MP3 Basics
Goal: To compress files as much as possible while retaining the same perceived audio quality as the original signal.
- Uses lossy audio coding, also known as perceptive coding, to take advantage of the imperfections in human perception.
- Very popular form of compression for music, especially downloading over the internet, and playing on MP3 players, such as IPODs.
- Other forms of compression, such as WAV, AAC, WMA, and OGG are also popular.
Perceptive Coding
There is much more information in a signal than the human ear and mind process. This extra information is eliminated to make gains in compression.
A detailed model of human perception must be developed so only the extra information is eliminated.