{"id":2477,"date":"2020-10-06T13:22:10","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T13:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/?page_id=2477"},"modified":"2026-03-24T12:50:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:50:27","slug":"audio-formats","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/audio-formats\/","title":{"rendered":"Audio formats"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SebastianD9909 \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

Digital audio file formats come in four groups:<\/span><\/p>\n

Original <\/strong>(or ‘native’)\u00a0 to your application, for example, Audacity’s .aup<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0or Adobe Audition’s .sesx<\/span>. The first can only be opened in Audacity, the second, only in Audition.\u00a0 \u00a0(Other original formats include MS Word’s .docx, Excel’s .xlsx, Photoshop .psd, etc).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Uncompressed <\/strong>formats have the largest file sizes given equal lengths of recorded time. They include .wav<\/span> formats for Windows PC and .aiff<\/span> for MacOS.\u00a0 These days, Mac and PC platforms are\u00a0 able to handle both formats.<\/p>\n

Compressed non-lossy audio formats<\/strong> are smaller size but have the same information. Formats include WavPack<\/span> and\u00a0 MPEG 4.<\/span> Typically these files are half the size of uncompressed formats like .wav.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Lossy audio formats <\/strong>are even smaller. Like .jpg image formats, lossy audio formats can “lose” some of the data by removing\u00a0 audio information.\u00a0 Lossy formats include ACC\u00a0<\/span> (for iTunes, aka m4a<\/span>) along with MP3,<\/span> or MPEG Layer 3, the most common sound file format in use. (The Moving Picture Experts Group is a working group of the International Standards Organization).<\/p>\n

To repeat, you’ll probably work with these three formats most of the time:<\/p>\n