P2 exercise: Sound files

Sound Formats

Uncompressed: Uncompressed file formats are the most accurate representation of a sound wave. This makes the sounds high-quality. Uncompressed file formats such as WAV are used in the production of music and music editing. They are used in all areas of the Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs).

Examples of compressed audio files:

 MP3: The lossy audio compression algorithm reduces the amount of data needed to represent the audio recording and still sound like the original audio file.

VOX: These files contain metadata that stimulates human speech. This is a file extension used in audio files that works with Voxware software.

Waveform Audio File Format (WAV): The main audio file format to be used on windows systems for uncompressed audio. Although a WAV file can contain compressed audio, WAV files most commonly contain uncompressed file formats.

Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF): Uncompressed audio files, however there is a type of AIFF that is compressed (AIFF-C or AIFC). This file format is mostly used on Macs.

Lossy compressed: These are made using psychoacoustics to recognise the audio samples that can’t be hears by the human ear (e.g. high frequencies and sounds that are drowned out by louder sounds in the track). These sounds are then removed and you are left with a compressed audio file.

Broadcast Wave Format (BWF): This is an extension of WAV. It is the recording format of the most file based digital recorders used in motion picture, radio and television production.