Codecs

There are several different types of codecs in which this page should exsplain about the main types and there benifits. Millions of people are now encoding there music to allow other people accross the world to be able to stream music and it to be listenable. With Mp3's now being listenined to more than ever with the introduction of the I-Pod and other Mp3 players millions of people are downloading these formats everyday.The information bellow goes through the different types of codecs and there advantage and disadvantages.

AAC-Advanced Audio Coding is used for compressing files to be streamed from the internet. AAC allows audio to be compressed to a much better standard then Mp3. AAC has been created by the MPEG group in 1997. They used state of the art signal proccessing which allows great variable bit rate when encoding in Quicktime. Now people can encode there music with various different types of bit Rate and quality. Companies such as I-Tunes now us AAC encoding instead of Mp3 as it allows them to send their customers a better quality of sound. Bellow are a few facts about how good AAC is compaired to Mp3

Advantages
Sample frequencies from 8 kHz to 96 kHz (official MP3: 16 kHz to 48 kHz)
Up to 48 channels
Higher efficiency and simpler filterbank (hybrid → pure MDCT)
Higher coding efficiency for stationary signals (blocksize: 576 → 1024 samples)
Higher coding efficiency for transient signals (blocksize: 192 → 128 samples)
Much better handling of frequencies above 16 kHz
More flexible joint stereo (separate for every scale band)

MP3

This is a popular digital audio encoding and lossy compression format introduced in1991. The designers ideas were for people to be able to reduce the size of their audio file but still sound like a the original uncompressed audio. This codec uses pulse-code modulation-encoded audio data, which makes the file much smaller in size by removing parts of the file that are considered less important to human ear. MP3 also has a Surround sound version of the format supporting 5.1 channels. was introduced in December 2004. Mp3 is still the biggist codec used as many websites now allow you to upload your own Mp3 songs for other people to steam or download of a website.

Mp3 Audio Example 1 Stereo 224kps high quality

Mp3 Audio Example 2 Stereo 128kps with vairable bit rate enconding

I use Mp3 now to transfer small ruff mixs of tracks just as it is much easy to play to people and take up less storage. I am also impressed with the quality of high bit rate mp3. My first example is a track of mine which is of a stereo 224kps with a high sample rate. This sounds crisp and clear with not much losseness and overall sound is good.

Windows Media Audio 9

This is a Codec that is built into the latest Windows Media Player developed by Microsoft introduced in there XP operating system. The standard stereo version is most common, but there are versions that offer 24bit/96KHz sound at up to 5.1 channels, and even a version that offers mathematically lossless compression. This is the second most used codec with a large range of products that are compatibale with the WMA format. I generally find WMA a format in which is not as flexabile as mp3 as this is a standard in older technology and is easier to work with.

Ogg Vorbis

Ogg Vorbis is a new audio compression format. It is different from other formats because it is completely free, and open to other users. It uses the same method of compression as Mp3 and AAC. It is compatibale with PC's and is used in video games by delvelopers and software publishers as they find it a easy way to compress and change audio bitrates for development. Bellow are some intresting reasons of why you might want to use Ogg Vorbis

• Vorbis files can compress to a smaller file size and still sound fine; Vorbis' better compression will cut down on bandwidth costs and keep you from being a victim of your own popularity.

• If you decide to sell your music in MP3 format, you are responsible for paying Fraunhofer a percentage of each sale because you are using their patents. Vorbis is patent and license-free, so you will never need to pay anyone in order to sell, give away, or stream your own music.

Free Lossless Audio Codec

This is FLAC which is similar to a standard Mp3, this is again an open source free for the publics uses. The advantage of this type of codec is is it has no lossless, meaning that audio is compressed without any loss in quality. This works with compression to the file. With FLAC it has been devleoped to compress audio files to a great depth of technology. This produces great sounding tracks with no lossness to track found in low quality Mp3's