Explaining Audio File Formats

Digital audio file formats tutorial, including sample rate, bit depth, codecs, containers, MP3, AAC, WAV, AIFF, BWF, DSD, Monkey’s Audio, WavPack, AC-3, EC-3, AC-4, Ogg Vorbis, Opus and WMA.

If you find this video useful, you may appreciate these other ExplainingComputers episodes:

Explaining Digital Video: Formats, Codecs & Containers:

Explaining Image File Formats:

Explaining File Compression Formats:

More videos on computing and related topics can be found at:

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:53 Digital Audio (sample rate & bit depth)
03:16 Codecs & Containers
05:03 Non-compressed audio formats
07:44 Lossless compression formats
10:24 Lossy Compression formats
13:28 Wrap

#AudioFormats #MP3 #WAV #AIFF #AAC #ExplainingComputers

[rockyhill]

The sound coming from my PC speakers was exceptionally bad as I started watching this video and I thought "ah, he's comparing and contrasting lossy and lossless formats, very smart!" In the end it turned out to be a problem with my headphone jack. Great video!

[supremesonicbrazil]

I like to advocate for a bigger use of Ogg Vorbis due to one curious fact: for some reason MP3 has a little gap of silence when looping, while Ogg Vorbis does not - this is why you see so many game devs use Ogg Vorbis for music instead of MP3 (and WAV for sound effects).

Also because despite the fact MP3 patents have expired long ago, Ogg Vorbis remains a free and open standard. Might be a moot point for some, but I stand firmly with it.

[markcruise]

Great video. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve tried to explain that MP4 files are containers and not a specific codec.
Would have been nice to mention that AAC can achieve the same quality at a lower bitrate than MP3.

[boydpukalo]

Another really good video. My entire collection is a combination of primarily WAV and FLAC's. No lossy music for me. We have 20 TB HDD's, 6GHZ CPU's and dedicated hardware decoders or CPU's who can decode dozens of streams without breaking a sweat.

[Florianski]

The Opus Codec is truly magical. You can encode with around 100-120 kb/s and it sounds absolutely undistinguishable from the lossless source file, even if you listen on high end audio gear.

[jasonslimmingworld]

Thanks for a brilliant clear explanation, fantastic!

[RoyNeeraye]

All that you ever wanted to know about audio file formats but were too afraid to ask. Thank you for another awesome video, Chris! 🫡

[Praxibetel-Ix]

Now that I've watched the video, let me say that I have always ripped my CDs in the .mp3 format and have been doing so since I was still a teenager. In recent months though, I've started fiddling with the settings on my CD ripping software so the MP3 rips would come out sounding better.

Also, wow, what a difference editing on Linux makes! The color grading in the host segments look more natural. I actually compared screenshots of you from this video and last week's and I can really see the difference. :)

[MrMftech]

Exemplary documentary, you mention that wave and flac format support up to 192kHz but both could handle sampling up 768kHz.

[Muhammad_Waleed]

Exceptional Video.
It was really informative and i enjoyed every moment of it.
One suggestion if you dont mind
Smile at the end of the video rather than straight face
It will be a bonus point
Love from Pakistan ❤️

[alanhilder]

So at the 3 different qualities, You have the "standardised open source" system ( not open source but open to use for all ) or the "Apple only" system, with a couple of dying other proprietary systems.
It was pretty much WAV being the CD file type and MP3 for 'quick & dirty' file copying. You get an MP3, listen to work out if you liked it, "Yes" buy the CD, "no" ignore it. They wouldn't have made the sale anyway as they wouldn't have been heard. ( The radio only played what was paid for, not the small/no label songs. )

[ovalwingnut]

Sir Barnatt, you are a gentelman, scholar and a smartypants. You R our resident "IT Whisperer" j8O)

[SojournerDidimus]

Note that while all formats support mono and stereo, but not all support surround.
Opus is a codec developed by Xiph, just like the Ogg codec and Vorbis container. While Ogg is comparable to MPEG-1 layer 3, Opus is comparable to phone calls. Not just in quality, but also in size.

[encyclpedia-]

Video (almost always audio + video) extensions/containers are even more complicated. I'm not sure if you've done a video on that, but that would be a good follow-up for this one (if you haven't already thought of it).

Personally, I use MKV, H.264/AVC + AAC. I used H.265/HEVC for a while until I realized just how much more computing power it takes to decode and its general lack of support.

[robertgaines-tulsa]

I always called a WAV file a Wave file because that's what it is. WAV goes back to the legacy file naming of 8/3, so only 3 letters could be used in the the file extension. I think WAV just sticks around because it's grandfathered.

[Yves_Cools]

@ExplainingComputers (video time frame 00:01:43 - 00:01:50) : Christopher you made a mistake quoting common sample rates : it should be 88.2 KHz, not 88.1 (44.1 * 2 = 88.2, 44.1 * 4 = 176.4)

[JamsODonnell]

A lovely clear explanation. Thank you once again.
I would have liked a mention of licensing considerations attached to the different codecs/ containers but maybe it’s not even relevant anymore, ? - Before I commented I checked on mp3 and was astounded that it is now unlicensed. (2017 at latest 🙄)

[hob]

I have a tad over 3500 music and audio tracks on my main pc, music going all the way back to the 1950's and some audio books. I am 72 years old so MP3 is my "go to" format, it plays on just about every music player phone etc and with me old ears sounds as good as it always did. (got about 150 or so cd's lurking in the wardrobe) not really sure why?

[freesaxon]

Half way into the video I had to lie down and have a rest.
😆 Talk about packing in !!!! It will take me days to decompress all that

[kbe.]

Something does not add up for me here. WAV was created in 1991. Wavpack was created in 1988 to contain all features of a WAV file. One of these is obviously wrong.