A common application of this strength is the fact that lossy files cannot really be converted to another format without significant loss of audio quality. This sounds like an academic concern, but actually it's very useful. The fact that there are no audio data removed means that you never lose data you may need in the future. Lossless doesn't just affect audio quality, or the quality of reproduction you perceive. WAV, for instance, is lossless but uncompressed, and so for the same theoretical audio quality you have to consume more storage space. The act of compression in this case does not remove any of the audio data so, theoretically, audio quality remains the same, but with the added benefit of reduced storage cost. But within the category of lossless formats there are some formats that further compress the data, and those that don't. Lossless files are generally larger than lossy files. Lossless files, in contrast, never remove any aspect of the audio. Lossy means that, when the file is created from raw audio input, the codec is allowed to remove parts of the raw audio that it doesn't think is necessary. But it's not all that simple.įile formats can also differ by whether they are lossy or lossless. Generally speaking, higher quality means more storage space. A high quality/space ratioįile formats differ by the audio quality they offer and also the storage space required by a file written by the corresponding codec (a codec is software that is capable of reading and writing audio in the file format). So why would you pick FLAC when there are other formats available? 1. FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is another example. There are others MP4 (commonly used in iTunes), WMA (the default in Windows computers), Ogg Vorbis, and more. There are many commonly accepted file formats, and you've probably heard of the most popular: MP3. There are different ways of storing this data, and each approach is called a file format. The files themselves are internally organised such that the audio data is stored in a special way. The audio, and any accompanying metadata, are stored in files and organised into folders. Why do I encourage use of FLAC over other formats?Ĭomputer music is stored on your computer's hard drive in much the same way as your photos, documents and videos. Regular readers will know I commonly advise use of FLAC as your music file format of choice both for ripping from CD and as a preferred file format for music downloads. Four reasons for using FLACs, and one reason you shouldn't
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