What audio formats do you need? Part 3
.flac
Advantage:
– The best sound quality
– lossless compression
– additional features (built-in markup for tracks, any resolution, stream, etc.)
– free license, open source
Disadvantages:
– average file size (more than “lost”, but less than “uncompressed” formats)
– On older operating systems, you may need to download and install the player program beforehand.
To know what to use:
to listen to high-quality music, create a music library, phono archive
ogg Vorbis
A lossy compression format with slightly better sound quality than mp3, free license and additional features. The gg format was created for sound and video, in addition, it is possible to use different sound coding systems (the so-called container format). Usually ogg is used with the Vorbis encoder, which provides better sound quality than mp3 at the same bit rate. All audio examples on Wikipedia are presented in this format, as it takes up little space and follows the ideology of free software. Compatible with most Internet browsers and many players. It has proven itself at both high and low bit rates, which is important for voice transmission.
Recently, the manufacturer, the Xiph.org foundation, suggested using the new free Opus encoder instead of Vorbis, which is already supported in many browsers. If you generalize further, common users will not notice the “substitution” as the file will likely have the same extension. ogg (although there is a separate .opus extension). However, while this is a matter for the future.
ogg (Vorbis)
Advantage:
– Better quality / size ratio
– Small file size
– Free license
– Additional functions (built-in markup for tracks, any sample rate, stream, etc.)
Disadvantages:
– Average sound quality (better than mp3, but worse than “lossless” formats)
– not all players are supported yet (but almost all browsers)
What to use for:
Internet: audio samples on free sites, podcasts, broadcasts, networking projects; computer games, voice recording
wav (and aiff)
The oldest audio format that contains uncompressed audio, similar to an audio campaign disc. wav was developed by Microsoft in the early 90’s (and the aiff format was Apple in 1988). The wavyaiff formats are identical to each other, except for some technical details that are only of interest to specialists. Both formats are now compatible with Windows and Mac OS, so in general, there is absolutely no difference in their use. The only difference is that aiff allows you to store additional information. Of course, WAV and AIFF files take up a lot of disk space, so it’s not worth storing your music library in these formats or using them to send them over the Internet.
However, wav (and aiff) have an advantage over compression formats. The fact is that when compressed formats are played, the player decompresses them on the fly, which requires additional processor resources. While listening to music, it does not matter, the processor load is still very low. But when working with sound in real time (complex sound processing, creating sound collages, improvisation, sampling, etc.), this can be significant. Therefore, it makes sense to store short sounds in uncompressed formats, intended to continue working with them, for example, sound effects.
.wav (and .aiff)
Advantage:
– The best sound quality
– the most economical use of the processor during playback
– compatible with most programs and devices
Disadvantages:
– large file size
What to use for:
processing, real-time sound manipulation, storing short sounds
How to play all these files and how to convert music to them?
play
As mentioned above, now there is no problem to play any of these formats on a computer and phone. Windows Media Player and iTunes play flac, wav, mp3; Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera (including their mobile versions) and many other browsers support all four formats in some way.
However, for convenience, versatility, and to avoid any pitfalls, we recommend installing a proven (and, of course, free) player that plays all formats correctly.
