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