Beginner's Guide to Music File Formats
By Gary Hendricks
Are you confused by the various types of
music file formats out there? Most of you
would have heard of the popular MP3 format,
but are you aware there are other alternative
digital music formats like WAV, WMA, RA and
MIDI? Some of these give better sound quality
than MP3 (e.g. the WAV format) but also need
more disk storage space. Others like WMA give
file sizes smaller than the MP3 format and
are more suited for portable music players.
Let's run through the various file
formats now:
The MP3 File Format
MP3 files have the extension ".mp3"
and are available for download from many
web sites. MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3)
technology compresses a sound sequence
into a very small file (usually one twelfth
of of the original file size). The designers
of MP3 compression algorithm managed to
do this by eliminating sounds that the
human ear cannot perceive. While MP3 technology
is impressive, it has been abused by music
pirates. One can very easily create MP3
files from commercial CDs and make them
available for download. The RIAA and major
music companies have been cracking down
on the distribution and sharing of MP3
files in this manner.
The WMA File Format
WMA (Windows Media Audio) is Microsoft's
proprietary music file format that it
is marketing aggressively. WMA files are
smaller in size than MP3 files, but still
retain a decent level of sound quality.
This format is getting very popular in
websites for sampling music and also in
portable music players. However, whether
WMA will overtake the popularity of MP3
remains to be seen.
The WAV File Format
A wave file is characterized by the file
extension ".wav". This music
file format provides raw, uncompressed
audio data. Originally invented by Microsoft,
wave files are still used widely (examples
include your start up and shut down sounds
in Windows). Audio quality is excellent,
but the file size is huge. A full pop
song in wave format may take up to 30
MB of disk space or more.
The AIFF File Format
The AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format)
is a popular music file formats used in
the Apple Macintosh operating system.
In a way, they are the Macintosh equivalent
of wave files. AIFF files have the file
extension ".aif" when accessed
via a PC. They contain raw audio data
(which result in excellent sound quality)
but take up a large amount of disk space.
The MIDI File Format
The MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital
Interface) file format was originally
created for recording and playing music
on digital synthesizers. MIDI files are
very small in size. The reason for this
is that the MIDI file only contains information
on how music is produced (e.g. note-ons
and note-offs). The sound card which plays
back the MIDI file takes this information
and plays back music using an in-built
soundcard wavetable.
The RA File Format
RA (RealAudio) files support streaming
technology. Created by Progressive Networks,
an RA file is highly optimized for live,
streaming audio from websites. RA files
are best played back on RealAudio players
which are freely downloadable from Progressive
Networks.
Conclusion
Well, that wraps up our coverage of the
most popular music file formats out there.
You may be interested to know that there
are many software applications which can
convert music from one format to another
(e.g. MP3 to WAV or WAV to AIFF). Do a
search for these applications at www.download.com.
About The Author
Gary Hendricks - http://digital-music-guide.com
gary_hendricks@digital-music-guide.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gary_Hendricks
