MAIN AUDIO FORMATS

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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.

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Lossy and Lossy Digital Audio Formats: Audio Codec Guide

In recent years, the way we listen to music has changed a lot, also thanks to the Internet, which has allowed a great diffusion of digital audio files. In a short time we went from vinyl to CD, to online music transmitted in high resolution.

An analog sound to be handled by a computer must become digital. To maintain the exact fidelity of the original audio, you must write a lot of information, thus producing heavy files that take up a lot of disk space. Hence the need to reduce the size of the audio file to save space on various storage media, such as hard drives, but also to take better advantage of the available bandwidth for transferring and listening to files.

Digital audio formats

Every day we use multimedia content such as YouTube, online radio or music streaming services, with a quality that is sometimes enough, other times excellent. This is because the files are the result of a data compression process through the use of codecs.

What is an audio codec?

A codec is an algorithm for encoding and decoding the audio (but also video) data stream.
It is used both to compress a file and to convert, for example, an analog to digital file. The difference in digital audio formats lies in the type of compression that determines their quality and, consequently, their size according to the type of codec used.

Types of digital audio formats.

Audio formats can be of three types:

-Loss (with data loss)
-No loss (no data loss)
-Uncompressed

Lossy digital audio formats

Lossy audio formats are compressed files with lost data and information. They allow you to significantly reduce the size of the original file, even up to 90%. The sound quality is lower than the CD-Audio standard because the compression algorithm “cuts” certain frequencies that the human ear has more difficulty perceiving and, therefore, are less relevant, generally the highest (more than 16 -17,000 Hz).

The Lossy audio format is widely used for listening to digital audio, such as streaming (Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, etc.). Depending on the type of codec used, compression can vary significantly, as does the quality of the listening. The most popular and popular format is MP3 and WMA.

MP3

The most famous and well-known digital audio format. In its entirety, Motion Picture Expert Group-1/2 Audio Layer, 3, developed by MPEG, offers good compression and discrete audio quality, in particular with a bit rate of 192 kbit / s and 320 kbit / s. Although still widely used, better compression algorithms can be found.

OGG Vorbis

The open source format without lossy audio compression offers an excellent alternative to MP3. With the same perceived quality, it allows for greater compression. The high frequencies (above 16 kHz) are wider and wider, offering greater spatiality of sound. Also used in computer games, it is also often used for audio streaming. Spotify music, for example, uses the Ogg Vorbis digital audio format from 96 kbit / s to 320 kbit / s in addition to the AAC codec.

WMA

Windows Media Audio is Microsoft’s proprietary digital audio format. Encrypted WMA offers excellent compression and good audio quality at high bit rates, but at the same time little compatibility. Precisely for this feature it is now little used. WMA consists of four different codecs: WMA codec, lossless WMA (lossless), WMA Pro, or WMA Voice.

AAC

The Advanced Audio Coding Format (AAC) is part of the MPEG consortium and was born as MP3’s successor. It became famous thanks to Apple that uses it with iTunes, but also thanks to several radios (DABè) that use it to transmit audio. It is the excellent quality and good compression digital audio format used by YouTube, iPhone, Android smartphones and many other devices such as Nintendo and Playstation. The AAC supports 48 audio channels with sampling up to 96 kHz and uses constant bit rate (CBR – Constant Bit Rate) or variable (VBR – Variable Bit Rate) compression encoding. AAC is one of the best lossy codecs, the encoding speed is not among the best.

MPC

Musepack (or MPC) together with AAC vies for the podium as the best lossy digital audio format. The quality is very high, thanks to the VBR encoding that guarantees a good distribution of the bit rate. The peculiarity of this codec, in terms of AAC, is the clarity of the sound, which is very wide and spacious. Good encoding speed, it is ideal for those looking for quality while keeping a small audio file size.

ATTRAC

ATRAC (Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding) is a lossy audio compression algorithm developed by Sony. Born for MiniDisc (MD) whose production ended in 2013, this codec has not been very successful and is no longer used today.

mP3Pro

Derived from MP3, its peculiarity lies in the fact that it maintains the same quality as an MP3 at 128 kbps but with lower bit rates, from 64 kbps to a maximum of 96 kbps. Compression of the higher frequencies, a painful note from lossy files, occurs through the Spectral Band Replication (SBR) algorithm. The result is space savings at lower bit rates, but also less dynamic and unclear sound.

Dolby Digital

Dolby Digital is a multi-channel audio encoding system, used primarily in DVD, film, and digital television. Contrary to what one might think, it is a lossy audio format, therefore compressed with loss of information. Known as Dolby Digitale 5.1, it works with a minimum bit rate of 96 kbit / s up to a maximum of 640 kbit / s. On DVD, it maintains an average of 192 kbit / s in stereo audio and up to 448 kbit / s in 5.1 signals

Lossless digital audio formats

Lossless audio formats are compressed but lossless files. They maintain the original audio quality, without degrading its characteristics in any way, while managing to compress certain information up to 40-50%. The most popular and widely used Lossless Codec format is the FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) file. Apple has produced its own lossless format called ALAC (Apple’s Lossless Audio Codec) that iTunes uses.

Lossless files offer the quality of a CD (reported as standard), but to maintain fidelity, the dimensions will be larger and take up more disk space than Lossy, but still half the original file.

FLAC

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is a codec released under a free software license with lossless data compression. Extended and compatible with most audio devices, the FLAC codec compresses data from a minimum of 30% to 50%, compared to the original file, while maintaining the perceived quality unchanged.
A Flac file can be 8, 16, or 24-bit deep and has a sample rate of up to 192 kHz (Flac Hi-Res).
Various music audio streaming services like Deezer Music, QoBuz, Tidal offer high quality music equal to or higher than the CD standard using this format.

Lossless wma

WMA Lossless is the lossless version of Microsoft’s WMA Lossy codec. It offers good and fast compression. Although it is proprietary, it can also be played by VLC Media Player, WinaAmp, RealPlayer and others.

A THE C

ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), also known as ALE (Apple Lossless Encoder) is an audio codec developed by Apple in 2004. In 2011, the source code was made available under an open source license. Primarily used by iTunes, other online music services have also used it in recent years. Excellent audio quality and fast decoding, but slightly less compression than FLAC files.

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.

Advantages and disadvantages of the main digital audio formats

CDA:

Advantage
· It is the most standard digital format of all.
· Contains Digitized Stereo Music
· Play all audio spectrum
WAV (AIFF):

Advantage:
· It can contain other resolutions or even be monophonic.
· It can be considered a lot to record voices.

Disadvantages:
· It is considered insufficient for music.
· The most common are 16-bit and 44.1kHz.
· 8 bit 22kHz monophonic WAVs were only capable of reproducing this resolution.

MP3:

Advantage:
· It is adaptable for most devices.
· It is very accessible.

Disadvantages:
· You can force to pay for the use of codecs.
· Contains too many losses, making them clearly insufficient for the quality of MP3 players.
· Adds obvious losses in the stereo image, permanently missing the highest frequencies.
· It is one of the worst in audio quality.
· The higher the resolution, the more the MP3 will occupy.
· It also affects the definition and timbre of the instruments.
· It also removes certain sounds that move at the same frequencies as another louder sound.
· Add excessive modifications to the original music.

WMA:

Advantage:
· Improve MP3 quality.
· There does not seem to be an advantage to using a proprietary format having free alternatives.
· All Windows and many MP3 players support it natively.

Disadvantages:
· Over the years it may become obsolete or discontinued by Microsoft.
· Add artifacts and losses similar to MP3, although lighter.

OGG (Vorbis):

Advantage:
· It would be the equivalent of MP3 and WMA but free and free.
· The code of the codecs is open.
· It is available to the community, which can continue to improve it.
· It has excellent compression rates.
· Quality superior to that of WMA and much superior to MP3.
· Sounds better than a 192 Kbps MP3
· Adds a certain artificial brightness at high frequencies, the losses produced by psychoacoustic theory being much lower.

ATRAC3:

Advantage:
· ATRAC3 plus in an improved ATRAC format.
· Cuts at certain frequencies are auditively seen in secondary and treble instruments.

M4A / MP4 / ACC:

Advantage:
· Contains ACC audio.
· They are capable of playing video.
· The quality of the AAC is much higher than that of the MP3.
· Adds some distortion in the mid frequencies and digital artifacts in secondary instruments.

MPC (musepack):

Advantage:
· It is free and free.
· Excellent sound quality.
· It offers the best quality of all and the losses are practically negligible.

Disadvantages:
· It is one of the most modern and sophisticated formats with loss.
· The resulting files are larger.
· Codecs are not intended for low bitrates.

RA (Real Audio):

Advantage:
· Compress to limits to be able to transmit audio streaming through slow 56 Kbps modems

Disadvantages:
· Requires installation of Real Audio player.
· Slow, heavy and full of advertising.

APE (Monkey Audio):

Advantage:
· It is a lossless format.
· We compress but when unzipping we get the same files intact.
· Contains the full disk wave.

Disadvantages:
· It is a proprietary format.
· It has a discreet support on the platforms.
· Slow decompression.

FLAC:

Advantage:
· It is a free lossless audio format.
· The quality is equal to that of the APE.
· We use less processor.
· It is multichannel (accepts all streaming).
· Avoid annoying shorts.
· It is very compatible.

What are digital audio formats

Digital audio formats are basically containers. And the differences between them are fundamentally in:

Whether or not they are compressed.

If they are compressed, in the quality of compression.

The type of labeling they can support.
Digital audio formats

MP3

It is the best known, popular and most widely used. They are known by their “.mp3” extension.

It was developed by Moving Picture Experts Group, so that it was part of the well-known MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 standards.

Its fundamental characteristic resides in the fact that the technology behind it performs a compression of the sound sequence, resulting in a really small file, which normally occupies half of the original file. To achieve this, the loss of certain sounds is necessary, which supposedly cannot be heard by the human ear.

Audio formats

WAV

Developed by the Microsoft and IBM companies, this format, whose name comes from the acronym WAVE (Waveform Aujdio File Format), is currently one of the audio formats that do not have compression in the data, therefore they present an excellent quality.

They are known by their “.wav” extension.

On the other hand, this format has the peculiarity that it includes support for almost all current audio codecs. This makes WAV one of the most widely used formats in the field of professional sound, since the sound is captured with parameters of 44100 Hz and at 16 bits, the same quality can be obtained as on a CD.

On the contrary, one of the disadvantages of this format is that it has a limitation in recording, since it can only capture a maximum of 6.6 hours in the same file at maximum quality.

Audio formats

AIFF

The AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) format is very similar to WAV. It was born as an answer from Apple to Microsoft’s WAV, being initially only compatible with MAC computers. Currently it can also be used in Windows.

Due to its characteristics, AIFF, together with FLAC and WAV, are usually the most widely used formats in the professional field of audio.

WMA

The WMA (Windows Media Audio) format is a music file format created by Microsoft.

One of its main characteristics is that those files that have been compressed in WMA format take up less space than MP3 files, which also implies a reduction in their quality. Therefore, it is a lossy audio compression format.

OGG

OGG audio formats are compressed audio files, which means that they have a size that allows them to be transmitted via WIFI, but at the same time they avoid the damages that are usually generated in the compression process.

For example, Spotify uses these OGG formats.

Audio formats

FLAC

When we talk about the FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) format, we are referring to a codec free of audio compression and without loss of quality.

Emerged within the community responsible for the OGG project, FLAC has become one of the WAV format’s strongest competitors, due to its advantages in terms of sound quality.

Its objective is to reduce the size of the original file, eliminating data that is usually known as “waste”, without causing loss of quality.

This is the format used by the Tidal platform, the best high quality audio streaming service.

What is the difference between the different audio formats, and which should I choose?

Lossless formats: WAV, AIFF, FLAC, Apple Lossless and others

In summary, there are two types of sound quality: lossless and lossy. Lossless music preserves the sound quality of the original source – in most cases, CD – intact, on the other hand, lossy music compresses the file to save space (in exchange for decreasing quality). Lossless formats include the following formats:

–WAV and AIFF: Both are uncompressed formats, making them exact copies of the original sound source. The two formats are essentially the same quality; they simply store the data differently. AIFF was created by Apple – you will see it often in its products – but WAV is much more universal. However, since they are not compressed, they take up too much unnecessary space. Unless you are editing sound, we do not need to use this format.

–FLAC: Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC). It is the most used lossless codec, it is a good option if we want to store our music without losing quality. Unlike WAV and AIFF, it uses compression, taking up less space. However, it is still a lossless format, which means that the sound quality is the same as the original source, so it is better for listening than WAV and AIFF. It is also free and free software, which is useful if you like to take a look at how it works.

-Lossless Apple (Apple Lossless): Also known as ALAC, it is similar to FLAC. It uses compression, although it is made by Apple. Its compression is not as efficient as that of FLAC, so the files will be slightly larger, but it is compatible with iTunes and iOS (FLAC not). Therefore, if you use iTunes or iOS as the main software for listening to music, you should choose this format.

–APE: It is a very high lossless compression file, which means you will save more space. The quality is the same as FLAC, ALAC and other lossless files, but it is not compatible with most players. On the other hand, it makes the processor work more to decode because it is so compressed. Generally, I would not recommend using this format unless you are very concerned about space and have a compatible player.

Lossy formats: MP3, AAC, OGG and more

For day to day, we are more likely to use lossy formats. They save significantly more space, and if they have a high enough bitrate, it will be very difficult to distinguish the quality of the original source. The most commonly used formats are shown below:

–MP3: MPEG Audio Layer III, or MP3 for short, is the most common lossy format. So much so that it has become synonymous with music downloads on the internet. It is not the most efficient f-format of all, but it is certainly the most compatible, making this the first choice of lossy sounds.

–AAC: Advanced Audio Coding, also known as AAC, is similar to MP3, although slightly more efficient. Which means that the files take up less space and with the same sound quality as MP3. And, with Apple’s iTunes making it so popular, it’s as compatible as MP3.

–Ogg Vorbis: The Vorbis format, often known as Ogg Vorbis due to the use of the Ogg container, is the free software version to MP3 and

–AAC. Its main attraction is that it is not restricted by patents, but that does not affect you as a user – in fact, despite being open it is of similar quality, and much less popular than MP3 and AAC, so not all players support it. . I do not recommend it unless you are interested in being open source.

–WMA: Windows Media Audio. Microsoft’s proprietary format, similar to MP3 or AAC. It really doesn’t offer any advantage over other formats, and it’s not very well supported.

So which one should you use?

Now that we have seen the differences between each format, which one should we use for our music? In general, we recommend using MP3 or AAC. They are compatible with most players, and the quality of both is very similar to that of the original source if encoded with a high bitrate. Unless you have specific needs, MP3 and AAc are the most recommended options.

However, there is something to be said for storing music in lossless formats like FLAC. Although we probably won’t notice higher quality, it is good for storing music if you plan to convert it to other formats later – as converting from one lossy format to another. Lossy (eg from AAC to MP3) will produce lower quality files.

Audio Formats: Know all that exist

There are several kinds or types of audio formats, you probably know the most common ones such as mp3, mp4, wav, etc. In this article you will know which are the most important apart from those mentioned above and how they differ from each other.

What is an audio format?

An audio format is a multimedia container where data is stored in an audio file. Each of these has its own characteristics and capabilities in terms of reproduction, they also have a sample rate (bit rate) and a specific bit depth (bit depth) that are closely related to the quality of each format.

Let’s talk about the sample rate and the bit depth
These two terms refer to the way it is stored and how an audio file is played. For this, what is sought is to digitally re-interpret the analog signal of a recording. As they have a type of continuous analog wave signal and instead the digital language used by computers is given by shorter and more concrete actions (1 and 0) executed at high speed, that continuous analog wave must be described in more values Small and concrete.

To achieve this conversion, small fragments of a specific size of the analog signal are taken, each sample (sample) contains the necessary information so that by putting all the “pieces” together and reproducing them in the same order and at the same speed in which they were captured, as a result a reliable digital interpretation of analog recording.

The frequency at which each of these samples is reproduced is what is called “sampling rate” or “sample rate” and the digital data in bits contained in each sample is called “bit depth” or “bit depth ”.

How is an audio format different from a codec?
The difference between these two is that while a codec as its name says is responsible for encoding and decoding all the information in an audio file, the format gives us the idea of how this audio information is stored, what is its bit depth, its sample rate, etc.

Types of audio formats

Among the types of audio formats there is a large amount and we will separate them into 4 groups or families to understand a little better the characteristics and potential they have:

1.Compressed audio format

The uncompressed formats allow several sample rate combinations in a flexible way and seek to preserve all the details of the analog recording even the details inaudible to our ears.

The main ones are:

WAV

Owned by IBM and Microsoft, the Wave Audio File Format was developed by these two previous ones to store sounds on the PC or computer. It is relatively similar to the Mac AIFF and a variant of the RIFF or Resource Interchange File Format which is a file format for the exchange of resources.

AIFF

The Audio Interchange File Format was co-developed by Apple Inc. to store sound data on personal computers. The AIFF is used professionally for audio applications along with SDII and WAV because it is a compression-free format and fast signal processing

This format was formerly common on internet pages. At first it was encoded in 8-bit data with a sample rate of 8000 Hz, uploading in the newer files to a 32-bit encoding.

2. Compressed audio format without loss or lossless
Because the uncompressed formats encode both the sound of a recording and the silences, a few seconds of sound from an audio file will weigh the same as the same seconds of silence. The type of lossless format compresses the file so that silence does not take up almost anything in size.

Between them we have:

Shorten

The SHN format is used for lossless compression of CD quality audio files, it is similar to formats such as RAR or ZIP with the difference that it is optimized for compression of audio data.

WMA Lossless

The WMA or Windows Media Audio format is a compressed audio format which has 4 codecs of which the WMA Lossless codec allows the compression of an audio file without loss of definition.

Within the codecs for this type of audio we have:
TTA

The True Audio Codec Compresses audio in 8, 16, or 24 lossless bits that are stored in WAV format files, which is done while maintaining good operating speed.

ATRAC

Although the first version of the ATRAC codec (Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding) was developed as a lost audio encoder, currently the most recent version of this codec (ATRAC3) in addition to doubling the compression capacity of the first version is capable of encoding the An audio file with very few losses.

DIGITAL AUDIO FORMATS

Currently, thanks to digital audio formats, we can store and listen to our music on numerous devices, such as mobile phones, tablets, computers and music players.

What are digital audio formats?

Digital audio formats are basically containers. And the differences between them are fundamentally in:

Whether or not they are compressed.
If they are compressed, in the quality of compression.
The type of labeling they can support.
Digital audio formats

MP3

It is the best known, popular and most used. They are known by their extension “.mp3”.

It was developed by Moving Picture Experts Group, to be part of the well-known MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 standards.

Its fundamental characteristic lies in the fact that the technology behind it compresses the sound sequence, resulting in a really small file, which normally occupies half of the original file. To achieve this, it is necessary to lose certain sounds, which supposedly cannot be heard by the human ear.

Audio formats

WAV

Developed by the companies Microsoft and IBM, this format, whose name comes from the acronym WAVE (Waveform Aujdio File Format), is currently one of the audio formats that have no compression in the data, so they have excellent quality.

They are known for their “.wav” extension.

On the other hand, this format has the particularity that it includes support for almost all current audio codecs. This makes the WAV one of the most used formats in the field of professional sound, since the sound is captured with parameters of 44100 Hz and at 16 bits, the same quality can be obtained as on a CD.

On the contrary, one of the disadvantages of this format is that it has a limitation in recording, since it can only capture a maximum of 6.6 hours at maximum quality in the same file.

Audio formats

AIFF

The AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) format is very similar to WAV. It was born as an answer from Apple to the Microsoft WAV, being initially only compatible with MAC computers. Currently it can also be used on Windows.

Due to its characteristics, AIFF, together with FLAC and WAV, are usually the most used formats in the professional field of audio.

Wma

The WMA (Windows Media Audio) format is a format of music files created by Microsoft.

One of its main features is that those files that have been compressed in WMA format occupy less space than MP3s, which also means reducing their quality. Therefore, it is a lossy audio compression format.

OGG

OGG audio formats are compressed audio files, which means that they have a size that allows them to be transmitted via WIFI, but at the same time avoid the damage that is usually generated in the compression process.

For example, Spotify uses these OGG formats.

Audio formats

OPUS

Opus is a new codec that use the Ogg container. It was developed by the same creators of FLAC, with the help of Mozilla and Skype.

This new format stands out for its low latency, being ideal for online audio transmissions.

FLAC

When we talk about the FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) format, we are referring to an audio compression free codec without loss of quality.

Emerged within the community responsible for the OGG project, FLAC has become one of the strongest competitors of the WAV format, due to its advantages in terms of its sound quality.

Its objective is to reduce the size of the original file, eliminating data that are usually known as “waste”, without causing loss of quality.

This is the format used by the Tidal platform, the best service for high quality audio transmissions.

Audio formats

A THE C

The Alac (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) format is basically Apple’s alternative to FLAC. It is the format used by Itunes and for Apple Music broadcasts.