| Welcome to Audio File Formats 101! If you've | | | | |
| used a computer to listen to music you | | | | 3. WMA - WMA stand for Windows Media Audio, |
| probably have had some experience dealing | | | | and is a proprietary audio file format |
| with MP3 and WAV files before. And if you | | | | developed by Microsoft, and was introduced as |
| have spent a bit of time on the computer | | | | a competitor to the MP3 files format. |
| recording or editing audio, you've probably | | | | Although it hasn't overtaken the popularity |
| dealt with many of the other audio file | | | | of the MP3 format, it is in second place in |
| formats. Such as AIFF, WMA, OGG, etc. What's | | | | terms of the number of consumer products that |
| the deal with all these different forms of | | | | support the playback of the WMA file. One |
| digital audio? | | | | thing that the WMA file format offers |
| | | | exclusively is the ability for the files to |
| 1. WAV - Although WAV files can be | | | | be DRM (Digital Rights Management) encoded, |
| compressed, most WAV files are usually | | | | which is popular with both music and film |
| consist of uncompressed audio, also know as | | | | corporations. |
| lossless audio files. They are a variant on | | | | |
| the RIFF bitstream format method for storing | | | | 4. OGG Vorbis - The OGG Vorbis file format |
| data in chunks. Since these files are usually | | | | is an audio codec that is both open source |
| uncompressed and of high quality, most | | | | and free, which was developed in 1998 after |
| professional audio experts use the WAV file, | | | | word of plans to start charging licensing |
| which is the universally accepted source | | | | fees on MP3 files were spread. So, |
| audio file format recognized in all audio | | | | essentially the OGG Vorbis file format is |
| editing software. | | | | very similar to the MP3 file format, which |
| | | | are both lossy file formats. The OGG Vorbis |
| 2. MP3 - MP3s are encoded digital audio | | | | file format is widely used in video games, |
| files that use a lossy compression format. | | | | saving time and money for the developers, |
| Lossy compression is a method that when the | | | | since it is not patented. |
| file is decompressed, the data retrieved may | | | | |
| be different from the original but is close | | | | All of us listen to MP3s, and probably have |
| enough to be usable. With an MP3 the parts of | | | | encountered the 3 other formats discussed at |
| the audio that are discarded in the | | | | one time or another. This is definitely not |
| compression are considered less important to | | | | an exhaustive list of all audio file formats, |
| human hearing, (i.e. any sounds below 20HZ, | | | | and only covers some of the more popular |
| and any sounds above 20KHz). MP3 files are | | | | formats. But this should give you a little |
| great for the internet because of their small | | | | more insight on some of the file formats that |
| size. You can think of an MP3 as an audio | | | | you use on a daily basis. |
| version of a JPEG file. | | | | |