●Audio
The types of audio formats and their characteristics are summarized below.
File type
MP3
.mp3
WAV
.wav
.midi
ATRAC3
.at3
A file format for compressing and storing audio data
using the part of MPEG-1 that controls sound. The
data can be compressed to about 1/10 the size of a
music CD (compression rate can be specified). It is
used on portable music players and used to distribute
music over the Internet.
A file format for storing raw audio sampling data in the
same way as CD audio. It is used as the audio data
format on Windows computers. When exporting audio
files from CDs to Windows computers without compression, they are exported in WAV format. As data is
not compressed, the size of data is large.
A file format for compressing and storing audio used
as a standard on Windows computers. The data can
be compressed to about 1/20 the size of a music CD
(compression rate can be specified). It is used on portable music players and used to distribute music over
the Internet.
A file format for storing musical data such as pitch,
loudness, and tone. It is used to play data created using electronic instruments (synthesizers and sound
generator units) on a computer or network karaoke.
A file format developed by Sony for compressing and
storing audio. It is an improvement of “ATRAC,” currently used in MDs, designed for use with Sony memory sticks.
Compression and decompression of information
When attaching large data such as multimedia files to e-mail or publishing
it on a Web page, it is common practice to “compress” it. The size of the
file can be reduced by compressing the data.
Several files can also be put together into one, enabling data exchange to
be simplified.
“Decompress” refers to returning compressed data to its original state.
Compression/decompression software is used to accomplish this task.
The following are examples of data compression formats.
File type
Lzh
Zip
Extension
.lzh
.zip
Characteristics
Format