Comparison of Various Audio Codecs

Many a time there will be a need of compressing and decompressing audio files. There are many audio codecs or file formats that are used for this; look at their comparisons in this article.

Audio codecs are file formats or computer programs that are used for compressing and decompressing digital audio data. They decompress the files according to their respective audio file formats or streaming audio formats are usually implemented as libraries that interface with different multimedia players.

Sometimes, the term audio codec is used for reference to hardware implementation and in sound cards. This means that audio codec here means the device that is used for encoding an analog audio file. There are basically two types of audio compression systems; lossless and lossy audio codecs.

As the name suggests, lossless compression implies that after the compression and decompression of audio data, you end up with the same data that was first put in. You can get an idea of lossless compression by looking at zip files where you have the same file content before and after zipping files. FLAC, Monkey’s Audio, WavPack, uncompressed Wave and OptimFROG are all examples of lossless audio codecs.

When you play lossless files, you find the same digital signal that was present in the original audio source. Another advantage of lossless audio codecs is that no matter how many times you compress it; there is no loss in audio data. However there is a disadvantage here that you don’t save as much as you would with lossy compression codecs.

Lossy compression is quite common and famous form of audio compression where you don’t actually get the same data after compression, as there was before audio compression. This is okay if pieces of data in pictures and audio files that go missing will not be that obvious in the compressed file. There are many forms of lossy codecs today like Sorenson, RealVideo, Indeo and Cinepak.

With the help of lossy codecs, you can achieve ratios of 80% or more by discarding data from the original stream of data. It basically discards what is considered to be the least important information found in an audio file. This is why audio tracks that are stored in lossy formats are found to be much smaller than the tracks that are found in lossless formats.

However on playing back this lossy audio file, you find that it does not deliver the same digital signal as the original source. This is because some parts of the music are altered or removed so that the compression of the audio file into a smaller file is possible.

Basically current standards for audio codecs are set based on numerous other features like its support in different devices, support with different software, its licensing, if it is free or paid and archiving. In lossless codecs, the ability of using and recovering data in the future is something that is important for setting audio codec standards.

At present, FLAC is the most widely supported audio codec because it is a non-proprietary file format, has an open-source reference implementation, is not encumbered by patents and has a very well documented format.

FLAC is the preferred file format with owners of CDs and other media who wish to archive their audio collections. With a FLAC copy, there is no worry of loss, damage or wearing out of the original audio tracks as the copy will be an exact back up for the audio file.

Usually lossless compressions are compared for standards using only its compression ratio and speed. When looking at speed, FLAC is considered to be the fastest amongst lossless codecs because of its low complexity and support by many electronic devices.

According to compression ratio standards, FLAC has a compression ratio that is within 3% of most of the complex codecs. As the compression ratios of lossless codecs is found in a narrow range, you find that the difference between the best and worst to be between 7% and 4% in practical codecs.
Source: http://www.flacsite.com

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