Week 6: Muddy

            The concept that was most difficult to understand this week was the differences between the various audio file formats. I learned which ones are popular and which ones are compressed, as well as some attributes about them. However, it is not clear to me which audio file format is used in a specific scenario. Mr. Olsen always talks about the importance of usage in choosing amongst different technology, and I don't know how to analyze which audio file format is best in a specific circumstance.
          This website provides a clear explanation of the different audio file formats. It explains that Wave files (wav) and MPEG Layer-3 files (mp3) are the most common types of audio files. This site divides the different file formats into open file formats and proprietary formats. WAV, AIFF, and MP3 are open file formats while WMA and AAC are proprietary formats. This is another website that clearly explains the topic of audio file formats. It breaks down technical jargon into simpler terms, explaining that a file format is simply a a specific way that codecs encode data in order for it to be saved as a file. It explains what the codec does and also how a lossy codec differs from a lossless codec. At the bottom of the website, it talks about the same audio file formats explained in the previous site and in class yet made them much easier to comprehend.
            WAV and AIFF are both uncompressed, lossless formats, and WAV is preferred by PC users while mac users rip CDs into AIFF. AAC is the lossy default audio format for Apple that was created to replace MP3. Though it never reached the same level of prominence as MP3, AAC wins in terms of sound quality to file size ratio. WMA is a compressed format owned by Microsoft that has Digital Rights Management (DRM) to control how a file is used or shared. Finally, MP3 is lossy with a high level of compression and is the most popular format for downlading and storing music. MP3 eliminates parts of the file that is basically inaudible and compresses the file to a small fraction of its original size. MP3 is ideal for music storage. Ultimately, these websites helped explain the topics further, and now I understand why any of these audio file formats would be chosen over any other one, depending on the situation. Here is a picture displaying the different audio file formats:

Works Cited:

http://www.nch.com.au/acm/formats.html

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/a-look-at-the-different-file-formats-available-part-1-audio/

http://dvd-video-tools.com/images/ss/switch-b.gif