Audio Compression

The purpose of the audio compression is to reduce the size of a file Audio. We can distinguish the compression Audio in two categories: compression without loss and that with loss .

Compression without loss

A compression (audio, video or different) is " without perte" (or not destroying) when it is possible to obtain the original data starting from the compressed data.

The principle

See Data compression.

Codecs

FLAC
Monkey' S Audio (APE)
Shorten
Lossless Windows Audio Media

Compression with loss

The principle

A compression (audio, video or different) is called " destructrice" (or with loss) when one is unable to obtain the original data starting from the compressed data. It is thus about a representation of the source eliminating the data considered to be useless for good comprehension, while being focused on the data " significatives".

Thus, the audio format ogg vorbis for example is not a compression bit with bit of the sound of origin, but starting from various algorithms allows to produce a file whose sound reinterpreted by an engine of decoding is sufficiently faithful so that a human ear cannot make the difference between these compressed data and its original.

Codecs

AAC
ATRAC
MP3
Musepack
OGG Vorbis
Windows Audio Media

Audio reader

Under Linux : AmaroK, JuK, VLC media player, Xmms, Rhythmbox, Listen
Under Mac OS : ITunes, VLC media player
Under Windows : Foobar2000, ITunes, RealPlayer, VLC media player, Winamp, Windows Media Player
Under Palm OS : Pocket Tunes

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