An audio file format is a file format for storing digital audio data on a computer system. It can be uncompressed or compressed to reduce file size, often using lossy compression. There are three major groups of audio file formats: uncompressed formats like WAV and AIFF, lossless compressed formats like FLAC that compress without losing data, and lossy compressed formats like MP3 and AAC that remove some audio information to greatly reduce file size but also reduce quality. Popular uncompressed formats are WAV and AIFF while common lossless formats are FLAC and ALAC and well-known lossy formats include MP3, AAC, and Ogg Vorbis.
An audio file format is a file format for storing digital audio data on a computer system. It can be uncompressed or compressed to reduce file size, often using lossy compression. There are three major groups of audio file formats: uncompressed formats like WAV and AIFF, lossless compressed formats like FLAC that compress without losing data, and lossy compressed formats like MP3 and AAC that remove some audio information to greatly reduce file size but also reduce quality. Popular uncompressed formats are WAV and AIFF while common lossless formats are FLAC and ALAC and well-known lossy formats include MP3, AAC, and Ogg Vorbis.
An audio file format is a file format for storing digital audio data on a computer system. It can be uncompressed or compressed to reduce file size, often using lossy compression. There are three major groups of audio file formats: uncompressed formats like WAV and AIFF, lossless compressed formats like FLAC that compress without losing data, and lossy compressed formats like MP3 and AAC that remove some audio information to greatly reduce file size but also reduce quality. Popular uncompressed formats are WAV and AIFF while common lossless formats are FLAC and ALAC and well-known lossy formats include MP3, AAC, and Ogg Vorbis.
An audio file format is a file format for storing digital audio data on a computer system. It can be uncompressed or compressed to reduce file size, often using lossy compression. There are three major groups of audio file formats: uncompressed formats like WAV and AIFF, lossless compressed formats like FLAC that compress without losing data, and lossy compressed formats like MP3 and AAC that remove some audio information to greatly reduce file size but also reduce quality. Popular uncompressed formats are WAV and AIFF while common lossless formats are FLAC and ALAC and well-known lossy formats include MP3, AAC, and Ogg Vorbis.
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An
audio file format is a file format for storing digital audio data on a computer system. The bit layout of the audio data (excluding metadata) is called the audio coding format and can be uncompressed, or compressed to reduce the file size, often using lossy compression. The data can be a raw bitstream in an audio coding format, but it is usually embedded in a container format or an audio data format with defined storage layer.
Format types It is important to distinguish between the audio coding format, the container containing the raw audio data, and an audio codec. A codec performs the encoding and decoding of the raw audio data while this encoded data is (usually) stored in a container file. Although most audio file formats support only one type of audio coding data (created with an audio coder), a multimedia container format (as Matroska or AVI) may support multiple types of audio and video data. There are three major groups of audio file formats:
Uncompressed audio formats, such as WAV, AIFF, AU or raw header-less PCM;
Formats with lossless compression, such as FLAC, Monkey's Audio (filename extension .ape ), WavPack (filename extension .wv ), TTA, ATRAC Advanced Lossless, ALAC (filename extension .m4a ), MPEG-4 SLS, MPEG-4 ALS, MPEG-4 DST, Windows Media Audio Lossless (WMA Lossless), and Shorten (SHN). Formats with lossy compression, such as Opus, MP3, Vorbis, Musepack, AAC, ATRAC and Windows Media Audio Lossy (WMA lossy). Uncompressed audio format See also: Raw audio format and Uncompressed video One major uncompressed audio format, LPCM, is the same variety of PCM as used in Compact Disc Digital Audio and is the format most commonly accepted by low level audio APIs and D/A converter hardware. Although LPCM can be stored on a computer as a raw audio format, it is usually stored in a .wav file on Windows or in a .aiff file on macOS. The Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) format is based on the Interchange File Format (IFF), and the WAV format is based on the similar Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF). WAV and AIFF are designed to store a wide variety of audio formats, lossless and lossy; they just add a small, metadata-containing header before the audio data to declare the format of the audio data, such as LPCM with a particular sample rate, bit depth, endianness and number of channels. Since WAV and AIFF are widely supported and can store LPCM, they are suitable file formats for storing and archiving an original recording. BWF (Broadcast Wave Format) is a standard audio format created by the European Broadcasting Union as a successor to WAV. Among other enhancements, BWF allows more robust metadata to be stored in the file. See European Broadcasting Union: Specification of the Broadcast Wave Format (EBU Technical document 3285, July 1997). This is the primary recording format used in many professional audio workstations in the television and film industry. BWF files include a standardized timestamp reference which allows for easy synchronization with a separate picture element. Stand-alone, file based, multi-track recorders from AETA,[1] Sound Devices,[2] Zaxcom, [3] HHB Communications Ltd,[4] Fostex, Nagra, Aaton,[5] and TASCAM all use BWF as their preferred format.
Lossless compressed audio format
A lossless compressed audio format stores data in less space without losing any information. The original, uncompressed data can be recreated from the compressed version. Uncompressed audio formats encode both sound and silence with the same number of bits per unit of time. Encoding an uncompressed minute of absolute silence produces a file of the same size as encoding an uncompressed minute of music. In a lossless compressed format, however, the music would occupy a smaller file than an uncompressed format and the silence would take up almost no space at all. Lossless compression formats include FLAC, WavPack, Monkey's Audio, ALAC (Apple Lossless). They provide a compression ratio of about 2:1 (i.e. their files take up half the space of PCM). Development in lossless compression formats aims to reduce processing time while maintaining a good compression ratio.
Lossy compressed audio format
Lossy audio format enables even greater reductions in file size by removing some of the audio information and simplifying the data. This, of course, results in a reduction in audio quality, but a variety of techniques are used, mainly by exploiting psychoacoustics, to remove the parts of the sound that have the least effect on perceived quality, and to minimize the amount of audible noise added during the process. The popular MP3 format is probably the best-known example, but the AAC format found on the iTunes Music Store is also common. Most formats offer a range of degrees of compression, generally measured in bit rate. The lower the rate, the smaller the file and the more significant the quality loss.
Lossy formats. Lossy audio formats lose data in the transmission. They don’t decompress back to their original file size, so they end up smaller, and some sound waves are lost. Artists and engineers who send audio files back and forth prefer not to use lossy formats, because the files degrade every time they’re exported.
MP3 MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer III) is the most popular of the lossy formats. MP3 files work on most devices, and the files can be as small as one-tenth the size of lossless files. MP3 is fine for the consumer, since most of the sound it drops is inaudible, but that’s not the case when it comes to bit depth. “MP3 files can only be up to 16-bit, which is not what you want to be working in,” says producer, mixer, and engineer Gus Berry. “You want to be working in at least 24-bit or higher when recording and mixing.”
AAC Advanced Audio Coding, or AAC files (also known as MPEG-4 AAC), take up very little space and are good for streaming, especially over mobile devices. Requiring less than 1 MB per minute of music and sounding better than MP3 at the same bitrate, the AAC format is used by iTunes/Apple Music, YouTube, and Android.
Ogg Vorbis Ogg Vorbis is the free, open-source audio codec that Spotify uses. It’s great for streaming, but the compression results in some data loss. Experts consider it a more efficient format than MP3, with better sound at the same bitrate.
Lossless formats. These files decompress back to their original size, keeping sound quality intact. Audio professionals want all of the original sound waves, so they prefer lossless. These files can be several times larger than MP3s. Lossless bitrates depend on the volume and density of the music, rather than the quality of the audio.
FLAC Free Lossless Audio Codec offers lossless compression, and it’s free and open-source.
ALAC Apple’s Lossless Audio Codec allows for lossless compression, but it works only on Apple devices.
Uncompressed formats. These files remain the same size from origin to destination.
WAV WAV (Waveform Audio File) retains all the original data, which makes it the ideal format for sound engineers. “WAV has greater dynamic range and greater bit depth,” creative producer and sound mixer Lo Boutillette says of her preferred format. “It’s the highest quality,” Berry agrees. “It can be 24-bit, 32-bit, all the way up to 192kHz sample rate and even higher these days.” If you’re collaborating and sending files back and forth, WAV holds its time code. This can be especially useful for video projects in which exact synchronization is important.
AIFF Originally created by Apple, AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) files are like WAV files in that they retain all of the original sound and take up more space than MP3s. They can play on Macs and PCs, but they don’t hold time codes, so they’re not as useful for editing and mixing.
DSD Direct Stream Digital is an uncompressed, high- resolution audio format. These files encode sound using pulse-density modulation. They are very large, with a sample rate as much as 64 times that of a regular audio CD, so they require top-of-the-line audio systems.
PCM Pulse-Code Modulation, used for CDs and DVDs, captures analog waveforms and turns them into digital bits. Until DSD, this was thought to be the closest you could get to capturing complete analog audio quality.
A coda on digital audio formats. If you’re listening to spoken word recordings or you’re a casual listener who’s OK with unoptimized music files, you can go with a compressed format and save space in your music library. If you have more educated ears and expensive audio equipment, you may want lossless compression for its combined space-saving and fidelity. If you’re recording or manipulating audio or setting it to video, always go with lossless or uncompressed. No matter your needs, there’s an audio file format for you.
