Audio File Formats FAQ

Chris Bagwell, chris@cnpbagwell.com

v4.0, 14 Nov 1998

This document provides a description of how audio files are used on various computer platforms and provides a detailed description of their internal formats.

1. Introduction.

2. Device characteristics.

3. Popular sampling rates.

4. Compression schemes.

• 4.1 ITU-T G.711, u-law and A-law.
• 4.2 CCITT G.721, G.723, and ITU-T G.726.
• 4.3 IMA/DVI ADPCM
• 4.4 Microsoft ADPCM
• 4.5 LPC-10E
• 4.6 CELP
• 4.7 GSM 06.10.
• 4.8 shorten.
• 4.9 Real Audio
• 4.10 MPEG
• 4.11 Misc.

5. Current hardware.

6. Overview of file formats.

• 6.1 Self-describing file formats.
• 6.2 Headerless file formats.

7. File conversions.

• 7.1 SOX (UNIX, PC, Amiga)
• 7.2 Sun Sparc.
• 7.3 NeXT.
• 7.4 SGI Indigo, Indigo2, Indy and Personal IRIS.
• 7.5 Amiga.
• 7.6 Apple Macintosh

8. Playing audio files on UNIX.

• 8.1 Sun Sparcstation running SunOS 4.x.
• 8.2 Solaris.
• 8.3 NeXT
• 8.4 SGI Indigo, Indigo2, Indy and Personal IRIS.
• 8.5 Linux
• 8.6 Others.

9. Playing audio files on the Vaxstation 4000 (VMS).

• 9.1 Without DECsound.
• 9.2 With DECsound (bundled with motif).
• 9.3 Audio port.

10. Playing audio files on a PC.

• 10.1 PC or compatible.
• 10.2 IBM PC and compatibles.
• 10.3 Atari.
• 10.4 Tandy.
• 10.5 Amiga.
• 10.6 Apple Macintosh.

11. File Formats.

• 11.1 AIFF Format (Audio IFF) and AIFC.
• 11.2 The NeXT/Sun audio file format.
• 11.3 IFF/8SVX Format.
• 11.4 US Federal Standard 1016 availability.
• 11.5 Creative Voice (VOC) file format.
• 11.6 RIFF WAVE (.WAV) file format.
• 11.7 u-law and A-law definitions.
• 11.8 AVR File Format.
• 11.9 The Amiga MOD Format.
• 11.10 The Sample Vision Format.
• 11.11 Tandy Deskmate .snd Format Notes.
• 11.12 Miscellaneous Formats.