Title: Sound File Formats
Course: Appdate yourself 4t ESO (in English) - Curs 2020/21 > Section: Topic 12. Audio Processing

Material

You must be capable of looking at the file extension and recognising the sound format you are working with because each extension corresponds to a different file format and each format is suitable for some things and unsuitable for others. The vast spectrum of sound formats can be classified into nine basic formats (there are many more), each with its own use and composition characteristics.

Type | Application | Size
CDA | Dedicated compact disc audio format. If you look at the content of an audio CD you will see that all the sound files are CDA. | Large
WAV | Wave format. The Windows standard. | Large to very large, depending on the file characteristics.
MID | Music files encoded according to the MIDI system. Performance data is recorded rather than music itself. | Very small
MUS | Dedicated Music Time format. | Very small
AIF | Standard format on MAC platforms (can also be listened to in Windows). The parallel to WAV. In fact, the extension can be manually changed from AIF to WAV. | Very large
MP3 | The quality music encoding format most commonly used on the internet. It works in WAV format but compressing the parts that could be inaudible. It greatly reduces file size. It has become so popular that most CD and DVD players are compatible with this format. There are portable MP3 players. | Small
OGG | A highly evolved -according to some, the successor to MP3- free, multi-platform format that delivers very high quality at a very small size. Some MP3 players also play OGG. | Small
RA, RM | Audio format used by Internet and encoded by Real Encoder. This is the format the XTEC video/audio server operates with. | Very small
WMA | The Windows compressed audio format. The dedicated player is Windows Media Player. Its features in terms of quality/size ratio are similar to those of RA/RM files. Some MP3 players also play WMA. | Very small

It is sometimes necessary to make conversions between different formats. There are currently several converters, many online, that don't require having to download any program. You will find an example in this link.