Lossless Audio Compression
General Terms - Lossless Audio Compression
Lossless audio compression refers to a method of audio compression in which the exact copy of an audio file is preserved after compression. Lossless compression offers typical compression ratio by retaining 50 to 60 percent of original size. This ratio is significantly less than that for lossy compression, which typically yields 5-20 percent of original size.
Compression Formats
The earliest lossless compression format was Shorten. It is no longer in use now. Newer formats include Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC), Apple Lossless, MPEG-4 ALS, Monkey’s Audio, and TTA.
Applications
Lossless audio compression is useful in audio archiving. Since the compressed files retain the original data without loss, audio quality is not affected. Therefore, this method is preferred by audiophiles for archiving.
It is easy to edit losslessly compressed audio data. Therefore, they are used in audio editing applications as well. On the contrary, editing a lossily compressed data leads to digital generation loss due to the artifacts created in each generation.
Another application of lossless compression is to create lossless copies of audio and then produce lossily compressed versions for a digital audio player.
Disadvantages
The key of any compression method is to find patterns and repetitions in the original data. Since the audio data is recorded from the real world and contains chaotic data, it does not get compressed well. Even computer generated audio contains complex waveforms that pose greater challenge to many compression algorithms.
Despite this, lossless audio compression is gaining popularity – thanks to the advancement in file storage and communications bandwidth technologies that made the technology more affordable.
