Music File Formats

[drumandbasshead010]

Sorry, was not sure where to post this. When going on air, what is the music file format that takes up the least storage, but does not have enough loss in sound quality that your average everyday listener will notice any difference? Are mp3/m4a files too lossy to use on air? If so, what is best to use, aside from streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify?

[dancemusicdj]

Flac would be the format that fits your description to the t, However quite frankly i'd use wav. yes it does take up a good amount of storage but Storage is quite cheep these days and wav is supported by almost anything. If one does have to use mp3 then 320, nothing less. But wav really is the way to go now.

[Albert H]

Don't believe the hype! You'll be very unlikely to hear a difference between MP3 at 192kHz and 320kHz. I tend to use Ogg Vorbis as my chosen compressed file format. If you set it for "adaptable" or "variable" sample rate, it will record as small a file as it can get away with whilst maintaining good quality.

We're using Ogg files over a wide link (microwave) to upload an hour's programme in about 15 seconds. This prevents the authorities from tracking a live link, and allows an overnight set of programmes to be uploaded in a couple of minutes. The stereo encoding and RDS is done in software at the site, and the uploaded audio is pre-processed at the studio end to keep the modulation index high. We use a pair of Raspberry Pi SBCs with a cheap soundcard and a big USB memory stick at the site. One computer does the audio, stereo coding and RDS, and the other does the system management and streams telemetry - heatsink temperature, burglar alarm status and audio stream time remaining - the "logic pack" costs about £70 in parts, so is effectively "throwaway".

[drumandbasshead010]

Sorry to seem a little bit picky here, but is there any file format with reasonably decent quality that I could use without downloading any third-party programmes such as Vorbis? I would assume that without downloading the Vorbis software there is no way of enabling 'adaptable' etc. It's just that as I have stated before, I have no sight in either eye and getting the screen-reader to work with music editors etc is tricky enough. If I were to download an .ogg file without the open-source programme would it serve me just as well? I guess there is no way of simply downloading an .ogg variable file or one of a format with that good quality without fiddling around with editors? If that is the case I guess i'll just have to deal with the significant loss of quality.

[dancemusicdj]

Sorry to seem a little bit picky here, but is there any file format with reasonably decent quality that I could use without downloading any third-party programmes such as Vorbis? I would assume that without downloading the Vorbis software there is no way of enabling 'adaptable' etc. It's just that as I have stated before, I have no sight in either eye and getting the screen-reader to work with music editors etc is tricky enough. If I were to download an .ogg file without the open-source programme would it serve me just as well? I guess there is no way of simply downloading an .ogg variable file or one of a format with that good quality without fiddling around with editors? If that is the case I guess i'll just have to deal with the significant loss of quality.

what software do you use to play music currently.

[Albert H]

Sorry to seem a little bit picky here, but is there any file format with reasonably decent quality that I could use without downloading any third-party programmes such as Vorbis? I would assume that without downloading the Vorbis software there is no way of enabling 'adaptable' etc. It's just that as I have stated before, I have no sight in either eye and getting the screen-reader to work with music editors etc is tricky enough. If I were to download an .ogg file without the open-source programme would it serve me just as well? I guess there is no way of simply downloading an .ogg variable file or one of a format with that good quality without fiddling around with editors? If that is the case I guess i'll just have to deal with the significant loss of quality.

What software do you use at the moment? If it's Windows-based, you're going to have to download and install third-party software no matter what file format you use. Windows allows the use of .wav files and their own bizarre format that's DRM-ridden and incompatible with everything. You must be using some add-on software if you're suffering Windows!

My two blind friends both use Linux. They just find it friendlier and easier to use. One of them uses "Knoppix Adrienne". Klaus Knopper is a German software designer and is married to a blind woman - Adrienne - so he built a complete operating system and software suite for her to use. In true Open Source style, he made it freely available to the rest of the world!

There's a great article here: https://opensource.com/life/15/8/access ... d-disabled which tells you about the latest versions of Linux for blind people. There are a lot of blind and partially-sighted people who use Linux because it works better than the nasty, expensive Windows-based software and because it's free! I wouldn't use anything else!

[drumandbasshead010]

I have been using WMP as a player (not the best, but it's easy to work with) and the only third-party programmes I've used are the sources for the downloaded files. I have never needed a third-party piece of software to convert/download them, I can do them from a website usually.