WAV is a lossless audio format that retains original sound quality but produces large file sizes. MP3 is a lossy format that removes frequencies outside of human hearing and masked sounds, resulting in smaller file sizes around 1/10 the original but lower sound quality. WMA can be lossless or lossy, is a Microsoft format, while FLAC is a free and open source lossless format with sizes around half of CD quality.
3. WAV
• WAV is a lossless compression format, so no sound quality is lost
after compression
• Developed jointly by Microsoft and IBM in 1991
• Use analog to digital converter (ADC) to sample audio signal and
convert to binary
• Large file sizes
CD recording quality 44.1Khz sample rate, 16 bit sample depth
produces a file size of 10.09 megabytes per minute of audio
• Not suitable for streaming or portable device storage due to large file
sizes
4. MP3
• MPEG-1 Layer 3 / MPEG-2 Layer 3 is a lossy file format
• Step 1 – remove frequencies that the ear cannot hear (the range of
human hearing is considered to be 20Hz to 20kHz)
• Step 2 – remove any sounds which will be masked by other sounds
(e.g. a loud guitar chord might completely cover up a quiet triangle
and as we can’t hear it MP3 compression will remove it)
• Sound quality not as good as original
• Smaller file sizes (around 1/10 the size of the original file) so ideal for
streaming and portable devices
5. WMA
• Windows Media Audio
• Microsoft file format so available on Windows PCs
• Can be lossless or lossy
6. FLAC
• Free Lossless Audio Codec
• Similar to MP3 but lossless and therefore higher quality
• Open source so not tied to one company such as Microsoft or Apple
• Compression technique similar to ZIP with file sizes about half that of
CD
7. FLAC
• Free Lossless Audio Codec
• Similar to MP3 but lossless and therefore higher quality
• Open source so not tied to one company such as Microsoft or Apple
• Compression technique similar to ZIP with file sizes about half that of
CD
