Terms related to use: Windows Wave Format (.wav) w* • Sample Rate defines how many samples • Developed by IBM and Microsoft are recorded per second of audio input and is • Supported by all Windows computers and measure in Hz (hertz, cycles per second) and popular web browsers . kHz (kilohertz). The higher the number the • Was the most popular sound format on the better the quality. Internet • Bit/BitBit/Bit----depthdepth used to describe the resolution (quality) of a digital audio stream. It is the Motion Picture Experts Group (.mp3) w* number of bits used to describe the • Audio portion of .mpeg files (video) amplitude or volume of an audio signal at a • specific point in time (higher the number the Lossy —Compressed files that maintain high . more precisely the signal can be reproduced) quality • Removes sounds not usually heard by the human ear • .m3u contains play lists but not the actual Advanced Audio Coding File (.aac) w* songs/files • Compressed audio file like .mp3 but maintains a quality closer to the original Ogg Vorbis (.ogg) w* source • Compressed files that maintain high quality. • Default encoding used by Apple iTunes (New competitor to .mp3) software • No patent restrictions like .mp3s
Audio File Format (.au) • Audio Interchange File Format (.aif or .aiff) Supported by multiple software systems/ • platforms; usually produced on Sun Developed by Apple—default uncompressed Microsystems or Unix –based machine file format • Not cross-platform and not supported by all browsers * Interchange File Format (.iff) w • Universal file format that can contain text, Windows Media Audio Format (.wma) images, or audio data broken into chunks • • Can be played in Quicktime Player Developed by Microsoft—compressed file format similar to .mp3 • Default encoding used by Zune players (will Musical Instrument Digital Interface not play on iPods) (.midi or .mid) w* • Format for sending music information between electronic music devices and PC . Software and file types: (default) sound cards • Audacity—free open source software for • Does not contain sound, only digital musical recording and editing songs instructions (notes) that can be interpreted by • the PC’s sound card .aup , .wav, .aiff, .au, .ogg, .mp3 • • Can only store tunes, not songs. Does not support .wma, .aac or other proprietary or restricted formats • Small file size
RealAudio format (.rm or .ram) w* • Format allows streaming of audio with low For more information on audio file formats visit: bandwidths (can also support video) http://www.fileinfo.net/filetypes/audio
• Quality is often reduced
*w—web friendly Created by: Barb Gruber