The CDs, their music devices and, in fact, even the radio are far away. Now it takes the digital in all aspects and in its most current version and we listen to everything through files, data or tracks that include sound content that we can play with different programs and appliances.
Part of these is the extension of audio files, which is the one that tells us the type of track that is the one in front of us. Of course, we also have other elements, although the one that interests us and that we will talk about next is precisely that.
We advise you to keep this post in bookmarks because will come in handy when it comes to identifying the audios you download and knowing how to play them . We are going to show you, therefore, what these formats are, why and what they are used for and where and how you can play the audios they accompany.
Index:
What is the extension or format of an audio file and what is it really for?
The format of a file will tell us how it is built, what its characteristics are and with what software or program we can execute it. In the case of the extension of audio files, what it is going to tell us, in effect, are the characteristics that that sound track has .
Each extension is a kind of quality, compression, program and codecs necessary for interpretation and reproduction, etc. All audio file types are made up of one name. The extension would be the alphanumeric group that we find accompanied by a period after that name .
For example, the track «NoMeAcuerdo.mp3»:
It tells us that this song is called “I don’t remember” (“I don’t remember”) and that the extension it has is of type “.mp3” , that is , that its characteristics are necessary for mp3 players to play .
It should be mentioned that for them to achieve this, both they and the files must have codecs , which are small elements that are responsible for encoding and decoding the information and who act as interpreters.
The codecs are in each song or track and correspond to one type of extension or another (also called format). The audio player that we want to use you have to work with those same codecs , so that there is an interaction between them and you can decipher the information contained in the file in question.
It should be noted, although we have already said, that only by knowing the format of a track we can get an idea of its quality. In this regard, there are two essential concepts.
- Sample Rate : A sample is a piece or sample. Audio softwares use these to play the tracks effectively. The rate is simply the number of samples that are played in each second of recording. Obviously, to a greater amount, more elements working at the same track moment and, therefore, more details that are obtained (or maintained).
- Bit Depth: The depth of bits is, in turn, the information we find within each sample. This is similar to that found in the image sector, obtaining, therefore, that more bits mean more information in each sample.
Types of extensions and audio file formats and their associated programs to play them
Of course, we will end by telling you, what are the characteristics of the most used audio extensions, we name you the rest so that you do not lose sight of them and, obviously, we tell you where you will be able to reproduce each one of them.
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Do you know other extensions to open and edit audio and sound files? Leave them in the comments and we will add them to the list, it will surely be of great value to the other readers!