Do you use obsure audio codecs?

[AdotB]

Hello

I was recently getting ready to compile a new version of the aoTuv vorbis encoder and somehow found myself spending hours researching a bunch of other audio codecs, mostly lossless. I was wondering how many people actually use these codecs and for what? Music collection, archiving, or special purposes...

So what do you use to store your music collection?

Does anyone use vorbis, musepack, or wavpack hybrid?

And what lossless codec do you use for archiving?

Or if you have another favorite please mention it.

[wolfen69]

my mp3 collection is in fat32. that way, every OS can see it.

[logos34]

Hello

I was recently getting ready to compile a new version of the aoTuv vorbis encoder and somehow found myself spending hours researching a bunch of other audio codecs, mostly lossless. I was wondering how many people actually use these codecs and for what? Music collection, archiving, or special purposes...

So what do you use to store your music collection?

Does anyone use vorbis, musepack, or wavpack hybrid?

And what lossless codec do you use for archiving?

Or if you have another favorite please mention it.

Those are hardly obscure audio formats you mention. Admittedly mp3 is dominant by far (followed by apple aac/m4a), but plenty of people use others.

My choice for lossy is Ogg Vorbis (http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Ogg_Vorbis) (I use the aoTuVb5 tuned version @ q 5-6). Musepack would be my seocnd choice.
Flac for lossless. (although I archived a lot of stuff on DVD using Apple lossless/.alac)

Best lossless codecs (compression ratio):

1. Monkey's Audio (.ape) (but it uses high cpu overhead to decode, harder to convert. You see it a lot in music torrents)
2. WavPack (which also features 'hybrid mode')
3. Flac (best support, easiest for linux users to work with)

[AdotB]

You are right, obscure probably isnt the right word. Maybe alternative is a better word.

I figure most people use mp3 or aac as they are the mainstream, and those who use an alternative to those probably use vorbis.

I personally use ogg vorbis for most of my collection. and flac for archiving.

Musepack seems interesting too. I am interested to hear what others think about it.

[rotwang888]

I rip my cds to flac and transcode to vorbis for stuff I want on my portable, and to lame mp3 when needed.

[billgoldberg]

So what do you use to store your music collection?
External HDD and internal HDD.

Does anyone use vorbis, musepack, or wavpack hybrid?
Not me.

And what lossless codec do you use for archiving?
I download my music as MP3. The few Cd's I have ripped -> FLAC and mp3.

[Barrucadu]

I'm a bit of a .ogg freak. mp3 files on my laptop have a habit of spontaneously changing into .ogg files after a couple of days :p
I know I'm converting from one lossy format to another, but I can't hear the difference and the ogg files are generally smaller.

[hessiess]

Personally I use FLAC for everything, no scene in ruining perfectly good music with lossy formats is there :p