Good luck finding a portable player that reads MP2 files. Remote production and satellite feeds often use the MP2 format. In fact, much of the music you hear on analog radio is encoded with MP2. As a sort of predecessor to MP3, it requires slightly higher bitrates for encoding, but it is quite reliable as a streaming format.

MP2 is a lossy compression method originally designed for digital broadcasting. There is also an MP3 variant called MP3Pro, but so far it hasn’t gained mainstream acceptance. Many people currently regard the LAME open-source encoder as the highest-quality MP3 encoder, but the title isn’t permanent. The Fraunhofer encoder is the de facto standard included in mainstream audio applications like Adobe Audition and Apple’s iTunes. Early encoders produced poor-quality files, but modern encoders can sound quite good. The quality of MP3-encoded audio has been the subject of great debate over the years.

Conveniently, the system also works without video and became popular for distributing and playing CD audio tracks in the late 1990s. It is one of three audio compression methods designed for MPEG-1 video streams. What we call MP3 is actually short for MPEG-1, Audio Layer 3 encoding. What follows is a brief outline of popular lossy formats. Using some fancy math, the encoders can dramatically reduce the size of the file with a minimum of audible impact. Here’s the thumbnail version: Lossy compression discards audio data based on a model of human hearing. The January 2008 issue of Videomaker has an in-depth article on lossy audio compression.

This month, we’ll compare the major players and see how they fit in the production process. Some use lossy compression like MP3 and others are “lossless.” The trick is determining which are useful or even practical. DVDs, Blu-ray Discs and digital TV all use audio compression.īesides these, many other compression formats are available to the video producer. iTunes has sold over a billion compressed audio tracks in AAC format.

Aac files in adobe audition