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File Types in Wave Corrector

Wave Corrector supports both compressed and uncompressed audio formats. Compression reduces the disc space required to store waveform data and is necessary if large volumes of audio are to be permanently stored on hard disk. There are two types of compression that can be used. Lossless compression permits a bit-perfect copy of the original wave file be to recovered. Hence, lossless compression is preferred by users who want to retain the maximum possible fidelity in their recordings. Lossy compression, on the other hand, uses psycho-acoustic processing to produce smaller files than can be achieved with lossless compression. Lossy compression will degrade your audio files to some extent but the degradation is very little if a sensible compression ratio is applied. 

Wave Corrector will load files in the uncompressed Microsoft .wav format and the losslessly compressed formats .flac and .ape format.  Lossy compression formats are not supported for loading.

Files loaded into Wave Corrector must also conform to the following requirements:

1. Bit depth:  16 or 24 bits 
2. Sampling Rate: 44.1, 48, 88.2 or 96 kHz
3. 1 or 2 channel (ie mono or stereo) 


For saving, Wave Corrector uses the above .wav, .flac and .ape and also the Ogg Vorbis .ogg format. Ogg Vorbis is an open source audio compression system similar to MP3 but without the licensing restrictions imposed by the MP3 patent. Independent tests have also indicated that Ogg Vorbis produces better audio quality than the common MP3 encoders  Ogg Vorbis is open source and is free of 'digital rights management' issues which can compromise library security if, for example, you need to back up your library onto a second computer. For these reasons we recommend it over other encoding systems.

Wave Corrector also supports the use of external command line encoders such as LAME.EXE for the production of MP3 files. This support give you the flexibility to save in any format for which a command line encoder exists. Note, this option allows you to use the command line versions of the ogg, ape and flac encoders. These give you a wider range of encoding options than are present in Wave Corrector's built-in encoders. See Using an External Encoder for more information. 

The characteristics of Wave Corrector's different file types are summarised in the following table: 
File Type Advantages Disadvantages
Wave (.wav) Fast load and save. Best possible audio quality. Compatible with most audio software. Inefficient use of disc space. Does not support textual tagging.
Ape, Flac (.ape, .flac) Supports tagging. Best possible audio quality. Efficient use of disc space. Slower saving and loading. Limited compatibility with other programs.
Ogg Vorbis (.ogg) Supports tagging. Very efficient use of disc space. Slower saving. Limited compatibility with other programs. Some loss of audio quality.


.ape, .flac, and .ogg formats are supported by PC audio applications such as:Foobar2000, Winamp and Media Jukebox . Ganymede Test & Measurement recommends these applications for playing your music files.