Facts About Wav and mp3 Files

What is WAV or MP3? This is a question that still causes much confusion. In the sometimes complex world of digital audio formats, two file types have become the standard. The MP3 and WAV formats are the most commonly used and the most widely known. Even if you do not know exactly what they are, chances are you have come across MP3 and WAV files.

Below we discuss quick facts about both files:

What is an MP3

MP3 is a digital audio format developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group.The main goal behind the development of MP3 was to replicate CD-quality with no perceivable difference at a much smaller size. Converting to MP3 compresses an audio file by a factor of 10 – 12. What this means is that an audio file of approx. 33 MB would be reduced to approx. 3 MB. This is done through what is called lossy compression, lossy meaning some information is discarded from the original audio. What is lost is determined by a process called perceptual or temporal noise shaping.The bit rate for MP3 files range from 90kbps – 320kbps, the lower the bit rate, the lower the quality.

What is a WAV File?

A WAV file is a raw audio format created by Microsoft and IBM. This format uses containers to store audio data, sample rates, and bitrates. They work by taking an audio signal and converting it to binary data. An analog to digital converter takes thousands of snapshots per second to capture the full audible frequency range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz. WAV files are lossless and uncompressed which means they lose no quality from the original recording.

WAV files are large and take a lot of space.A stereo, CD-quality recording (44.1 kHz, 16 bit) averages around 10 MB per minute.Increasing to 48 KHz and 24 bit stereo will be reflected in a change from 10 Mb per minute to 16.48 Mb.An average three-minute song would require approx. 33Mb of disk space.That was an overview of what MP3 and WAV files are. We can now take a closer look at some of the differences between the two. The biggest difference is that MP3s are compressed audio and WAV files are uncompressed audio. Compression, in this context, is the process of reducing the size of an audio file.

At Converter.page you can convert a WAV to MP3 file online or MP3 file to WAV; whatever suits your needs.