Should i use lossless

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It is analog and continuous in its nature. So, if we want to store sound on a storage drive in a computer, we have to convert it into 1s and 0s. There are many ways to go about this conversion. In PCM, we take analog audio, play it, and sample it at a pre-determined rate in the form of 1s and 0s.

This data is then stored in an audio format. To understand the process better, imagine yourself taking pictures of kids playing baseball. The same thing happens when you sample an audio signal. You are taking figurative snapshots of the audio signal, at a set rate.

Encode all of these snapshots and you would have an audio file. To play the audio file, your computer would just need to play the snapshots back at the same rate at which they were captured. This rate is called the Sampling Rate. We measure the sampling rate in kHz. The standard sampling rate in audio CDs is Now, because any audio is composed of more than one sound with varying frequencies, we need to store more than 1s or 0s to store all the necessary information.

So, we need to aim for the biggest sample size possible, as the bigger the sample, the better the sound quality. The sample size aka the number of bits in every sample is called the Bit Depth. The standard bit depth in audio CDs is bit. For all the hype music streaming services create about high-resolution audio, it is surprising that there is no standard definition.

There is no agreement about what high-resolution audio really is. That said, the consensus is that an audio sample having a high sampling rate and a high bit-depth is termed as high-resolution. As you can see, the above definition is ever-changing. High-resolution audio, in theory, sounds crisper and better. It has more dynamic range, better instrument separation, and low noise. For example, let's say you have a series of numbers: Instead of using up storage space to remember each of those 20 digits, the lossless algorithm simply remembers '' and that it repeats five times: x 5.

Notice how only five digits are used in total, instead of Using this process, significantly less storage is needed overall. To use lossless audio, you'll need a player that supports it. The main reason to use lossless audio is if you use a high-quality hi-fi speaker system at home, or if you use very expensive earphones.

If you're just listening to music on your iPod, using the bundled headphones for the 30 minutes you commute to work, you don't need lossless audio. If you're still unsure whether lossless audio is for you, the best method is to listen to a song in MP3 and the same song in lossless format. If you can't honestly tell the difference, stick with MP3.

It's the most widely used format and you'll get heaps more music on your portable player by using it. If you can tell the difference and appreciate the original recording quality of CDs, you should definitely consider a lossless audio format. Remember, you could always use lossless at home and MP3 on the move, since computer hard disks are vastly more capacious than portable music players.