Favourite audio format to store music in?

[Twiggy]

I'll have to make do with MP3s at around 256 kbps, because that will work well across all devices, sound good enough (It's above 192 kbps by a healthy margin and is can't be distinguished with 320 or CD), its tags can be read easily by most programs, and MP3Gain (with Unicode support) works with it very well. It's also isn't as costly as 320 kbps MP3s on my puny SSD.

What's your preferred audio format?

[LugiaDialga]

My personal favorite audio format is MP3. The file size is not overbearing and it has decent quality if the audio is rendered correctly. The comments/tags/etc. also work nicely with most to all portable audio playing devices, like Twiggy said before me here. However, MP3 is a compressed audio format, similar to how Youtube Super-Compresses the video files uploaded to it's site, just not as strong obviously. To Audiogeeks/Audiophiles me, we can detect these differences usually but it's nothing to cry over. I shall include a quick demonstration here.

Originally Posted by Twiggy

I'll have to make do with MP3s at around 256 kbps, because that will work well across all devices, sound good enough (It's above 192 kbps by a healthy margin and is can't be distinguished with 320 or CD), its tags can be read easily by most programs, and MP3Gain (with Unicode support) works with it very well. It's also isn't as costly as 320 kbps MP3s on my puny SSD.

I will agree with you, Twiggy, I prefer 256 kbps and usually like to render my audio (my own music I create mean of course), however, I find that sites such as OCRemix (high standards) like to have no more than 195 kbps. Why is this? I'm not entirely sure, perhaps to keep an audio standard. Yet their audio hosted on their sites (professional remixes) are not hindered in quality at all, not in the slightest. So perhaps having 192 kbps is not bad which is why I rendered this Ending Credits theme song from Pokemon Black & White in that format to see if there are any differences to compare to the second rendering of the song I have in WAV format with 16-bit float depth. Overboard reply is overboard.

SoundWave Compare    

Attachment 3261

Wav download (could not fit wav file into 10mb file size limit, showing how just uncompressed it is): http://www.mediafire.com/?1s3mo96ct4cl6jf

[NismoZ]

My personal favorite is MP3, with around a 320kbps bitrate because I'm somewhat of an audiophile. It's a lot better than 192kbps and without the hassles of lossless format.

[Cat333Pokémon]

My personal archival of remixes is always in WAV at the same sampling rate as the recording, never anything else. I distribute them in original WAV for the audiophiles as well as MP3 at 256 kbps (encoded with lame) for a good balance of quality, size, and compatibility.

However, I hate MP3 for any personal purposes. It's so outdated and sounds very poor. I've got really sensitive ears to artifcats, and I can hear them on most MP3 files under 216 kbps. Hey, at least we're not all using MP2; it's even worse.

For ripping CDs and standard transfer of audio to media players, I prefer WMA Pro at 192 kbps, with WMA Standard at 192 kbps as fallback.

AAC/M4A is the format I prefer for the soundtrack in my videos, as well as for transfer of media to the 3DS or other devices that don't support WMA.

[Luxray13579]

Most of the files I have that I keep on my phone are MP3, but a handful of them are AAC because they're even more compatible with my phone.

[SpaceMan++]

MP3 is all of my music library. I have heard MP3 is low-quality music which fooled ears enough to be enjoyable. Or, it is "The more you know about graphics, the less you know about sound.". I've also heard there exists another format that compresses better than MP3 and my iPod can use it, but I'm not ready to convert it.

[Fubab_107]

MP3 for mine. It's universal for most of the things I use. Especially when I decide I can add it to a game. Plus most the things I use can use the MP3.

[Cat333Pokémon]

Originally Posted by SpaceManPlusPlus

I've also heard there exists another format that compresses better than MP3 and my iPod can use it, but I'm not ready to convert it.

That'd likely be AAC/M4A.

[KingOfKYA]

Just to annoy cat fla format.
Rencoded in http://www.speex.org/

[GTP_NickSkyline]

I prefer MP3 for almost all audio files, it sounds good enough to me if the bitrate is > 128kb/s or < 320 kb/s. FLAC, I don't understand because the audio files are so large for a 4 minute long audio file.

I don't really mind OGG or WAV too much.

[Cat333Pokémon]

Originally Posted by GTP_NickSkyline

FLAC, I don't understand because the audio files are so large for a 4 minute long audio file.

FLAC (along with WMA Lossless, AAC Lossless, Monkey's Audio, and a few others) is a compressed version of WAV that has an identical waveform in less space.

[Twiggy]

I've always wondered about the practicality of lossless audio these days. If you can't hear the difference between a well-encoded 192k and the original, I think it might be a good point to just call it a day and go with just one step higher - 256k. Likewise, if you can hear something wrong with 192k, but not with 256, then feel free to use 320. Diminishing returns, though - the difference is extremely noticeable from anything below 128k to 128k, and then again from 128k to 192k for most standard codecs. Advanced codecs such as HE-AAC, WMAP, MP3P will be <64k - 64k - 128k.

Oh, and by the way, files compressed using these lossless audio codecs aren't bound by WAV container limits. Speaking of WAV, since it's just a container format, it's entirely possible that it can contain compressed audio, like ADPCM, for example. (quarters file size of a 16-bit LPCM audio stream, at the cost of possible clipping at high frequencies)

[PokeRemixStudio]

At one point I had an EP by Xanopticon (The Silver Key) on my hard drive that was in FLAC. 3 songs, 20 minutes, 160 megabytes. Bullcrap. The songs weren't even that great. I'll settle for MP3 160 kbps to 360 kbps.

Also, I'm moving this to a more appropriate forum. We're not necessarily talking about making music.

[Cat333Pokémon]

Originally Posted by Twiggy

Oh, and by the way, files compressed using these lossless audio codecs aren't bound by WAV container limits. Speaking of WAV, since it's just a container format, it's entirely possible that it can contain compressed audio, like ADPCM, for example. (quarters file size of a 16-bit LPCM audio stream, at the cost of possible clipping at high frequencies)

Oh, that's true. I used to experiment with all kinds of different ACM compressors. Too bad it's mostly obsolete nowadays. Heck, I remember seeing a lot of WAV files that contained low-bitrate MP3 data. The max was 56 kbps for stereo and something like 28 kbps for mono.

[Twiggy]

Originally Posted by PokeRemixStudio

At one point I had an EP by Xanopticon (The Silver Key) on my hard drive that was in FLAC. 3 songs, 20 minutes, 160 megabytes. Bullcrap. The songs weren't even that great. I'll settle for MP3 160 kbps to 360 kbps.

Also, I'm moving this to a more appropriate forum. We're not necessarily talking about making music.

Not to mention that when you try to use these codecs on a mobile device, it all falls apart.

They say that the audio encoder itself also counts towards the resulting quality of audio files if it's not purely mathematical. I know that FFmpeg doesn't do AAC encoding justice, but I think iTunes and RealPlayer's own converter work well (from my own use). As for MP3, seems like every one of them are mature enough to handle anything well starting from 128k.

Advanced audio codecs like HE-AAC, WMAP and stuff can store a whole lot more data within less space, or give higher quality audio given the same bit rate as a normal codec, but they also need a whole lot more CPU grunt. Or a dedicated decoder.

...Even though we're not talking about making music, I do believe that it is still music-related.

Originally Posted by Forum description

Discussion and bragging about music, composition, and other forms of audio

[PokeRemixStudio]

Originally Posted by Twiggy

...Even though we're not talking about making music, I do believe that it is still music-related.

The whole Artwork, Music, and Fan-Fiction forum cluster is for user-generated media only. That includes the Music board.