

Audio file format: ALAC

ALAC stands for Apple Lossless Audio Codec. It was developed and published as a proprietary format in 2004, but became open source and copyright-free in 2011. ALAC is sometimes referred to as Apple Lossless.

While ALAC is good, it is somewhat less efficient than FLAC in terms of compression. However, Apple users cannot choose between the two, as iTunes and iOS offer native support for ALAC and no support for FLAC.

Audio file format: WMA (lossless)

WMA stands for Windows Media Audio. We already discussed this in the lossy compression section, but we explained this here because there is a lossless alternative called WMA Lossless that uses the same extension. Confused, I know.

Compared to FLAC and ALAC, WMA Lossless is the worst compression efficiency, but not much. Since it is a proprietary format, it is not suitable for open source software enthusiasts, but is natively supported on Windows and Mac systems.

The most used audio formats

As you can imagine, when we talk about digital formats in the field of sound, the range is wide. When choosing the one that best suits our needs, we need to think about several questions. To do this, the first thing to do is to know the most used audio formats.

We start by clarifying the concepts of bit depth and sample rate, which are essential for understanding how audio formats work. These are two measurements that indicate the quality of a digital audio file.

When we read the specifications for audio formats and find, for example, 32 bit / 192 kHz and 24 bit / 96 kHz, these figures refer to “bit depth” and “sampling frequency”, respectively. They tell us the amount of information transmitted by the different formats and the quality of the sound. The more times a device reads samples, the higher the quality.

Audio formats

-MP3: These files weigh very little for any device to read. The downside is that the quality of compression is sacrificed.
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-WAV (Waveform Audio File Format): These are higher resolution files than MP3, an audio track which is coded with what is called Pulse Code Modulation (PCM). Analog audio tracks are encoded and converted to digital so that they can have sample rates and bit depth.

-AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format): it is very similar to WAV and also uses PCM to encode analog audio tracks and present them in digital format. Indeed, AIFF and WAV files are more or less interchangeable.
In short, when we talk about a file in WAV or AIFF audio format, we are talking about a good quality piece of sound.

What are the digital audio formats?

PCM, Wav, Aiff. Compression. Mp3, Ogg, Wma.

Working with digital audio is almost a chore for puzzle specialists. Since audio is saved on the computer and all computer files have extensions, we have to interpret each acronym and abbreviation.

The extension is the end of the file after the name and period. It is used to know what type of file it is, whether it is a text, a video or an audio. There are many extensions and they are all sure to sound familiar to you: WAV, RM, MP3, WMA, OGG … Let’s play, then, to decipher puzzles and see what each of these acronyms means.

UNCOMPRESSED DIGITAL AUDIO FILES

.PCM

It is not a file type or format, but a technique of transforming analog to digital audio without any compression. (1) Therefore, we do not see audios with the pcm extension. We work with PCM when digitizing, but we always keep files with one of these extensions:

.WAV: (Wave, wave in English)

It is the most widely used uncompressed digital audio format. It belongs to Microsoft / IBM.

.AIFF: (Audio Interchange File Format)

It is similar to WAV but for Apple Macintosh or MAC computers.

.CDA

: These are the audio tracks recorded on Compact Disc that also use the PCM system.

All uncompressed files are large. Approximately 10 megabytes for every minute of audio. These are the formats used to store audio at a professional level since the quality is very good. But when we don’t need that much quality and we’re short on space, it’s time to use file compression.

AUDIO COMPRESSION

Compressing is reducing and whenever we reduce we lose something. The same is true for digital audio. The latest advances have allowed compression to be done with the least possible loss of quality, but there always are. Against that, much has been gained in reducing the size of the files.

While a 4-minute audio in WAV format takes approximately 40 megabytes, that same audio, compressed to MP3, can reduce its weight to 4 megabytes, 10 times less. And apparently, they sound the same. (2)

SAVE WITHOUT COMPRESSING

When working in production, it is always recorded in WAV, without compression. In that same way it is edited and mixed. If the final result of the edition is an audio to be uploaded on the Web or saved on the hard drive of a computer, we can compress it to mp3 but with a quality of no less than 160 kbps.

If, on the contrary, the production has as its final destination to be recorded on a CD, never compress, always leave the audio in WAV and burn it that way on the CD.

1. How does compression work?

It is not about wrinkling or crushing the audio. Most audio compression systems take advantage of a “defect” in our ears to reduce file size. It is called masking.

Masking is a property of the human ear that prevents it from distinguishing two frequencies close together within the same range, one masking the other. For example, if a sound with a frequency of 12 Khz and another of 12.2 Khz sounds at the same time in a song, we could remove one of the two without being noticed when listening to it.

In this way, the compressor “subtracts” the masked frequencies, which reduces the number of bytes. And fewer bytes in computing translates into smaller files, but not shorter. The song, when compressed, lasts as long as it is uncompressed.

2. Quality of compressed files

We saw in the previous question that digital audio has two parameters: the sampling frequency (the optimum is 44.1 Khz.) And the resolution or size of each sample (8 or 16 bits). By compressing, we add a third parameter to these two, the bitrate. It is the amount of kilobytes per second (kbps) and refers to the quality of the compression.

• A lower number of Kbps, more compression, smaller file size, but lower quality.

• A higher number of Kbps, less compression, larger file size and more quality.

A compressed audio at 128 Kbps has a higher compression level than a 256 Kbps one. That means that 128 is a smaller file and less quality than 256. Although you must have a cat’s ear to distinguish between both!

VARIABLE OR CONSTANT BIT

Some files have a constant bit rate per second (CBR Constant Bit Rate) and others have a variable one (VBR Variable Bit Rate). The constant is always the same for all audio, for example 128 kilobytes per second. In the variable method, what the compressor does is use more bits when there are parts of the audio where there are more frequencies and it cannot mask all of them.

COMPRESSED FILE FORMATS

Mp3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3)

It achieves high compressions without much loss, although it all depends on the quality of the compression we use. 128 Kbps and below is not recommended.

Although mp3 is the most widely used compression standard, especially for audio on Web pages, the great drawback is its patent. So any player or editing software that wants to use it has to pay for it.

.OGG (Vorbis)

As a result of this patent, the Xiph.org Foundation developed in 2002 a completely free codec (5) for audio compression. Similar in characteristics to mp3, it is beginning to be used a lot on the Web and in some players since manufacturers do not have to pay the costs of the patent. At this point, it is difficult to completely replace the mp3 but it is eating up a lot of ground.

.AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)

The compression level is higher than mp3 (MPEG-1) without major loss of quality. AAC is one of the codecs used in the new MPEG-4 compression standard. This audio format is used in players like the iPod and in some of the new digital radio systems. AAC is shaping up to be the successor to the mp3.

.RAM (also RM or RA)

They are the files of the Real Network company for audio. The problem is that its reproduction and edition is very limited to software from the same company and few others.

.WMA (Windows Media Audio)

It is Windows’ bet on compressed formats. It is like a WAV, but smaller and less quality. While mp3 and ogg files are played by almost all players and editors, the same is not the case with wma files, so it is rarely used.

. AA3 (ATRAC – Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding)

Format invented by Sony. It is the one used by minidisc recorder-players.

Most important audio formats

MP3

MPEG Audio Layer III
-Compressed digital format with loss.
-Its compression size: 11 to 1
-Compresses the audio using a lossy algorithm to obtain a smaller size, decoding the signal, allowing less bits to be consumed, which translates into less weight and less quality.
-Extension: .MP3
-Good compatibility. Can be played on almost all audio players
-Easily distributable online
-Better quality-space ratio
-Loss of the original sound, implies a decrease in quality throughout the format
-Supports two channels
-Distortion in frequency bands where the brightness and sparkle (5000hz-20000hz) are located.
-Increase in the bass and subwoofer frequencies (250hz – 40hz) due to the dynamic compression of the sound that causes a different equalization from the original recording.
-present patterns between tracks

AAC

Advanced Audio Coding
– Lossy compressed digital format
-It is an audio compression system developed by the Fraunhoffer Institute, AT&T, Sony and Dolby Laboratories.
– It is an audio broadband coding algorithm with higher performance than MP3.
-Extension: .m4a, .m4b, .m4p, .m4v, .m4r, .3gp, .mp4, .aac
-Play files from the hard disk of a computer with a quality that can be similar to the CD using significantly less space than an mp3.
-This system increases the quality of the mp3.
-Loss of original sound
-Subject to patent

WAV

Waveform audio format
-Uncompressed digital format.
– Windows own format
– Used to store sounds on PC, supports mono and stereo files at various resolutions and sampling rates
– Extension is .wav
-High sound quality
-Provides faithful listening to the audio
-It works in Windows applications and in common equipment with a CD player.

– Includes support for almost all current audio codecs
– Compatible to convert into various formats by means of the appropriate software.Example switching from Wav to Mp3
-It takes up a lot of disk space
-Poor quality-space ratio
-Difficult to distribute online due to the weight of the file
-Allows to capture in the same file up to 6 hours

FLAC

Free Lossless Audio Codec
– Lossless compressed format

-Extension: .flac
-Higher quality in high fidelity equipment
-Information is continuous between separate tracks
-It does not delete information from the original content
-It is an open source format.
-Code and decode quickly
-It takes up a lot of disk space
-It is not supported by all portable players

AIFF

Audio Interchange File Format
-Uncompressed format without loss.
– Format typical of native applications of Mac OS X for example iTunes
-Extension: .aiff or .aif.
-High sound quality
-Requires large storage space

OGG VORBIS

-Compressed format loss
– Stream-oriented container, which means that
can be written and read in one step, making it suitable
for streaming on the internet.
– Free software version to MP3 and AAC.
– Intended to allow maximum encoder flexibility
Extension: .ogg
-It is free, open and not patented
-Similar to MP3
-Good value for space
-Improved same-size MP3 quality.
-It is not supported by all players
-Loss of original sound

WMA

Windows Media Audio
– Lossy audio compression format, although there is a more recent lossless development
-Windows version to compress audio
-Extension: .wma
-Ideal for real-time streaming
-Reduce size of large files
– Inclusion of support in Windows Media Player
-Lower quality
-It takes space
Real Audio
-Media player with various functions and Internet connection tools
Example: listening to music and watching videos hosted on the Internet (streaming), and creating and playing extensive playlists.
–
– Ideal for live streaming over the network due to its streming ability
– the coding allows adapting it to the user’s reception capacity depending on their internet connection speed.
-Can be used in different operating systems (Windows, Linux, Mac OS)
– Ability to transfer files to other multimedia devices
-Reduction in file sizes

-Incompatibility with some browsers
-High RAM consumption

APE

– Lossless compressed format
-Extension: .ape
-Save space
-High quality
-Better file compression rate
-It is not compatible with most players.
-Slow to compress and decompress files