List of audio file formats

In fact, there are dozens of them, but you should turn ATTENTION to the main ones.

The codec compresses the sound, for better compression, almost all codecs cut what they think the user can not hear anyway. In fact, today the old good vinyl discs have become popular again. Because we do not hear everything, but we perceive everything.

Because today became popular codec, which compresses nothing by cropping and not removing - FLAC. It takes twice as much space as MP3, but the difference in sound is obvious.

Speaking about quality, streaming audio is important for streaming audio (radio, podcasts).

Standart audio file

.MP3 (MPEG Layer version 3)
The main format, the most common.

.AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)
Alternative to MP3, used by Apple in iTunes.

.OGG (Audio file Ogg Vorbis)
A new format, with a smaller size is better quality. In fact, the difference with MP3 is not global.

.WAV (Microsoft Wave)
.WMA (Windows Media Audio)
Microsoft format, competitor MP3, the file weight is larger, the quality is the same.

High quality=sound

.FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec)
A popular codec that compresses nothing is cropping and not deleting.

System sounds

.MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)
MIDI Does not store a digital sound, but sets of commands: played notes, links to instruments, sound parameters.
Thus, the file is very small, the sound is very poor. In such files, system sounds can be played.

Stream

.M3U (playlist file)
This is not an extension of the audio file, but a link to streaming, ex. radio, podcast

Audio disc

.CDA (CD Digital Audio)
Audio CD format.