There are several types such as WAV, MP3 and FLAC, but what is the difference?
Comprehensive research on file formats
Do they like music to all?
I think many people enjoy music by downloading or playing streaming instead of CD these days, but what kind of format music is stored as data?
I researched the differences, advantages and disadvantages of each format.
Types of audio compression
There are three types of music file formats: “Not compressed”, “compressed with loss” and “compressed without loss”.
File-based compression can reduce the size of the file and reduce the download time and storage capacity.
“Uncompressed format”
As its name indicates it, it is an uncompressed file. The point are the original data.
The advantage is the accuracy of the data. However, it also has the disadvantage of a large file, which uses about 10 MB for a 1-minute audio file.
The most used are “WAV” and “AIFF”. It is common to use “WAV” for Windows and “AIFF” for Macintosh.
“Compression format with loss”
This compression format is probably the one that most uses.
Although there are individual differences, it is said that the human audible range is 20 Hz to 20000 Hz. This file format has the advantage that the file size can be deleted while maintaining a certain level of sound quality when it is removed and compressed Other parts difficult to identify.
Even so, the disadvantage is that the sound quality is lower than the original data. It is not exaggerated to say that “MP3” is the best-known file format. As successors, “AAC” is often used, which was created to achieve higher sound quality. In addition, “WMA”, “Vorbis”, etc. They are also in this format.
“Format of compression without loss”
This format compresses the original data while preserves them.
During playback, you can decompress and return to the original uncompressed format, so the sound quality is the same as that of the original data. Although the file size can be reduced compared to the uncompressed format, it is still about half, so the size of the file is greater than that of the compressed format with loss and takes more time coding and decoding.
In addition, it is currently not handled by the main music distribution sites, and the number of devices that can be reproduced is less than that of uncompressed formats. The most common of these formats is “FLAC”, and Apple uses a single format called “ALAC”.
