Few people know that since the advent of sound in computer systems, technology has gone far ahead. It’s now commonplace that tracks are played in MP3 format at best . In fact, this was not always the case, and audio in computer systems was focused only on the use of the system speaker. The same games created under DOS worked in this mode.
First sound
In fact, the first sound production in the series of what could be squeezed out of the computer systems of that time was connected with the appearance of the DOS system and primitive games designed to work in it. Not to mention the Super Mario, borrowed from Nintendo, there were 3D shooters like Duke Nukem, which tried to convey the whole essence of the gameplay with stereo sound. Nevertheless, all this did not make absolutely any impression, because professional music and editing sound tracks remained unavailable.
The appearance of codecs
The revolution occurred when a universal codec was released, allowing you to compress files and play everything that can be recorded from a microphone. By that time, the extension of sound files had only one conditional representation, namely WAV (from the abbreviated "wave").
However, WAV files took up too much space on the hard drive. Let's just say that even today a track in this format for about five minutes can “weigh” up to 25-50 MB, depending on the quality. Over time, it became clear that the size of the sound file should not be too large.
Studio audio
Now a little about technology. In terms of recording, a sound file is something that every musician can play in real time and record on a computer or a special device in the studio. This is not the point. The fact is that absolutely all programs designed to record a session in the studio still use the WAV format, no matter how much they want to do without it. In some cases, it can automatically transform into another (at the end of recording). Most often this happens with programs like (Pro Tools), which are designed to be used exclusively on Mac OS X systems.
But even in this case, the sound file is a component of the initial format, which does not lose its relevance. The explanation is simple. In fact, in professional-level studios, no one ever uses compressed files, considering them a parody of clear sound. Of course, the extension of sound files after recording can be anything. In some cases, .wav files may be temporary. That is, after recording the audio track, they are simply deleted from the hard drive.
Modern audio formats
Today, the market for codecs that are compatible with audio devices or software players, a lot. However, if anyone noticed, even in the descriptions of some films there are codecs such as AAC, H.264 or something like that. Do not create problems for yourself. It is enough to install the latest version of, say, K-Lite Codec Pack on your computer, and the problems will disappear by themselves. But this is not the main thing. This refers to the encoding of audio files and audio decoding. And with this a lot of difficulties can arise.
Sound Playback: Key Features
Sound file formats are directly related to their parameters in which they were created or saved initially. But not only this affects the quality of playback.
First of all, you need to pay attention to the frequency characteristics. Programs are able to give an understanding that a sound file is a usual frequency or amplitude characteristic in the form of a wave, previously reproduced on the same oscilloscopes. The main characteristics in this case are the playback depth, expressed in bits (16, 24, 32), the frame rate (data playback rate per second), usually at a level of 32 to 450 kbit / s, as well as a sampling frequency of up to 96 kHz.
In general, the standard adopted a frequency of 44100 Hz, although professional musicians and producers use values ​​of the order of 48 or 96 kHz.
What you can’t do without
Now a little about the fact that the extension of sound files has a very large resource. It is no longer customary to talk only about MP3, because the FLAC format is still better in terms of performance .
He has his flaws. The fact is that if one or another codec is not installed in the system, in normal mode switching between tracks will be impossible. Roughly speaking, any software player will perceive the recording as a whole audio track. The same AIMP initially sets its codecs and initial settings in terms of what kind of audio file formats this player can play.
So, if you decide to download audio in this format, you need to be sure that the player will perceive it. In addition, the frequency response can overload any player (especially when using third-party plug-ins and extensions).
Sound processing and subtleties associated with this process
Now it’s worthwhile to dwell on the problem of how to process audio, even if the original track is in the video. For this, there are a lot of software packages, among which it is worth highlighting programs such as Sound Forge, Adobe Audition, Mixcraft, etc.
All of them are subject to one principle of sound processing - namely, the representation of any format in the form of a “wave”.
Editing in this way allows you not only to understand what “types of sound files” are, but also to realize that any audio recording can be saved in an acceptable version.
Here there are a lot of tools not only for editing audio, but also the use of additional tools, which today are called “plugins”. In other words, this is a third-party application that connects to the interface of the main package programmatically, which is an addition to the main functionality. Processing sound files using them becomes more advanced than using their own means of a program.
In the end, you can understand that the sound file is what we constantly hear now on the same radio. Even having recorded the conversation on the recorder, we still get the sound file. Some older mobile devices may change the format. For example, the extension of sound files is saved even in the outdated AMR format.
Ultimate sound performance
Now it’s worth stopping that today any kinds of multimedia files can be opened using applications that provide cross-platform communication between the main components of systems.
For example, if before a WAV file was represented in the form of a wave, now any other format is compiled in exactly the same way. Regardless of the format, many software products are able to open the same OGG, which in the standard version is simply unable to work (without an installed codec).
In fact, everything is simple. If you understand what sound (audio) files are, then you can even write music, which, in fact, is done by DJs representing dubstep or something like that. The main thing is that the crowd "freaked out."
Here, too, have their own nuances. The fact is that in modern discos, sound files in the form of drum sequences can be programmed from the beginning. For this, special “rack” racks for DJs are created.
From the point of view of a professional musician, a sound file created at a disco when people are on a rampage cannot compare with what “live” performers offer.
Even the tool banks of the most popular synthesizers and workstations from the Roland Fantom X series (any series) or Yamaha Motif X8 (and above) are now available in SF2 format.
Of course, this is not all that professional tools can do. But! If someone has played them at least once, they will immediately feel that the program sound file during encoding is no different from the original sound, even in the SF2 format.
In conclusion, we note that a sound file is a set of synthesizer commands that has a MIDI structure (internal) that distributes instruments across one track and effects across others. In any case, there are universal modules that combine all these features. This is how the separation of tracks into “Tools” and “Effects” is achieved.