when you pull music off a CD on to your puter, it is usually as a WAV
file. All the 1s and 0s (the information in the files / music on the CD) are still present on on the files on your computer. The file is usually very large at this point.
Most folks
will then compress the file to make it smaller in size. There are 2
types of ways to compress these files - 'lossy' and 'lossless'. Lossy means
some of the 1s and 0s (data/music in the original file) have been removed during the compression process
thus some of the original data(music/notes) on a CD may no longer be on your
compressed file. MP3s are compressed lossy files. The higher the bitrate
(number of bits per time) the more of the original data remains. The
lower the bitrate, the smaller the file is - however less of the original data is present.
FLAC and ALAC are also compression formats (they result in
files that are smaller than WAVs) but are lossless (all the
data/music/1s and 0s are still present). Since all the information is
still there, they are much larger than mp3s. While not totally true,
ALAC is simply apple's version of FLAC and has limited playback support.
FLACs are usually easier to find a player to play them.
Mobile
Phones lack large storage options so MP3s are usually they
way most people playback music on their phones. Mp3s are missing information / music so some of us
music nazis don't like them as we believe they do not sound as good as FLACs. That
being said, a larger bitrate mp3 (320 kb/sec) can sound damn good - but
it takes up a more space than the default mp3 (128 kb/sec).
MAYBE that helps you 2 out a little.
file. All the 1s and 0s (the information in the files / music on the CD) are still present on on the files on your computer. The file is usually very large at this point.
Most folks
will then compress the file to make it smaller in size. There are 2
types of ways to compress these files - 'lossy' and 'lossless'. Lossy means
some of the 1s and 0s (data/music in the original file) have been removed during the compression process
thus some of the original data(music/notes) on a CD may no longer be on your
compressed file. MP3s are compressed lossy files. The higher the bitrate
(number of bits per time) the more of the original data remains. The
lower the bitrate, the smaller the file is - however less of the original data is present.
FLAC and ALAC are also compression formats (they result in
files that are smaller than WAVs) but are lossless (all the
data/music/1s and 0s are still present). Since all the information is
still there, they are much larger than mp3s. While not totally true,
ALAC is simply apple's version of FLAC and has limited playback support.
FLACs are usually easier to find a player to play them.
Mobile
Phones lack large storage options so MP3s are usually they
way most people playback music on their phones. Mp3s are missing information / music so some of us
music nazis don't like them as we believe they do not sound as good as FLACs. That
being said, a larger bitrate mp3 (320 kb/sec) can sound damn good - but
it takes up a more space than the default mp3 (128 kb/sec).
MAYBE that helps you 2 out a little.
