What about the different file formats.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chewie
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Chewie

Chewie

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I don't know where I should put this so I'll put it here.
I would like to know about the various audio formats. I've searched this site and havn't found anything of help. I would like to know what technology makes up each format and there realative advantages and disadvantages. Even within the same format eg lame encoder vs. blade encoder for MP3. I know I should probably just use google but I think this could make a very good thread.
 
Well, you should always use the WAV format for recording. This is the best quality but also takes up lots of hard drive space. Also with the WAV format, you should use at least 44.1 Khz if not higher. DVD quality is 96Khz. This will ensure high quality recordings.

Next is the MP3 format. MP3 stands for MOTION PICTURE EXPERTS GROUP version 3 encoding format. This is the best format for posting songs on the internet. It uses about 1/10th of the space of a WAV at 128kbps but also keeps the quality at a high standard. CD audio quality is 256kbps. Only use this format if space is an issue. Never use it to directly record your music as it degrades audio quality but rather to convert to after you have finished your project and wish to post on the net.

Those are the main two. There is also .cda which is the format the audio files are when they are on an audio cd. There are many others but these are the main ones used for recording.

Here is a link that lists heaps of the different formats:
http://www.sonicspot.com/guide/fileformatlist.html

Hope that helps
Tukkis
 
.cda is only the "header" of the audio file. If you look at the file size of a .cda file, it is quite small because it is not the actual audio data. The audio file on a CD is similar to the .wav/.aif format. It is ALL PCM audio (pulse code modulation) at this level.

The technical issues behind most file formats are mostly uninteresting really. I used to try to find out more about this stuff, and the presented with info, found it pretty dry reading. It didn't tell me much about how is actually SOUNDS. I thought it might. It didn't. I moved on. :)

The Lame and Fraunhofer codecs are considered the two best mp3 codecs. They DO sound different. Why they sound different is of little interest to me. Lame tends to add "acoustics" to the sound, that while sound very pleasing, do sort of change the nature of the audio. While the Fraunhofer codec is certainly more "dry" sounding, it sounds much more like the original audio.

Ed
 
Thanks for the MP3 codec info sonusman.
And MP3 is MOTION PICTURE EXPERTS GROUP layer 3. And thanks for the link.
 
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