(no subject)

Elson Trinidad (elson@westworld.com)
Thu, 19 Dec 1996 17:33:23 -0800


At 11.22 PM 12/4/96 +0000, internalb@vivid-edge.co.uk wrote:

>Is this generally OK, or do .wav files have any advantages? What about
>other formats?

NOOOOO!!!! Don't post it in digital format!!! Put it on vinyl!!!

Just kidding. But seriously...

About a year ago, this would have made a difference. The .aif is an Apple
Macintosh audio format. Most people are on Windows PCs, and use the MS .wav
format. As far as audio quality, there's really no difference. In order to
play back soundfiles, the web browsers of yesteryear (1994-95) had to call
up helper applications within one's computer (i.e. SoundMachine for Mac or
Audio Player for Windows). Naturally, they would only play their respective
formats, and thus many sites with audio samples had to upload multiple
formats or else .aif soundfiles would be useless for Windows users, and
vice versa.

Digital audio file formats are really not that different from each other,
they contain the same types of data, it's just that each format organizes
the data in a different way than the other does. There's lots of audio
conversion programs out there that will do the trick.

Nowadays, it really doesn't matter. Most people use Netscape or Internet
Explorer to browse the web, and the latest versions of both (3.0) have
multiplatform audio file ability, so it really makes no difference what
major audio file format (Mac .aif, Windows .wav or Unix .au (the previous
multiplatform standard)) you come across - it will still play.

Elson
-30-
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Elson Trinidad

Los Angeles, CA, USA
elson@westworld.com * http://www.westworld.com/~elson
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