Wav compression. How Audio Compression Works
Wav is one of the containers for recording an audio stream. As a general rule of thumb, uncompressed audio is recorded in wav format, which makes the file size quite large. To reduce the size, you can convert the audio to a format with a higher degree of compression or, leaving the audio in the wav container, compress it with a codec.
Many people who work with sound have probably faced the problem of the large (just huge) size of audio files in WAV format. In fact, files of this type, while comfortable to use, are quite cumbersome in terms of size.
How to reduce wav size
The easiest way to reduce the size of a WAV file without losing quality is to simply convert it to another audio format with the same bit rate. Let’s say it could be the most popular MP3 audio format. The fact is that it is not difficult to work with these files in sound editors, since any semi-professional or professional audio editor opens MP3 files in wave form. Therefore, editing comes down to exactly the same work as with WAV files.
On the other hand, the world has adopted an unspoken standard for music files that are present on many servers. This is 16-bit audio at 44100 Hz, 128 kbps. So if you have a file recorded at a bit rate of say 320 kbps, 48000 Hz, you can simply change the bit rate. For non-professionals, the loss of quality when changing the sample rate will not particularly affect. Also, to listen to music, say, on a mobile device. Almost any audio editor allows this type of operation. These operations are provided even at the very beginning of the program and are done with just a couple of clicks on the necessary menu items. Also, if you are very afraid of losing quality, you can take advantage of the additional features after changing the bit rate or sample rate. It can be various types of filters, for example, equalizers or sound normalization. All of this will help bring the sound to its proper shape.
However, if you work with sound professionally or are used to good sound, there is no need to change the bit rate and sample rate. Here it is worth using the first method described above, which, in itself, is the most acceptable.
And finally, to reduce the size of such an audio file, you can simply use different codecs to get the same WAV file as the output, but only with a higher degree of compression. You can convert the WAV PCM format to, say, AC-3 ACM format, which will immediately reduce the size. There are quite a few programs for this type of action. And you don’t need to use an audio editor. You can use, for example, Total Audio Converter. Reducing the size will not require too much time and effort. All you have to do is select the desired filter, bit rate, and sample rate. That’s it.
Today, the amount of information we consume on the net has grown thousands of times compared to the early 2000s. And it is not surprising, because before, in addition to the much less widespread Internet coverage, the sites and services to which that we were used to looked completely different.
Every day we read articles and news that this or that company has developed a new connection standard that surpasses current analogues in terms of data transfer speed. For nearly two decades, the vendors and manufacturers of many devices have taken a big step toward high-speed Internet access. But our instant access to websites isn’t the only one with just speeds.
The development of algorithms to compress image, audio and video files played a very important role in saving our time. Walking through the vastness of the network, we often do not even think about how and what is organized, how much effort was put into developing a particular technology. In a new series of articles, we’ll cover compression techniques for popular formats like MP3 and JPEG, and we’ll take a basic look at the video encoding process.
