Audio compression formats

From Ssl-wiki

1. WAV and AIFF files are both uncompressed formats; wav being the dominant format you'll see on Windows and AIFF being the native format on Macintosh. There's no difference between these file formats, except for the way the data is arranged in the file. Likewise, both systems can play either format. This is the same format used when you buy a cd from a major label. So, doesn't it make sense to use the best quality files with SSL?
   • pros
     1. best achievable sound quality
     2. little to none CPU power needed for decoding
   • cons
     1. space usage
     2. needs more throughput on the media where the files are stored
     3. Wave does not support tags
2. Lossless Compression. The Free Lossless Audio Codec is not supported by SSL but allows the DJ to save disc space without a loss in quality.
3. MP3 works by throwing away data the human mind can't perceive and/or distinguish--this is called a "lossy format." It's the same technique used in JPEG images, for example, that came from your digital camera. Some would say it throws away too much data, depending on the bitrate. One study showed most people couldn't perceive the differences between an uncompressed file format and a 128 kbps mp3. This was a number of years ago and believe a lot of people are now becoming more quality snobbish and are more able to "pick up" these mp3 artifacts more easily.
   • pros for SSL usage
     1. little space usage
     2. spreaded format accepted in online music stores as well
   • cons for SSL usage
     1. quality loss
     2. higher CPU usage needed for decoding
4. OGG files started much the same way as the LAME encoder--as a result of the licensing agreements inherit in the mp3 format, programmers came up with their own format and improved upon its efficiency in the process making OGG a slimmer better-sounding alternative to mp3. As in any new format, though, there's always a downside. OGG is not as well widely received.
   • pros for SSL usage
     1. little space while comparable good quality
   • cons for SSL usage
     1. album art is not supported by Vorbis Comments

The biggest problem with WAV or AIFF files is size. A typical MP3 is around 1/10th the size of a wav file; that's 10 times the amount of space saved so you can put 10 times the number of songs in the same space. For DJs that need to play a lot of different styles of music and have a huge library on-hand, using wav or aif is probably more of a burden than the increase in sound quality.

A lot of DJs are quality snobs and won't use anything less than uncompressed wav or aif files in their sets. Some of these DJs have a high turnover of music though and don't keep as many songs stored on the drive so these DJs can afford the loss of space. Their rationale is hard drives are only getting bigger and cheaper; for a DJ that needs to play a lot of music, however, there's new music coming out every day so their space is constantly shrinking. In other words, it's a never-ending battle between space and sound quality.