Steve, Amro Et AL,
Hope this info satisfies people's curisoty on this subject.
Jim Williams
----- Original Message -----
From: Dominic R Labbe
To: jwuspaceman@xxxxxxxxx
Cc: Gary Small
Sent: Monday, October 03, 2016 1:49 PM
Subject: RE: Music file formats
Hi Jim
FLAC and MP4-AAC are very different codecs. Sorry in advance if I'm too
technical or not enough technical. You are welcome to ask additional questions.
FLAC is a lossless format which typically means no quality is loss: the PCM
samples are not modified unlike MP3 which modify the audio. Think about a wav
in a zip file and you get the idea. I can't describe FLAC in term of bitrate as
it depends on what's inside: a recording of a river flowing will get more
compressed than a symphony orchestra but it both cases the audio will be
restored to original quality by the decoder.
MP4-AAC is a lossy codec (like MP3) which means that the audio samples will not
be restored as they were. MP3 and MP4-AAC are kind of equivalent except that
MP4 results in smaller size file than MP3 for the same quality. MP4-AAC has
higher bitrates options like 256 Kbs that is used by Apple that outperform MP3.
(For example 96Kbs MP4-AAC is deemed equivalent to 128 Kbs MP3)
So for many people MP3 at 196 Kbs does the job but some will noticed
"problems". With MP4-AAC at 256 Kbs, it works well enough for most people that
are happy with itunes quality. Serious audiophile will settle for FLAC, giving
up some space for "preserved quality".
Not knowing the exact use case you have and your tolerance to audio artefacts:
I would say that FLAC is your best choice but MP4-AAC at 256Kbs is an excellent
choice.
All of this is based on the theory. In practice, the quality (or lack of it) of
some MP3 encoders is even more of an issue that the specification of the codec
itself when people complain about MP3.
Hope it helps, I'm available for extra questions.
Best regards
________________________________________
Dominic R. Labbé 1-450-463-1717 x 356
From: Gary Small
Sent: October-03-16 8:11 AM
To: Dominic R Labbe <dominic.labbe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: FW: Music file formats
Hi Dominic,
Hope you are well. Are you able to give this customer some advice on this
please? It's a bit out of my expertise!
Kind Regards,
Gary Small
From: Jim Williams [mailto:jwuspaceman@xxxxxxxxx] ;
Sent: 03 October 2016 12:44
To: Gary Small <gary.small@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Music file formats
Hi Gary,
Many thanks for your list of music formats that can be used on the New Gen VRS
you kindly sent last week. I am trying to decide which file format to use in
place of MP3 as I find the condensing spoils some tracks I have recorded but
WAV obviously takes up too much space.
It's been recommended to me to use either M4A or FLAC for less condensed
recordings. Do you have any idea what the Bit rates of the 2 files I have
mentioned might be? Alternatively, can you suggest any of the other formats on
your list I could try and what their Bit rates are or where I can find this
information.
Many thanks.
Jim Williams
