【AUDIO FILE EXTENSIONS】What are they and types? ▷ 2022

Extension Features Program

.mp3

• It maintains a high quality (of CD) in relation to its excellent compression, of 1/10 or more.
• Minimum weight, with 1 Megabyte per minute of music.
• Easy to get from a .wav.
• Main format on websites.

• MP3 player devices
• All browsers
• The vast majority of audio playback software (Windows Media Player, iTunes, VLC, MAX Tray Player, 5K Player, Winamp, Real Player, Rhythmbox…)

.wav

• Developed by Microsoft.
• PCM encoded to maintain Sample Rate and Bit Depth, without loss of quality.
• Extension par excellence to save original audios.
• It offers different sample size.
• Perfect quality.
• Huge weight (between 20 and 30 Mb per song).
• Sample at 8 or 16 bits.
• Saveable with different compression.
• Frequent use for short fragments in mono.
• professional use.
• Compatible with the vast majority of codecs

• CD players
• microsoft zune
• Any known playback software (iTunes, QuickTime Player, Microsoft Windows Media Player, VLC, Real Player, JetAudio, ALLPlayer…)
• Multimedia suites (Nero, Helium Music Manager, Movavi Audio Suite Personal…)
• Audio converters (MID converter, Wondershare Video Converter…)
• On all operating systems

.aiff

• Apple .wav version.
• PCM encoding.
• Dual channel stereo audio.
• High quality.
• great weight
• No compression.

• Players (iTunes, Apple QuickTime Player, Nullsoft Winamp Media Player, Winamp, Media Player Classic…)
• Audio editors (Adobe Audition CS6, AIFF MP3 Converter, AIFF Player Plus, AIFF Converter Plus, FLV Crhunch for Mac…)

.wma

• The alternative to mp3 offered by Microsoft (identical bit rate)
• A compressed .wav.
• Compressible to different variables up to 768 kbit/s.

• Windows Media Suite
• Browsers
• Converters (Xiisoft Video Converter, Power WMA Recorder, Bluefox WMA MP3 converter, 4Musics WMA Bitrate Changer, HiFi WMA Cutter…)
• Players (VLC Media Player, Media Player Classic, Winamp, ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre, Mullsoft Winamp Media Player…)

.OGG

• Alternative to .mp3, open source.
• Great compression with quality loss, but not too much.
• Common on Spotify for this balance.
• It usually requires external codecs.
• It can also contain video.
• The sample rate is highly variable, offering many quality and compression alternatives.

• Spotify
• Player software (AIMP, VLC Media Player, Xion Audio Player, Audials One, Aiseesoft Blu-ray Player, 5K Player, Media Player Lite, Elmedia Player…)
• Player software installing codecs (Windows Media Player)
• GPS and browsers using extensions like Web Media Extensions

.FLAC or .FLA

• Lossless or lossless audio format.
• Open, free license.
• Compression up to 60% with minimal loss of quality.
• Streaming sample rates up to 1411 kbps.
• very flexible.
• Metadata tagging.
• It does not store floating point data.
• Much use in recordings

• tidal platform
• Players with codecs (VLC Player, Foobar 2000, AIMP, Clementime
• Players, with plugins (Windows Media Player with DirectShow filter, Fluke, dBpoweramp…)
• Mobile applications (Pi Player, Powerap, Pulsar, TuneShell if stored on SoundCloud…)
• Portable players (AK100 II, Cowon D, Fiio XI…)
• Converters (Switch Audio Converter, Free Mp3 Wma Converter, MediaCoder, GX:Transcoder…)

.A THE C

• It is Apple’s version of .FLAC
• You can convert a .FLAC to .ALAC

• Audio editors (Sony SpectraLayers Pro, Apple Logic Pro, xrecore…)
• Music players (iTunes, QuickTime Player, Windows media Player -with codec pack-…)

.DSD

• Highest quality format of the moment, from Sony and Philips
• 1bit/28224MHz.

• External DAC headphone amplifier

.MIDI

• Digital interface for instruments.
• Store sequences of MIDI devices.
• Edition with specific programs.
• Short weight and duration.
• They save the score, not the sound.
• Common use in HTML pages.
• musical instrumentation.
• No rich sound nuances.

• Main players (QuickTime, Windows Media Player, ALLPlayer, Amarok, Winamp, QuickTime Player, Audacity, Media Player Classic…)
• Converters (MOD Converter, MID 2 WAV, Advanced MID Converter…)

.ra

• RealAudio, created by RealNetworks.
• Majority use in live broadcasts on the internet.
• Retransmission via packets, no download.
• The file is stored on external servers.
• It automatically adapts to the reception capabilities of the users.

• Players (RealPlayer, JetAudio, VLC Media Player, KMPlayer…)
• Converters (Xilisoft Video Converter, Ultimate Video Covenverter, Xine, Switch Sound File Converter for Mac…)
• Browsers, with RealPlayer plugin

.cda

.aac

• It is based on a lossy compression algorithm.
• The quality is higher than that of mp3.
• Complete data is lost, especially redundancies and frequencies that our ear does not hear.
• Maximum bitrate of 1536 kbps.
• The bit rate is variable.
• Designed as an extension of MPEG-2
• Great use on the internet and in digital radio broadcasting.
• Allows you to include copyright protection.
• It requires very few resources.

• Converters (Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate, AAC Converter, Free Apple AAC, AAC to MP3 Converter, Any Audio Converter, Freemake Audio Converter…)
• Players (RealPlayer, VLC Media Player, Media Player Classic, KMPlayer, Winamp, Free AAC MP3 Lite, Audacity, ALLPlayer, MPlayer, Winamp…)

.ac3

• • It makes a perceptual compression to eliminate everything that our ear does not perceive.
  • There is a frequency limit of 120 Hz.
  • Supports both mono and stereo

• Players (Apple QuickTime Player, Microsoft Windows Media Player, MPlayer, CyberLink PowerDVD 12, Nullsoft Winamp Media Player, Media Player CLassic, VLC Media Player…)
• Converters (Free AC 2 iPad shuffle Converter Pro, Nero Burning ROM, AC3 Splitter, AC3 to OOG Free Converter…)