User Manual

WAVELAB
6 – 114 Editing in the Wave window
MPEG-1 Layer 3
(.mp3)
The most common audio compression format. The major advantage of
MPEG compression is that the file size is significantly reduced, while
there is little degradation of sound quality. WaveLab can both open and
save files in this format.
- Note that when you open an MPEG compressed file in WaveLab, the
file is converted to a temporary wave file that is much larger than the
original compressed file. Therefore, make sure that you have enough free
space on your hard disk when opening MPEG compressed files.
- When you save, the temporary wave file will be converted back to
MP3, so from a user perspective the file handling is transparent apart
from the size difference mentioned above.
MPEG-1 Layer 2
(.mp2/.mpa/.mpg/
.mus))
MP2 (sometimes referred to as “Musicam files”) is a common file format
in the broadcast industry. With regard to file sizes the same applies as
with MP3 files.
Original Sound
Quality (.osq)
This is WaveLab’s proprietary lossless compressed audio format. By
saving files in this format, you can save considerable disk space without
compromising audio quality. See “About saving OSQ files” on page
119.
Sound
Designer II (.sd2)
This audio file format is used by Digidesign applications (such as Pro
Tools). 8, 16 or 24 bit resolutions supported.
U-LAW
(.ulaw, .vox)
This is an audio encoding and compression technique supported by
Windows and Web phones, using 8 bit resolution. The U.S. telephone
system uses U-law encoding for digitization.
A-LAW
(.alaw, .vox)
This is an audio encoding and compression technique for telephony, us-
ing 8 bit resolution. The EU telephone system uses A-law encoding for
digitization.
Sun/Java
(.snd, .au)
This is an audio file format used on Sun and NeXT computers. Files in
this format can often be found on the Internet. 8, 16 or 24 bit resolutions
are supported.
ADPCM –
Microsoft/
Dialogic (.vox)
This is a format commonly used for games and telephony applications
that offers a lower bit rate than linear PCM and thus requires less stor-
age space/bandwidth.
Ogg Vorbis
(.ogg)
Ogg Vorbis is a relatively new compressed file format that is open and
patent-free and offers very small audio files maintaining comparatively
high audio quality.
Format Description