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[fredvs]

What kind of playable do you use the most ?

[Torkell]

Hmm... I'll have to create multiple accounts to vote for everything. You simply *can't* beat WAV for quality, but it eats disk space. OGG and MP3 are too similar, although I'd go for OGG as it is a bit better and is open source. I never touch WMA if I can avoid it, but M$ foist it on you everywhere. MODs sit right up there with WAVs for quality, but older ones tend to contain 8-bit 22kHz. MO3 should be counted seperatly, as it is a MOD with OGG/MP3 compressed samples, which decreases the quality but gives you more disk space (I'm currently working on compressing my MOD library, but I'm using MO3 rather than outputting to MP3/OGG). I don't really bother with CDA anymore; if I find a CD that I like, I'll rip it (to OGG) and add it to my playlist.

Note to other people: If you're thinking of converting everything to OGG or MP3 then *don't convert from one to the other* as you lose out that way (i.e. don't do OGG -> MP3 or MP3 -> OGG).

[Sebastian_Mares]

Actually, you can beat WAV files using APE or other non-lossy formats.

[Zep]

You simply *can't* beat WAV for quality

Actually WAV file can contain practically any kind of compressed data so we should be speaking PCM data.

[Sebastian_Mares]

Actually WAV file can contain practically any kind of compressed data so we should be speaking PCM data.

Good point!

[Torkell]

Yes, but only a WAV file (or maybe other lossless codec which will probably have a .WAV extension) will hold 96kHz 32bit uncompressed PCM data. OGGs, MP3s and MO3s use mainly lossy compression. But the reason my files are in 128Kb/s OGG is because it's a *lot* smaller than WAV and you don't lose too much quality.

[Zakhar]

I've read somewhere that the technology Sony has used for MDs [Mini Disks] is one of the best compression algorithms since the birth of digital audio.but they don't reveal the details and keepts it secret to their own labs.as you may know MDs could record 44Khz-16bit [and soem of them even 48Khz-20bit] in a very small disk.

It would be cool to have that technology on PCs specialy for musicians like myslef whom their hard drives are nearly overflowing of dman big Wave files...  :-/

[bigjim]

Im not sure if it is that big a secret as i recall that there was a mini disk drive available for the pc a time ago but it never really caught on

Ive owned mini disk audio recorders for years now and i can confirm that the quality is very good

I think sony will probably want a substantial amount of money for their techology though

[engineeer]

I've read somewhere that the technology Sony has used for MDs [Mini Disks] is one of the best compression algorithms since the birth of digital audio

It must be Sony's commercial that you've read  
Most guys envoled in music (recording, production etc.) will tell you that "MD sounds very cold". They stick with DAT more then 15 years.  

MD uses ATRAC audio coding system wich compresses 44.1 kHz / 16 bit audio to approximately 1/5 of the original data rate (4.83:1).

Windows ACM codec is available for Sony ATRAC3, also known as MDLP or MiniDisc Long Play. The codec includes support for encoding 66kbps, 105kbps, and 132kbps streams. You can get it here: http://www.minidisc.org/atrac3.zip

[josl]

Re: DAT  
When it comes to a interchangeable media within a production, a TC DAT Tape is ok (Yes if you need only linear PCM up to normally 16Bit/48kHz)  

The lossy Codecs like the early Atracs or ADPCM sounded horrible

I think there is a big difference in media for Production and media for Reproduction.

[VB_Guy]

Nothing beats Record Players!;D



VB Guy