Klarinet Archive - Posting 001134.txt from 2000/02

From: "Mark Charette" <charette@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] CD - WAV? MP3?
Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 01:23:40 -0500

From: "J. Hobby" <jhobby@-----.net>
> I have some old recordings, going back as far as my junior recital, that I
> want to put on CDs for archival purposes. I've been told to copy them to
> disk as WAV files. Others have told me I need to convert the WAV files
into
> MP3 files before I put them on CD.

WAV files are like TIFF files in graphics - no compression, just raw data.
_Exactly_ how you want to store them for archival purposes. Most computer
sound cards are "OK" for this kind of thing - not especially good, but
better than ruining an LP.

MP3, QDesign, RealAudio, and their ilk use lossy compression algorithms -
like JPEG or Wavelet compression algorithms for graphics. They're not
invertible - meaning bits get lost forever. Most of the time you'd start
with WAV and then convert to another format for Web use because WAV formats
are just too big.

There are some WAV compression routines that are lossless (RLE, for example)
but not all digital players can decompress them.

I'd stick with WAV.

Mark C.

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