There are already over 300 Audio file formats. As more and more vendors/ software developers devise their proprietary file formats, this number is set to grow. Needless to say, this creates confusion, for proprietary file formats of any kind require specialized software for the file to work! Here is a list of Audio Codecs:

Non-Compression Audio Codecs

• Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF)

• Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF)

• WAV – "WAVE" format (format supports compression, but it is rarely used)

• Linear Pulse Code Modulation (LPCM, generally only described as PCM, note that AIFF, WAV and MLP are all derivative forms of LPCM)

• Pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM)

Lossless data compression

• Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC)

• Direct Stream Transfer (DST)

• Dolby TrueHD – Optional lossless surround sound format used by HD DVD and Blu-ray, it uses MLP but adds higher sample rates, bit rates, and more channels

• DTS-HD Master Audio – Optional lossless surround sound format used by HD DVD and Blu-ray, it was previously known as DTS++ and DTS-HD

• Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)

• Lossless Audio (LA)

• Lossless Predictive Audio Compression (LPAC)

• Lossless Transform Audio Compression (LTAC)

• MPEG-4 Audio Lossless Coding (MPEG-4 ALS)

• MPEG-4 Advanced Audio Coding - Scalable to lossless (AAC-SLS, also known as HD-AAC)

• Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP), also known as Packed PCM (PPCM), it is the standard lossless compression method for DVD-Audio content

• Monkey's Audio (APE)

• OptimFROG (OFR)

• RealAudio Lossless

• RK Audio (RKAU)

• Shorten (SHN)

• True Audio (TTA)

• WavPack (WV)

• Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless

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Lossy data compression

• Adaptive Differential (or Delta) pulse-code modulation (ADPCM, see Pulse-code modulation)

• ADX

• Adaptive Rate-Distortion Optimised sound codeR (ARDOR)

• Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC, used in MiniDisc devices)

• Dolby Digital (A/52, AC3)

• DTS Coherent Acoustics (DTS, Digital Theatre System Coherent Acoustics)

• Impala FORscene audio codec

• ITU standards:

  • G.719

  • G.722

  • G.722.1

    • G.722.1 Annex C

• MPEG Audio

  • Layer-1 (MP1)

  • Layer-2 (MP2) (MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and non-ISO MPEG-2.5)

  • Layer-3 (MP3) (MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and non-ISO MPEG-2.5)

  • Advanced Audio Coding (AAC, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4)

    • HE-AAC

  • Harmonic and Individual Lines and Noise (HILN, MPEG-4 Parametric Audio Coding)

• Musepack

• Perceptual Audio Coding

• QDesign

• TwinVQ

• Vorbis

• Windows Media Audio (WMA)

Voice (Low Bitrate, optimized for Speech)

• Advanced Multi-Band Excitation (AMBE)

• Algebraic Code Excited Linear Prediction (ACELP)

• Code Excited Linear Prediction (CELP)

• Continuously variable slope delta modulation (CVSD)

• Dialogic ADPCM (VOX)

• Digital Speech Standard (DSS)

• Enhanced Variable Rate Codec (EVRC)

• FS-1015 (LPC-10)

• FS-1016 (CELP)

• ITU standards:

  • G.711 (a-law and μ-law)

  • G.718

  • G.719

  • G.721 (superseded by G.726)

  • G.722

    • G.722.1

    • G.722.2 (AMR-WB)

  • G.723 (24 and 40 kbit/s DPCM, extension to G.721, superseded by G.726)

  • G.723.1 (MPC-MLQ or ACELP)

  • G.726 (ADPCM)

  • G.728 (LD-CELP)

  • G.729 (CS-ACELP)

    • G.729a

    • G.729.1

• GSM Codecs

• Full Rate

• Half Rate

• Enhanced Full Rate

• Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR)

  • AMR-NB

  • AMR-WB

  • AMR-WB+

• Harmonic Vector Excitation Coding (HVXC)

• Internet Low Bit Rate Codec (iLBC)

• Improved Multi-Band Excitation (IMBE)

• Internet Speech Audio Codec (iSAC)

• Mixed Excitation Linear Prediction (MELP)

• QCELP

• Relaxed Code Excited Linear Prediction (RCELP)

• RTAudio - used by Microsoft Live Communication Server

• Selectable Mode Vocoder (SMV)

• Speex, patent free

• Triple Rate CODER (TRC) - used in some pocket recorders.

• Vector Sum Excited Linear Prediction (VSELP)

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