Compressed audio with loss
Today we will analyze the audio files that have a loss of quality. Because digital audio files can be divided into two classes, those that are compressed suffer a loss of quality and those that have not had any loss.
The difference We will see later but for now we will be clear that each of the formats offers a different quality according to the algorithm that has been used to compress the music in order to save space on the hard disk.
Some definitely discard information which is normally sought to be inaudible information for the human ear or to be repetitive information, so even when information is discarded, quality is not lost.
Compressed digital sound files fall into two categories: those that have suffered lossy compression and those that have not.
Loss compression means that an algorithm that uses a smaller amount of information has been used. The resulting file differs from the original.
MP3 or MPEG1 Audio Layer 3
It is the most widespread and used compression format, in its various variants. The loss of information that involves the mp3 format passes (almost) unnoticed to the human ear.
An mp3 file can occupy up to 15 times less than its original while retaining high quality. This is why the standard for streaming is considered and is the most suitable type of file for use on the internet and for portable media.
WMA or Windows Media Audio
WMA is the Microsoft audio compression format. It was designed for playback with the Windows Media Player program.
WMA is the direct competitor in mp3 quality and compression with the difference that it adds author information. Its extension is * .wma.
Recently, Microsoft has developed a variant of the WMA format with compression, but without loss.
OGG Vorbis
Ogg Vorbis is a container format developed in open source, freely distributed and without a patent. This is the biggest difference with the rest of compressed audio files.
Files in this format have a high quality and can be played on almost any device. Its use is much less widespread than the previous ones, although, in some cases, it gives better results.
Its use is patent free. Therefore, many media players, such as the popular VLC, include Ogg codecs that, on the other hand, can be freely downloaded from the Xiph.org website. Its extension is * .ogg.
