Audio file formats that are supported by AV Voice Changer Software 7.0
(all editions)AIF/AIFF/AIFC | APE | ASF | AU | CDA | IRC | MP3 | NIST | OGG | WAV | WMA
* Audio file format definition:
An audio file format is a pre-defined way of storing audio data on a computer system.
It is important to distinguish between a file format and a codec. A codec is a device or a computer program that is capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal. That means an audio codec performs the encoding of the raw audio data to create an audio file (in a certain format) and/or decoding to play back the audio files. Most of the publicly documented audio file formats can be created with one of two or more encoders or codecs.
There are three major groups of audio file formats:
- Uncompressed (lossless) audio formats, such as WAV, AIFF, AU or raw header-less PCM. These formats are to keep original raw audio data made from both sound and silence. They are always big in storage size.
- Lossless compression audio formats, such as FLAC, Monkey's Audio (filename extension APE), WavPack (filename extension WV), Windows Media Audio Lossless (WMA Lossless). A lossless compressed format requires more processing time than an uncompressed format but is more efficient in space usage. The data in the file are mostly kept intact during the encoding process.
- Lossy compression audio formats, such as MP3, Vorbis, Musepack, AAC, ATRAC and lossy Windows Media Audio (WMA). These formats always have smallest storage size in compare with other kinds of format, however the quality of the audio are reduced as the encoding process has eliminated redundant or unnecessary sound signal.
Below are brief introduction about all the audio file formats that AV Voice Changer Software supports:
.AIF, .AIFF, .AIFC
(Audio Interchange File Format audio file)
These are audio file formats developed by Apple Computer in 1988 based on Electronic Arts’ Interchange File Format (IFF). These file formats are most commonly used on Apple Macintosh computer systems and other electronic audio devices created by Apple, however it is still compatible to run on Windows OSs on PCs. This file format can be used to store high-quality sampled audio and musical instrument information.
File format attributes:
- Uncompressed lossless audio
- Sound quality: high
- File size: big
This file format can be played by VCS Player, and created by VCS Recorder using Apple's AIFF audio codec.
.APE
(Monkey's audio file)
Monkey's Audio (.ape) is a file format for audio data compression. Being a lossless format, Monkey's Audio does not discard data during the process of encoding. Data file compression is employed in order to reduce bandwidth, file transfer time, and/or storage requirements. Files encoded to Monkey's Audio are typically reduced to about half of the original size, with data transfer rates and bandwidth requirements being reduced accordingly.
Monkey's Audio employs a symmetric algorithm, which means its decoding process takes comparable resources to encoding, which makes it unsuitable for all but the fastest portable players and that it has limited support on software platforms other than Windows; on other platforms only decoding is officially supported by third-party programs.
File format attributes:
- Lossless compressed audio
- Sound quality: from medium to high - depends on user demand
- File size: medium to big - depends on the sound quality
This file format can be played by VCS Player, and created by VCS Recorder using Monkeyy's audio codec.
.AU
(Unix Audio file)
Unix Audio (.au) file is a simple audio file format that is introduced by Sun Microsystem. The file typically contains raw sound data that is followed by a text identifier. In this way, AU files are similar to the WAV files, but are found most often on Sun, Unix, and Linux-based systems that are run on Sun, NeXt, and Silicon Graphics computers.
Since they are uncompressed audio files they take up much space on a hard drive; thus, you will most likely only see them used for small sound effects rather than entire songs.
Windows users: NOTE that unless you have configured your computer with the file extension viewing tweak, it is possible that a filename that looks like it ends with ".au", especially one attached to an e-mail message, actually has a hidden OTHER extension, meaning that if you double-click the file, it may actually run a computer virus!
File format attributes:s:
- Lossless uncompressed audio
- Sound quality: high
- File size: big
This file format can be played by VCS Player, and created by VCS Recorder using Sun's audio codec.
.ASF
(Microsoft Active Streaming Format, Microsoft Advanced Streaming Format, Microsoft Advanced System Format)
Advanced Streaming Format (sometimes known as Active Streaming Format) (.asf) is the earlier name for Microsoft's Advanced Systems Format. This is a container format designed by Microsoft to support media (audio and video) streaming from a variety of networks and protocols while still proving suitable for local playback. Audio and/or Video content compressed with a wide variety of codecs can be stored in an ASF file and played back with the Windows Media Player (provided the appropriate codecs are installed), streamed with Windows Media Services or optionally packaged with Windows Media Rights Manager. The format is designed to allow playback to commence without the complete file being available. This makes it suitable for internet use where playback can begin soon after download commences or for PVR-type functions such as pausing live TV.
An ASF file consists of three objects:
(1) a Header object containing information about the file itself called meta data (video clip name, song title etc.),
(2) a Data object containing the media streams (audio/video content),
(3) and an optional Index object that can help support random access to data within the file. An ASF file may have a variety of optional index objects at the end of the file.
The Data object can be used to hold a variety of video and audio codecs but it is most commonly used for the WMV and WMA codecs. Other streams such as subtitles can also be included in the format.
File format attributes:
Sound quality, file size, etc. all depend on the main media data included in
the Data object of the file.
This file format can be played by VCS Player, but can not be created by VCS Recorder.
.CDA
(Compact Disk Audio Track file)
Compack Disk Audio Track (.cda) file is a shortcut to a track on an audio CD; it does not contain the actual digital audio data, when opened (or double clicked) it plays the referenced track on the CD; therefore, the CD must be in the CD-ROM drive for the shortcut to work correctly. If you copied these files from the CD-ROM to the hard disc and remove the CD, the shortcut won’t work either.
To work with the real audio files on your CD you need first to convert them to WAV, MP3 or another file format that computers understand. That's what a CD ripper does and that's why you must use a ripper before you can work with your audio files. Often songs "ripped" from an audio CD are usually saved as uncompressed AIF or WAV files. The CDA files are basically useless when a CD has been ripped to a computer's hard drive or converted to MP3 and written out as files to a CD.
The CDA file format is used for encoding music on all commercial compact discs.
File format attributes:
- File size: about 44 KB
This file format can be played by VCS Player, but can not be created by VCS Recorder.
.IRC
(IRCAM sound file)
IRCAM (.irc) sound file is the sound file format developed by IRCAM, the "Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique" (from France); used for storing audio samples. These files are used by academic music software such as the CSound package and the MixView sound sample editor. These files also specify an arbitrary sampling rate and can contain mono or stereo files.
*** What is Csound? Csound is a programming language designed and optimized for sound rendering and signal processing. It is also known as a sound compiler or an audio programming language.
File format attributes:
- Compressed audio
- Sound quality: N/A
- File size: N/A
This file format can be played by VCS Player, and created by VCS Recorder using the IRCAM's audio codec.
.MP3
(MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3)
MP3 is an audio-specific format that was designed by the Moving Picture Experts Group as part of its MPEG-1 standard. The layer 3 is one of the three coding schemes (layer 1, layer 2, layer 3) for the compression of audio signals that uses perceptual audio coding and psychoacoustic compression to remove all superfluous sound signal that the human ear can't hear or doesn't easily pick up. MP3 is a popular audio format for consumer audio storage, as well as a standard of digital audio compression for the transfer, distribution on the Internet, and playback of music on digital audio players.
When creating an MP3 file, you can select varying amounts of compression depending on the desired file size and sound quality. Common MP3 file sound quality is about 128-256kbps.
*** MPEG: Moving Picture Experts Group — a committee that sets international standards for the digital encoding of movies and sound.
File format attributes:
- Lossy compressed audio
- Sound quality: from low to high - depends on user demand
- File size: medium to big - depends on the sound quality
This file format can be played by VCS Player, and created by VCS Recorder using LAME's encoder.
.NIST
(MusePack compressed audio file)
The he NIST (.nist) file format is also referred to as the Sphere file format developed by the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST).
File format attributes:
- Compressed audio
- Sound quality: N/A
- File size: N/A
This file format can be played by VCS Player, and created by VCS Recorder using the NIST's audio codec.
.OGG
(Ogg Vorbis Compressed Audio File)
Ogg (or Vorbis Ogg) is a compressed audio file that uses free, unpatented Ogg Vorbis compression; similar to an MP3 file, but sounds better than an MP3 file of equal size. This file type is supported by many audio players and some portable music players. Because Vorbis is most often used in conjunction with a digital A/V container format known as "Ogg," it's usually referred to as "Ogg Vorbis."
OGG Vorbis, like MP3, is a lossy compression system, removing frequencies deemed inaudible. It is a bitstream container format for efficient streaming and file compression. It was created in the process of developing a set of components for the coding and decoding of multimedia content which could be both freely available and freely re-implementable in software. Both formats offer variable-bitrate encoding options, for better efficiency. But the algorithms Vorbis uses to decide which information to discard differ from those used by MP3. Proponents claim that the Vorbis format outperforms MP3, producing files that are significantly smaller than MP3s of similar sound quality (or files that sound better than similarly sized MP3s).
File format attributes:
- Lossy compressed audio
- Sound quality: from low to high - depends on user demand
- File size: medium to big - depends on the sound quality
This file format can be played by VCS Player, and created by VCS Recorder using the Vorbis Ogg's audio codec.
.WAV
(Windows waveform audio file format)
WAVE or WAV is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs. It is the main format used on Windows systems for raw and typically uncompressed audio. WAV files are similar to AIF files, but they are based on the Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF), rather than the Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF); WAV files are most often seen on Windows-based computers, while AIF files are more common on Macintosh systems.
File format attributes:
- Uncompressed audio
- Sound quality: high
- File size: big
This file format can be played by VCS Player, and created by VCS Recorder using Microsoft Windows Media's Audio codec.
.WMA
(Windows Media Audio)
Windows Media Audio (.wma) file is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The file can be of any size compressed to match many different connection speeds, or bandwidths. It is part of the Windows Media package, and is firmly integrated in Microsoft's Windows Media Player.
Though not as popular as MP3, proponents of lossy WMA claim that it can outperform MP3 in the area of sound quality, particularly with files encoded at lower bitrates such as 64 or 96 Kbps. This performance advantage makes it handy for applications like portable digital audio players, where total play time is limited by a finite amount of internal memory. WMA offers the advantage that copyright-protected songs cannot be published any further (Digital Rights Management), that's why many music- and movie-corporations decided in favor of WMA.
File format attributes:es:
- Lossless/Lossy compressed audio
- Sound quality: from medium to high - depends on user demand
- File size: medium to big - depends on the sound quality
This file format can be played by VCS Player, and created by VCS Recorder using Microsoft Windows Media's Audio codec.