All audio formats. Music audio formats

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Is the main audio format for many, many playback systems digital audio and is used as a standard format sound files in personal computers. In addition, it has a solid set of specifications, which have been significantly expanded recently. Its full name is Microsoft RIFF/WAVE - Resource Interchange File Format/Wave - resource transfer file format/waveform, and it was created by Microsoft and Intel engineers. In turn, WAV stands for Waveform Audio File Format.

WavPack (extension.WV)

WavPack also includes a unique "hybrid" mode that provides all the benefits of lossless compression with an additional bonus: Instead of creating a single file, this mode creates a relatively small high-quality lossy file (.wv) that can be played on its own, as well as a "correction" file (.wvc) that (in combination with the previous .wv) allows completely restore the original. For some users, this means they will never have to choose between lossless and lossy compression.

The format is very good support in players. In addition, of course, to the plugin for Winamp, you can download plugins for Adobe Audition(!) and Nero Burning Rom. There is an excellent plugin for XMMS - an analogue of Winamp for Linux. In addition, there is a project to develop DirectShow filters for WavPack - this will allow the format to be used in any Windows program, including Windows Media Player. You can download the latest version from here. There is a frontend for WavPack from third party developers. Download it here.

From a technical point of view, there is also nothing to complain about. Supports multi-channel audio, 32-bit audio stream resolution, sampling frequency up to 192 kHz (!).

Format, like source codes compression programs are open source. Unfortunately, the encoder is compiled only for the Windows platform, but you always have the opportunity to independently recompile the available source codes for your operating system.

The site, as well as the codec itself, are regularly updated, which is good news.

DTS - Digital Theater System, in essence, is Dolby Digital, or rather its competitor. DTS format uses minimum level compression than Dolby, so it actually sounds better, which is proven in practice DVDs, on which tracks are recorded in DTS or DD format. DTS in home theaters uses a maximum bitrate of 1,536 kbps (full bitrate), this sound is of higher quality than the AC-3 format from Dolby Digital. DTS - uses 6 free audio tracks and supports a 7.1 sound distribution system, with this bitrate DTS 4.0 will sound as surround as Dolby 5.1.

Windows Media Audio (WMA)

A licensed file format developed by Microsoft for storing and broadcasting audio information.

Nominally, the WMA format has good compression capabilities, which allows it to “bypass” the MP3 format and compete in terms of parameters with the Ogg Vorbis and AAC formats. But as has been shown by independent tests, as well as by subjective assessment, the quality of the formats is still not clearly equivalent, and the advantage even over MP3 is clear, as claimed by Microsoft.

The codec is part of the Windows Media Audio suite. It is free, but the format and encoding program are proprietary. Of course, the version exists only for the Windows platform.

In principle, WMA Lossless will support everything necessary functions: tags, high frequencies sampling, multi-channel audio (including 7.1), broadcasting audio over the network, etc. Additionally, native decoder support in Windows Media Player eliminates the need for the user to download anything from the Internet to play a music file.

MP3 - (MPEG audio encoding format) is a licensed file format for storing audio information.

The most popular compression format today. The MP3 format (MPEG Layer 3) was developed, after a number of intermediate formats, by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany. Actually, the MP3 format is based on deceiving the human ear. After some research, it turned out that human hearing tends to adapt to the appearance of new sounds, which is expressed in an increase in the threshold of audibility. Therefore, some sounds can mask (that is, make subjectively inaudible) others. So in this format, some of the sounds, which, according to the corresponding theory, are made inaudible, are simply removed from the overall sound. After which the resulting “semi-finished product” is encoded using the Hoffman method. It is imperative to take into account that in the MP3 format, programs that compress sound from the original are not standardized, that is, every competent programmer can implement his own compression scheme. And only decoders are subject to standards, which leads to the fact that the quality of playback of the MP3 format does not always depend on the player playing this file. Due to the different abilities and preferences of the implementers of various coders, some of them cope better with symphonic music, others with rock and metal, others with rap and rave, and so on.

JointStereo, which is one of the features of MP3, means that instead of encoding stereo as two independent channels, so-called encoding is performed. center channel and the difference that distinguishes it from the original stereo channels. Quite a lot of the audio components in stereo channels are the same, and encoding them in a common channel frees up additional bandwidth to encode the difference in more detail, resulting in some improvement in quality.

It is also worth mentioning Variable Bit Rate, or VBR. This means that the encoder changes the compression ratio on the fly, depending on the nature of the sound. This approach leads to a reduction in the final file size or, with increasing quality requirements, allows you to achieve better sound with the same file size.

Introduced in 2001, the MP3 Pro codec was created by Coding Technologies in collaboration with Thomson Multimedia. It is based on MP3. It uses SBR (Spectral Band Replication) technology, due to which the codec provides good quality at low bitrates. However, the encoding quality at medium and high data rates is inferior to that of almost all other codecs. As a result, MP3 Pro is used more for broadcasting on the Internet and demonstrating fragments of new musical compositions.

Vorbis is a free, lossy audio compression format that was officially released in the summer of 2002. The psychoacoustic model used in Vorbis is close in operating principles to MP3 and similar ones, however, the mathematical processing and practical implementation of this model are significantly different, which allowed the authors to declare their format completely independent from all predecessors. The Ogg media container is most often used to store audio data in the Vorbis format; such a file usually has a .ogg extension and is called the double name Ogg Vorbis.

As of 2006, it is significantly less widespread than MP3. According to various estimates, it is the second most popular lossy audio compression format. Widely used in computer games and in file-sharing networks for transmitting musical works.

Vorbis uses a higher-quality psychoacoustic model than its competitors, giving better clarity at the same flux density.

The format does not limit the user to only two audio channels (stereo - left and right). It supports up to 255 individual channels at up to 192 kHz sampling rates and up to 32-bit bit depth (something no other lossy compression format allows), making Vorbis great for encoding 6-channel DVD-Audio audio.

In addition, the Vorbis format is “sample accurate”. This ensures that the audio data before encoding and after decoding does not have offsets, extra or lost samples. This is easy to appreciate when you're encoding non-stop music (where one track fades into another) - ultimately maintaining the integrity of the sound.

The format was originally developed with streaming capabilities. This gives the format a rather useful side effect - several compositions with their own tags can be stored in one file. When loading such a file into the player, all songs should be displayed as if they were loaded from several different files.

The format has a flexible tag system. Header tags are easily expandable to include text of any length and complexity (for example, song lyrics) interspersed with images (for example, a photo of an album cover). Text tags are stored in UTF-8, which allows you to write in multiple languages simultaneously and eliminates possible problems with encodings.

Ogg Vorbis uses a variable bitrate by default, but the latter is not limited to any fixed values, and it can vary by even 1 kbps. It is worth noting that the maximum bitrate is not strictly limited by the format, and with maximum encoding settings it can vary from 400 kbps to 700 kbps. The sampling rate offers the same flexibility, giving users any choice from 2 kHz to 192 kHz.

Vorbis was developed by the Xiphophorus community to replace all paid proprietary audio formats. Despite the fact that it is the youngest format of all MP3 competitors, Ogg Vorbis has full support on all known platforms ( Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, MacOS, PocketPC, Palm, Symbian, DOS, FreeBSD, BeOS, etc.), as well as a large number of hardware implementations. Its popularity today significantly exceeds all alternative solutions.

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is a popular free codec for audio compression. Unlike Ogg Vorbis lossy codecs, MP3 and AAC, it does not remove any information from the audio stream and is suitable for both daily listening and archiving of an audio collection. Today, the FLAC format is supported by many audio applications.

FLAC is a member of the family of codecs developed by Xiph.Org. By the way, it also includes the famous ogg vorbis - one of the best lossy music compression algorithms. The container for audio data is, of course, OGG (files with the .ogg extension) and another open-source container - Matroska (files with the .mka extension).

It is immediately worth noting the complete openness of both the format and the FLAC algorithm. They are not patented, so they can be used completely free of charge in any program. This is the reason for the wide support for FLAC in players - any serious player has a plug-in for FLAC. In addition, there are hardware mp3 players that support the FLAC codec.

FLAC supports tags own format"FlacTags". It is possible to encode multi-channel audio - a serious advantage compared to Monkey’s Audio. The format supports any sampling frequencies in the range from 1 Hz (!) to 65.535 Hz. Audio bit depth from 4 (!) to 32 bits.

It is believed that, in comparison with other lossless codecs, FLAC uses system resources most efficiently when decoding (playing) audio. Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of significantly increasing encoding (compression) time.

The FLAC website is regularly updated, new versions of the codec are released. In general, FLAC is undoubtedly the leader in terms of development activity. It is possible that this will make it the main format in the future.

AAC (English) Advanced Audio Coding) is an audio file format with less quality loss during encoding than MP3 at the same size. The format also allows compression without loss of source quality (ALAC AAC profile).

AAC was originally created as a successor to MP3 with improved encoding quality. The AAC format, officially known as ISO/IEC 13818-7, was released in 1997 as the seventh new member of the MPEG-2 family. There is also an AAC format known as MPEG-4 Part 3.

This file type is standard on Apple Macintosh systems and audio processing systems built on it. Apple AIFF stands for Audio Interchange File Format - an audio interchange file format, it is somewhat similar to WAV. Its peculiarity is that it allows you to place additional information along with the sound wave, in particular, WaveTable samples (examples of instrument sounds along with synthesizer parameters), which improves the quality of the final result. Although currently Apple computers capable of playing files in almost any format, including MP3.

Sometimes companies create their own proprietary formats that only support their own players. Apple Lossless was created by the company of the same name for the iPod as an alternative to FLAC used on other players. If you don't use an iPod, you may never encounter this format.

Monkey's Audio (APE)

Monkey's Audio or APE (from English ape - monkey) is a popular lossless digital audio encoding format. Distributed freely with open source code and set software for encoding and playback, as well as plugins for popular players. Monkey's Audio files use the following extensions: .ape to store audio and .apl to store metadata. Despite being open source, Monkey's Audio is not free, as its license imposes significant restrictions on use.

The average bitrate in an audio file is 600-700 kbps; compare with 128 kbps in Mp3. Average compression is 40-50% depending on the genre of music: if classical or jazz works are compressed the most in the best possible way, then compositions in the style of trash-metal or something similar “electronic noise” will show the worst results. For lossy codecs with acceptable quality, compression is about 80%.

There are four compression levels. Maximum compression may seem like the only correct solution, even despite the rather long compression time. However, you also need to take into account the resource consumption of the system playing the file - for a maximally compressed file it is relatively high.

The .APE format provides tag support for searching for songs in a music collection. Another advantage is checking the integrity of the file during decoding. Restoring the original wav file from a compressed .APE is supported.

Monkey's Audio has a graphical frontend for Windows, in other words, a convenient window program for managing the encoding process. Other codecs require the use of the command line or third-party frontends. The best part is that the Monkey’s Audio frontend can be used with other codecs - Rkau, Wavpack, Shorten and even lossy codecs mp3 and ogg vorbis.

A little about the shortcomings. Monkey's Audio codec exists only on Windows. However, the site says that “versions for Mac and Linux are already being developed.” By the way, the site itself has not been updated for a long time, which is not a good sign. There is also no support among hardware player manufacturers.

MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a standard for hardware and software that allows you to play (and record) music by performing/recording special teams, as well as the format of files containing such commands. The playback device or program is called a MIDI synthesizer (sequencer) and is actually an automatic musical instrument.

Unlike other formats, it does not store digitized sound, but sets of commands (played notes, links to played instruments, values of changeable sound parameters), which can be played differently depending on the playback device. The convenience of the MIDI format as a data representation format allows the implementation of devices that produce automatic arrangements based on given chords, as well as 3D sound visualization applications. In addition, such files are typically several orders of magnitude smaller in size than digitized audio of comparable quality.

Article taken from the site cjcity.fdstar.ru

Almost any computer user periodically listens to music on it, which is stored in in electronic format. There are quite a lot of formats for storing music, each of them was developed for specific tasks:

Playback from CD;
Sound accompaniment of a computer game;
Audio track in ;
Streaming playback over the Internet;
Ringtones for mobile phones.

Let's try to understand some of them, as well as...
Basic definitions

Bitrate – the amount of information used during encoding to reproduce 1 second. The higher it is, the less distortion, and the sound matches the original as closely as possible.
Lossless – audio encoding without quality loss. When converting to lossless formats and back, we get absolutely the same sound.
Lossy – compression formats designed for the fact that a person simply physically cannot hear certain frequencies that are skipped during the conversion process. This can significantly save on disk space.

Audio-CD

The format that ushered in the era of digital sound after the transition from vinyl records. It was adopted as a standard in 1979 by Philips and Sony. In the audio-CD format, music can be physically stored only on optical media, when recorded on HDD The audio track must be re-converted.

Thanks to the highest sound quality and the ability to play on any player, the format remains very popular, despite the fact that it is quite outdated.

Flac

Perhaps the most common format for storing losseless music. Compared to other codecs that provide lossless audio compression, flac, developed by xiph.org, is completely free and gives minimum size output file.

Mp3

The most popular music format, adopted as an unofficial standard for any playback device. Its popularity is based on the fact that, thanks to cutting off frequencies that are inaudible to the ear, with almost the same sound quality, an mp3 file is 30% of the original lossless file.

The first audio track in mp3 format appeared back in 1994. One of the reasons for its popularity is the ability to store a variety of additional information in audio file tags and ease of organizing a music library.

Ogg

A new lossy format, released in 2002 as free alternative paid formats. Unlike its predecessors, in particular mp3, it allows for the possibility of multi-channel encoding and storage of multi-channel audio. Most widely used in video games.

As a rule, today the term “audio” refers to everything related to sound, be it playback, processing, mixing, mastering or listening to recordings. But few people know that audio formats have constantly undergone many significant changes since their inception, either for the better or for the worse. The trouble is that, compared to the initial formats, the creators of the new formats tried to improve the sound quality, and this invariably affected the size of the played file. Reducing the size, on the contrary, led to a loss of quality. But it was not always so.

The first audio format in computer games

The very first mention of computer sound came from the creation of games that were primitive at that time, in which the sound was reproduced through system dynamics. But no matter how hard the developers of such software (software) try, they are of the required quality, compatible with reel or cassette recorders or records, it was never possible to achieve.

That is why many manufacturers have started looking for a solution on how to change the audio format so that the sound is natural. Frankly, this led to further competition that we have now. This applies not only to the reproduced material, but also to studio sound, live performances, quality or adjustment of basic parameters in terms of knowledge of physics, acoustics, etc.

The emergence of the WAV format

It is believed that the first full-fledged quality of audio formats was associated with the advent of the .wav file standard and extension (this abbreviation was derived from the English word “wave” or wave). It was precisely he who became the first-born who could be processed in computer programs at a professional level.

Such files already had their own characteristics: sampling frequency, sound depth, bitrate and much more. This sound was compatible even with what could be obtained after processing a regular audio CD using certain tools such as a conventional equalizer. But the size was clearly unjustified. For example, a three-minute track could take from 20 to 50 MB.

CDs

The audio CD format, more precisely the .cda extension, appeared at almost the same time.

Unlike “wave” files saved on the hard drive, it cannot be edited. Today you can open it in an audio processing program, change the format by audio transcoding and save it in any place other than a CD.

MP3 codec

With the advent of the LAME MP3 Encoder codec, the music industry experienced a real shock, because such files “weighed” tens of times less than the same WAV file. Even a five-minute composition with maximum compression rarely exceeds the size of 5-7 MB. Agree, a significant breakthrough, not to mention, made it possible not only to adjust the above characteristics, but also some additional parameters in the form of ID3 tags, which contained information, say, about the artist, the name of the album and tracks, and the release date.

This type has become the most popular. Look, almost the entire Internet is filled with this universal format. In general, we can say that the MP3 audio format has become a real revolution in sound. It remains one of the most popular and most in demand to this day, despite the fact that it is being replaced by other types of audio. But more on that later.

AIFF files

Audio formats have another variety. The so-called .aiff format was originally created for use on Macintosh computer systems.

Only much later did a transformation occur that predetermined the compatibility of sound formats with their use on platforms that differ from each other operating systems.

OGG format

Music in audio.ogg format is also quite common. This standard was developed by Vorbis. However, it is worth noting that it has a number of significant disadvantages. Firstly, this is an unjustified load on the computer’s system resources, despite its minimal size. Secondly, the use of your own codecs and decoders, which the system may not automatically install. For example, when working in FL Studio Producer Edition (or XXL) in versions below 9.x.x, there was a folder with an installation file in .inf format, which had to be activated for installation after installing the main application manually (otherwise presets in this format simply would not were lost).

Nevertheless, audio formats of this type are now available, and the sound itself looks very good.

AMR standard

As for this format, it is perhaps one of the most low-grade. Its origin is associated with the advent of the first clumsy mobile phones, which still could not set ringtones in .mp3 format.

At that time, AMR could still replace natural sound with a certain amount of loss of quality. But this quality cannot be compared with what is offered by more “advanced” formats.

MIDI

Oddly enough, MIDI can also be classified as what is commonly called “audio formats”. Although it is generally accepted (and many, in fact, still think so) that the MIDI system is just a set of commands, one can argue with this. The abbreviation MIDI is actually a system for recording and editing certain keystrokes, pitch, tempo, key, effects, etc.

However, there are files with the .mid or .midi extension that can be easily played in modern sequencers or studio recording programs using a standard set of sounds in the GM (General MIDI), GS (which is the same) format from Roland, or XG (Extended MIDI) from Yamaha Corporation. The first two sets contain 128 standard sounds, not counting effects, the third contains almost three times as many.

FLAC

Now we come to one of the most modern and unique formats of our time. Music in FLAC audio format is becoming increasingly common today. This is due to the quality that true music lovers pay attention to first of all.

If you look at it, this format was created on the basis of the already known MP3. But if previously distribution into separate tracks was used, this is not the case in this format (for the time being). The structure consists of one or two files, one of which is informational. Only specialized software audio players can reproduce this format. The most famous can be called AIMP. Only when the main file is opened does a list of tracks recorded in the main container appear. In such a player, switching between tracks is done in the same way as in any other. But there is no chance of accidentally deleting a particular composition (as already mentioned, information about them is contained in a single file).

Format compatibility

Naturally, all audio formats today are compatible with each other. In other words, any standard home DVD player or software player will handle this without difficulty. The same applies to audio processing programs. Semi-professional and professional programs recognize all formats known today (even despite the specifics of operating systems). Audio editors, sequencers, additional modules such as VST, RTAS (for Windows systems) or AU (for Mac OS X) are capable of working with such formats in the so-called cross-platform mode.

Format conversion

There are several ways to change audio. For example, you can open a “native” format and save the file in another. You can do it even simpler. There are special converters for this. In them you can simply load the desired file of the initial format from the list, and then simply select the final one. As they say, just nothing.

Audio Quality Processing

It’s another matter when the question concerns changing some frequencies source file. You can’t do this without specialized software packages. It is with their help that you can change the quality of audio files. In this case, you can change not only standard frequency sampling 44100 Hz, increasing it, say, to 96000 Hz, but also adjusting the depth from the same 16 to 24 or 32 bits. And we’re not even talking about the fact that you can also configure the bitrate, that is, the reproducible throughput expressed in kilobits per second. The standard value is 128 kbit/sec. The bitrate can be changed at your discretion, but the best sound quality is achieved at around 320 kbps. Of course, not every person is able to discern the difference between standard sound and maximum exposed characteristics. However, it is worth trying once to play an audio track with different data on good equipment. Here the difference will not be long in coming.

Moreover, in addition to all these parameters, you can edit much more. Just look at the use of software equalizers, limiters, compressors, crossovers, normalizers, de-essers, etc., etc. Each such module allows you to customize the sound, as they say, “for yourself.” And absolutely all formats known today can be processed by programs of this type.

Final comparison

Let's try to make some comparison between the formats used (although this is not all that there is in the world of sound).

So! The WAV format, although “heavy”, can still be used as intermediate files during subsequent conversion in some audio reactors. These types of audio file formats are most often present when saving open projects or when recording live instruments in the studio. It is clear that the sequencer will then process the incoming information in the form of an audio stream. And then you can change the format of the audio file or save it as a preset or track as you wish.

Formats such as audio CDs are also irrelevant today. If we take AIFF or OGG into account, they are better used in virtual studios. There is no need to talk about the AMR format at all. MIDI is useful only to musicians who know a lot about it.

It is believed that the best audio format today is still FLAC. According to many experts and musicians, it is not just the most “advanced”, but even revolutionary compared to what existed or exists today.

However, it is worth noting that MP3 cannot be discounted, because almost all encoded audio on DVDs or MKV files is in this format. The only difference is in the version of the codec and decoder. But the audio and video industry is not standing still in its development. It is very likely that we will soon see something new.

In this article I want to give an incomplete list of the most common music formats. We are more familiar with some, less familiar with others, for example, who uses the operating system on their computer Windows system, he is practically unfamiliar with the AIFF file format for Mac OS - an analogue of the more well-known WAV format. But that's not the point

Today there are a “great variety” of music formats; they differ from each other in different sound compression algorithms, while the degree of compression itself is expressed by such a concept as bitrate.

Uncompressed formats are not compressed. They simply unfold during opening. Although the size of these files is usually very large. The disadvantage of lossy compressed files is that it removes some data from the original file. But the advantage is that they are smaller, open faster and take up less space.

Lossy files can be high or low resolution depending on the compression ratio. The higher the quality, the less information will be lost. The bitrate corresponds to the information processed per second. Higher bitrate means more information per second. And more information per second means better sound. Now you understand the basics of compression, file types and bitrates, right?

The lower the bitrate, the worse the sound quality of the compressed, transcoded file. The audio bitrate is measured in kilobytes per second. To make it more clear what sound is depending on its bitrate, below is a table that sheds light on this issue:

800 bps - 800 bits/sec - the minimum quality for the voice to be recognizable.

8 kbps - 8 kbit/s - quality of voice transmission over the phone.

32 kbps - 32 kbps - AM quality.

96 kbps - 96 kbps - FM quality.

128–160 kbps - 128-160 kbps - quality standard.

192 kbps - 192 kbps - DAB quality ( Digital Audio Broadcasting) digital broadcasting. Becoming the new standard for MP3 music. At this bitrate, only professionals can notice the difference in sound.

224–320 kbps - 224-320 kbps - quality close to CD quality.

1411 kbps - 1411 kbps - PCM audio format, similar to CD “Compact Disc Digital Audio”.

Of course, you need to remember and understand that the sound will depend on another characteristic of digital sound, such as the sampling frequency, which is responsible for representing the spectrum of the signal.

If we talked about every single audio format, we'd be here for days. Of course, you have other responsibilities and a lot of music to produce. This is the best use for each of these formats. They take up a lot of hard drive space. For a simple reason: it has the best of both worlds.

They are compressed, making them easier to handle in terms of size. But they also offer pleasant and rich sound. If you listen to streaming music, this will most likely be the case. They are useful when transferring multiple files at once, browsing an entire directory, or sharing and links to tracks quickly.

8,000 Hz - telephone, enough for speech, Nellymoser codec;

1025 Hz;

22,050 Hz - radio;

44 100 Hz - used in Audio CD;

48,000 Hz - DVD, DAT.

96,000 Hz - DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1)

192,000 Hz - DVD-Audio (MLP 2.0)

2,822,400 Hz - SACD Super audio CD 5.1

The most common format, especially on the Internet, is MP3. It is created using a compression algorithm in such a way that while reducing the size of the data required to play back the recording and ensure playback quality, the loss of sound quality is minimal. The file size depends on the degree of compression. Thus, when creating an MP3 with an average bitrate of 128 kbps, the resulting file is approximately 1/10 the size of original file with CD-Audio.

By the way, don't forget any format

Take the test and judge for yourself. Choosing the right format depends on each context. So think about what sound you're sharing and where you're doing it. Are you using the correct format? So make smart choices and use the right format. Digital audio can be saved in different formats. Each of them corresponds to a specific file extension that contains it.

It is not an audio format itself, so its functions are discussed separately. There are a huge number of audio formats. Typically the format type corresponds to the file extension. Some file types are assigned a specific codec. Simply put, a format can be compared to a container in which audio or video can be stored using a given codec. If you don't know which program to use to open a format or other audio, we recommend using our audio converter. It is compatible with almost all existing formats.

For comparison, I will provide information about the Wav format, which supports high quality sound. At a sampling frequency of 44100 Hz, its bitrate is 1411 kb/s and 1 minute of a recorded file in this format takes up approximately 10 m of hard disk space.

So, what are the most common audio formats today:

This group of formats records and compresses sound in a way that allows it to be accurately preserved. original quality when decoding it. With lossy compression, the sound undergoes certain modifications. For example, compression cuts out audio frequencies that are inaudible to the human ear. When it is decoded, the file will be different from the original in terms of the information stored in it, but it will sound almost the same.

Find out more about the most common audio formats

Some of the most common loss formats. However, this has been compromised by some independent tests. It usually provides better audio quality with the same file size. It does not change the audio sequence, and the audio encoded in this format is identical to the original. It is often used to reproduce sound in high-quality audio systems. Playback compatibility on devices and players is limited, so it is often converted to other formats before playback on the player if desired.

AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) - other names - MPEG-2 AAC and MPEG-2 NBC. The result of the evolution of MP3 files. With a lower bitrate, they are not inferior to MP3 quality.
AIFF - file format for Mac OS, uncompressed data. High sound quality.
ASF (Advanced Streaming Format) is a standard format for OS Mac. Large file size when high quality sound comparable to AudioCD quality.
AudioCD (CDA) - analog audio, high quality sound.
FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) - free audio codec, audio compression up to 50 percent without loss of sound quality.
Liquid Audio (LQT, LA1) is a secure format for paid music downloads over the network.
MP2 (MPEG-1, Layer2) is an obsolete audio format, the predecessor of MP3.
MP3 (MPEG-1, Layer3) is an audio format that provides acceptable sound quality with a high compression ratio. One of the most popular formats in the world.
VQF is an audio format, an outdated analogue of MP3.
WAV is a standard Windows file, high quality audio is supported. Takes up a lot of disk space.
WMA (Windows Media Audio) is a promising format from Microsoft. With smaller file sizes and lower bitrates, it is not inferior to MP3 quality.

What devices support it?

There are several formats that support high-resolution music. The quality of each format may vary depending on how it was recorded and at what frequencies.

There are many other brands already flirting with handheld devices that are supposedly capable of delivering high-definition audio. It's good to note that playing high-resolution audio is not enough with a file. It requires adapted audio electronics and supports these speeds and bit frequencies. Of course, a high-end output device is also required.

The first audio format in computer games

The very first mention of computer sound came from the creation of games, primitive at that time, in which the sound was reproduced through the system speaker. But no matter how hard the developers of such software (software) tried, they could not achieve the required quality, compatible with reel-to-reel or cassette recorders or records.

High-definition digital music has been around for a long time. Why does it seem to be becoming fashionable now? In addition to traction, they may have devices such as one, the answer to the market. The perpetrator of this disappearance does not have to look very far for him. Except in special cases, for most users, having their smartphone listen to music is more than enough. Even players who have settled, as they see, reduce the terrain they break through year after year.

We come to the millionth question. This requires a sensitive ear and some education. If you're a high-end enthusiast, you'll probably recognize the difference first, but for ordinary mortals who just listen to music with a background meter, it's probably too much of a hassle to pay the price difference just to have that kind of quality.

It's not just about the music player. Those that match this equipment don't come cheap. To top it off, there is music that is sold in high definition formats, which is also a little more expensive.

Finally this technical section. There isn't even a consensus among audio experts themselves as to whether these devices make that important difference. At least on paper, it appears that high-definition music is heard better, but there's a strong marketing component behind it. Are we willing to pay to be seen by the public as music lovers?

The emergence of the WAV format

As usual in most of the multimedia files that we work with almost on a daily basis, we refer to video with photos or audio files, depending on the type of use we are going to make of them, we must use in some specific format, so it is also important know the main differences between them.

But here's what we're going to talk about, these are a few alternatives that we're going to present and it will be very helpful to you when it comes to trying and converting various types audio files that we usually encounter. If you want to know the main differences between them, we recommend that you take a look at this post that we bring to you.

With this program we refer to a suitable alternative to carry out conversions between multiple audio files, in addition to extracting audio from video files in the most regular formats. That being said, it has a very intuitive user interface that makes it valid even for beginners in these tasks. To get started, just add this file, select the output format and click the "Convert" button.

First of all, one of the main characteristics of this tool is that, in addition to being able to convert between different audio files, which is what interests us in this case, it also has functions for converting videos and images. Thanks to the functionality it offers, we will be able to tailor our music to play as optimally as possible on mobile devices, using a simple process. To do this, simply drag and drop the files you want to convert into the application's simple interface.

CDs

The audio CD format, more precisely the .cda extension, appeared at almost the same time.

After specifying the output format and the device on which we will play them, the conversion will begin. For all these tasks we just need to drag and drop the elements we are working with on your user interface. For example, if we play back a file at twice the speed, a simple way to interpolate would be to play back one sample out of every two.

If you put an object at 50% of the pitch, it should double the number of samples, and a simple way to do this is to find the average of the two actual samples. Well this signal has to be decompressed and it takes proportionally heavy load processor, which can become “saturated”. And a less saturated processor means less risk of crashing. We will analyze the most popular formats compression that will allow us to compress any files without losing information. What's fast? The most powerful?

MP3 codec

What is file compression? What does squeeze mean?

And the most used? Have you ever encountered a file that was too busy and didn't know how to get it to do less, like mail it to a friend? File compression allows us to reduce the file size. This will take up less hard drive space and be easier to send. Depending on the type of file used and the type of compression, its size will be reduced more or less.

What compression formats are there and which ones are the most popular?

As we just said, there are several types of compression methods. For example, it is a compression method used to compress video, audio or image files. The main feature of this compression method is that when compressed there are approximations, so the media file is reduced in size. This method looks for patterns that repeat in addition to other more advanced methods. This is achieved by reducing the file size without losing information or quality, although obviously the file size is not reduced. Unlike the previous case, this information is not lost. . When it comes to formats and compression methods, we have a wide range.

AIFF files

Audio formats have another variety. The so-called .aiff format was originally created for use on Macintosh computer systems.

Only much later did a transformation occur that predetermined the compatibility of sound formats with their use on platforms with different operating systems.

OGG format

Nevertheless, audio formats of this type are now available, and the sound itself looks very good.

AMR standard

As for this format, it is perhaps one of the most low-grade. Its origin is associated with the advent of the first clumsy mobile phones, which still could not set ringtones in .mp3 format.

At that time, AMR could still replace natural sound with a certain amount of loss of quality. But this quality cannot be compared with what is offered by more “advanced” formats.

MIDI

FLAC

Format compatibility

Format conversion

Audio Quality Processing

It's another matter when the question concerns changing some frequencies of the source file. You can’t do this without specialized software packages. It is with their help that you can change the quality of audio files. In this case, you can change not only the standard sampling frequency of 44100 Hz, increasing it, say, to 96000 Hz, but also adjust the depth from the same 16 to 24 or 32 bits. And we’re not even talking about the fact that you can also configure the bitrate, that is, the reproducible throughput expressed in kilobits per second. The standard value is 128 kbit/sec. The bitrate can be changed at your discretion, but the best sound quality is achieved at around 320 kbps. Of course, not every person is able to perceive the difference between the standard sound and the maximum characteristics. However, it is worth trying once to play an audio track with different data on good equipment. Here the difference will not be long in coming.

Final comparison

Let's try to make some comparison between the formats used (although this is not all that there is in the world of sound).

Compressed using special lossless audio codecs, it can be restored with absolute accuracy if desired.

If you take an ordinary Audio CD with analog audio, record it in WAV format for sound without compression, then compress the WAV using the lossless codec, then decompress the resulting audio file into WAV and burn the result to a blank CD, you can get two completely identical Audio CD.

The advantage of lossless for storing an audio collection is that the quality of the recordings is much higher than that of lossy codecs, and they take up less space than uncompressed audio. True, lossy files are smaller in size than lossless music files. Most modern player programs understand the lossless format. Those programs that are not able to play it can easily learn it using the lossless plugin. What are lossless audio formats?

Audio formats without loss of quality

A true music lover is unlikely to be satisfied with the sound of music recorded in Ogg Vorbis or MP3 compression formats. Of course, if you listen to audio recordings on household audio equipment, sound defects cannot be detected by ear, but if you try to play a compressed file on high-quality Hi-Fi equipment, sound defects will immediately become apparent. Of course, create a collection of high-quality music on CD or vinyl records not easy. There is a reasonable alternative to this path for lovers high-quality sound- lossless music. It can be stored on a PC in a form that allows the original music parameters to remain unchanged, even if compression is applied. This way simultaneously solves the problems of high quality music and its compact storage, because audio equipment for listening (headphones, speakers, amplifiers) has a very affordable price.

Uncompressed audio formats without loss of quality:

CDDA is an audio CD standard;
WAV - Microsoft Wave;
IFF-8SVX;
IFF-16SV;
AIFF;

Compressed formats:

FLAC;
APE - Monkey's Audio;
M4A - Apple Lossless - high-quality music format from Apple;
WV - WavPack;
WMA - Windows Media Audio 9;
TTA - True Audio.
LPAC;
OFR - OptimFROG;
RKA - RKAU;
SHN - Shorten.

FLAC format

The most common format is the format What distinguishes it from lossy audio codecs is that no data is removed from the audio stream when used. This makes it possible to successfully use it to play music on Hi-Fi and Hi-End equipment, as well as to create an archive of a collection of audio recordings.

The great advantage of the format is its free distribution. This is important for musicians who record their own music. The format has recently gained great popularity, thanks to which its support is included in the vast majority of media players.

APE format

Unlike FLAC, the APE format only has codecs and plugins designed for the Windows platform. For other platforms, there are expensive solutions from third-party software manufacturers. The algorithm is capable of achieving lossless compression of audio information by approximately 1.5-2 times. It includes three main encoding stages, of which only one is based on the use of properties inherent in sound for compression. The rest are similar to regular archivers. Despite the fact that the compression algorithm is distributed free of charge, the license restrictions are such that it is practically inaccessible to amateur musicians.

Apple Lossless Format

High quality lossless music can be listened to using Apple's audio compression codec without sacrificing quality. This format was developed by Apple for use on its own devices. The format is compatible with iPod players that have special dock connectors and the latest firmware. The format does not use specific rights management (DRM) tools, but the container format contains such capabilities. It is also supported by QuickTime and is included as a feature in iTunes.

The format is part of freely available libraries, which makes it possible to organize listening to files in Windows applications. In 2011 Apple company has published the source codes of the format, which opens up broad prospects for the codec. In the future, it can seriously compete with other formats. The tests showed good results. Compressed files have a size of 40-60% of the size of the originals. The decoding speed is also impressive, which justifies its use for mobile devices whose performance is low.

One of the disadvantages of the codec is that the extension of the audio files matches the audio codec. This leads to confusion, because AAC is not a high-quality music format. Therefore, it was decided to store the data in an MP4 container with the .m4a extension.

Among other formats, it is worth mentioning Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless, which is part of the Windows Media application. It works with Windows and Mac OS X. However, users do not respond very favorably to it. There are often problems with codec compatibility, and the number of supported channels is limited to six.

WavPack format

WavPack is another freely distributed audio codec that compresses audio information without loss of quality. WavPack integrates an exclusive combined mode that allows you to create two files. One of the files in this mode is created with a relatively low quality loss.wv, which can be played independently. The second “.wvc” file corrects the previous “.wv” and, in combination with it, makes it possible to fully restore the original. Some users may find this approach promising, since there is no need to choose between two types of compression - both will always be implemented.

The video codec with high quality sound- lagarith lossless codec. It works quickly and efficiently.

Software for listening to lossless audio

Software players did not immediately learn to work with specific lossless codecs that can reproduce sound without loss.

WinAmp Player

Capable of handling almost all music playback formats without lossless quality. What a good lossless player is can be understood by its example. It is able to correctly handle the processing of individual tracks in lossless format. This typical problem FLAC or APE codecs. It consists of digitizing the entire audio disc at once and recording it in one file without dividing it into tracks. An additional file with the extension .cue is designed to solve the problem of dividing into tracks. It contains a description of the access parameters for each album track. An ordinary player plays the entire lossless file. The player for lossless AIMP perfectly reproduces most audio formats and recognizes tracks in a lossless file.

Digital players with lossless support

Users respond well to the digital players jetAudio, Foobar2000, Spider Player. There are no fundamental differences between them. The choice of any device is based on the subjective opinion of a music lover about the convenience of the interface for lossless playback. You can find out what a lossless format is by testing these players.

Apple Lossless format plays with using iTunes. In addition, this codec is supported by the popular video player VLC.

Owners of Apple-compatible computers can use two interesting programs: Vox and Cog.

They support the following lossless formats:

Apple Lossless;
FLAC;
Monkeys Audio;
Wavpack.

In addition to this there is a lot useful features, for example, Last.fm services are supported.

Owners of Windows computers can use any application that is compatible with music codecs without loss of quality: Foobar2000 or WinAmp. Winamp requires special plugins. Lossless music plays well on iTunes and KMPlayer. An advantage of iTunes that other players do not have is the ability to support tags.

Lossless compatible devices

It is unlikely that the owner of a music library will want to spend time converting files from FLAC format to MP3 to be able to listen to recordings on your gadget. A smartphone or tablet has limited capabilities that are incomparable to a computer, but nevertheless, many mobile devices play lossless formats.

For example, device owners Android control can use the andLess player. It is capable of playing FLAC, APE, uncompressed WAV and other formats supported by Android.

The situation is worse for owners of devices on the Blackberry platform. Only owners of the Bold 9000 and 8900 and later models can listen to the lossless format.

Owners of Apple devices can use the ALAC codec without any problems. It is supported by iPod (except shuffle), iPhone and iPad tablet. For FLAC format, you can download FLAC Player from the App Store.

FLAC codec is supported by devices Samsung Galaxy, some Sony smartphones Ericsson and iriver players.

Stationary devices from many manufacturers also received support for FLAC. Media players and media centers allow you to do without personal computer when listening to songs without loss of quality.

It is still far from full support for absolutely all formats, but it is enough that the media player understands the FLAC codec - the most common codec for high-quality lossless music. What is lossless playback equipment?

Listening equipment

To truly enjoy the sound quality, you need special equipment: headphones, amplifiers, speakers. The easiest way, of course, is with headphones. If you intend to enjoy music while sitting at your computer, these are best suited. Users respond well to products from Koss and Sennheiser. Particular attention should be paid to the size of the membrane. The larger it is, the better sound. It is important not to be deceived. Some manufacturers put a small membrane in large ear pads - such headphones look solid, but the sound is only suitable for listening to mp3s.

It is difficult to recommend anything to fans of high-quality sound equipment (Hi-Fi or Hi-End). The choice in this area is limited only by budget and tastes. Equalizer, amplifier, acoustics - the choice of these devices has many options. PC owners who are choosing a high-quality one are better off choosing budget monitor speakers from any famous brand. Users respond well to the Microlab SOLO series acoustics. To make lossless music sound good, it is important to purchase acoustics with a subwoofer. unable to cope with the reproduction of the lower frequency band.

Results

New digital sound formats have made it possible for lovers of high-quality music to acquire their own libraries on storage media large capacity and listen to your favorite songs in high quality, saving quite a lot of money and quite a lot of space. The ideal option, of course, is full set Hi-End equipment, but also budget options will bring great pleasure to music lovers. After all, the experience of listening to music is incomparable to MP3 on plastic speakers.

All audio formats. Music audio formats

Audio-CD

Flac

Mp3

Ogg

The first audio format in computer games

The emergence of the WAV format

CDs

MP3 codec

AIFF files

OGG format

AMR standard

MIDI

FLAC

Format compatibility

Format conversion

Audio Quality Processing

Final comparison

By the way, don't forget any format

Find out more about the most common audio formats

What devices support it?

The first audio format in computer games

The emergence of the WAV format

CDs

MP3 codec

What is file compression? What does squeeze mean?

What compression formats are there and which ones are the most popular?

AIFF files

OGG format

AMR standard

MIDI

FLAC

Format compatibility

Format conversion

Audio Quality Processing

Final comparison

Audio formats without loss of quality

FLAC format

APE format

Apple Lossless Format

WavPack format

Software for listening to lossless audio

WinAmp Player

Digital players with lossless support

Lossless compatible devices

Listening equipment

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