Technical Details of Lossless Audio Compression Formats

Technical Details of Lossless Audio Compression Formats

Audio compression format	Algorithm	Sample Rate	Bits per sample	Latency	Stereo	Multichannel
ALAC	Lossless	1 Hz to 384000 Hz	16, 20, 24, 32[43]	?	Yes	Yes: Up to 8 channels
FLAC	Lossless	1 Hz to 655350 Hz	8, 16, 20, 24, (32)	4.3ms - 92ms (46.4ms typical)	Yes	Yes: Up to 8 channels
Monkey's Audio	Lossless	8, 11.025, 12, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48 kHz	8, 16, 24	?	Yes	No
RealAudio Lossless	Lossless	Varies (see article)	Varies (see article)	Varies	Yes	Yes: Up to 6 channels
True Audio	Lossless	0–4 GHz	1 to > 64	?	Yes	Yes: Up to 65535 channels
WavPack Lossless	Lossless, Hybrid	1 Hz to 16.777216 MHz	varies in lossless mode; supports 32-bit float input; 2.2 minimum in lossy mode	?	Yes	Yes: Up to 256 channels
Windows Media Audio Lossless	Lossless	8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96 kHz	16, 24	>100ms	Yes	Yes:Up to 6 channels

Technical Details of ITU-T Audio Compression Formats

Audio compression format	Algorithm	Sample Rate	Bit rate[44]	Bits per sample	Latency	CBR	VBR	Stereo	Multichannel
G.711	companding A-law or μ-law, PCM, Lossy	8 kHz	64 kbit/s	8 bit	125µs (typical)	Yes	No	No	No
G.711.1	MDCT, A-law, μ-law, Lossy	8 or 16 kHz	64, 80, 96 kbit/s	16 bit	11.875 ms	Yes	Yes	No	No
G.718	CELP, MDCT, Lossy	8 or 16 kHz	8, 12, 12.65, 16, 24, 32 kbit/s	16 bit	42.875 ms - 43.875 ms	Yes	Yes	No	No
G.718B	CELP, MDCT, Lossy, Sinusoidal Coding	32 kHz	36,40,48 kbit/s	16 bit	49.625 ms	Yes	Yes	No	No
G.719	Lossy, (incorporates elements of Siren Codec and Ericsson technology)	48 kHz	32-128 kbit/s (Rates between 32 and 88 kbit/s shall be a multiple of 4 kbit/s; 88-128 kbit/s - a multiple of 8 kbit/s.)	16 bit	40 ms	Yes	No	Yes: only in MPEG-4 Part 12 container	Yes: only in MPEG-4 Part 12 container
G.721	ADPCM, Lossy	8 kHz	32 kbit/s	13 bit		Yes	No	No	No
G.722	sub-band ADPCM, Lossy	16 kHz	64 kbit/s (comprises 48, 56 or 64 kbit/s audio and 16, 8 or 0 kbit/s auxiliary data)	14 bit	4 ms	Yes	No	No	No
G.722.1	Modulated Lapped Transform, (based on Siren Codec), Lossy	16 kHz	24, 32 kbit/s	16 bit	40 ms	Yes	No	No	No
G.722.1C	Modulated Lapped Transform, (based on Siren Codec), Lossy	32 kHz	24, 32, 48 kbit/s	16 bit	40 ms	Yes	No	No	No
G.722.2 (AMR-WB)	multi-rate wideband ACELP, Lossy	16 kHz	6.60-23.85 kbit/s (6.60, 8.85, 12.65, 14.25, 15.85, 18.25, 19.85, 23.05 or 23.85 kbit/s)	14 bit	25 ms	Yes	Yes	Yes: only in MPEG-4 Part 12 container	No
G.723	ADPCM, Lossy	8 kHz	24 or 40 kbit/s	13 bit		Yes	No	No	No
G.723.1	MP-MLQ, ACELP, Lossy	8 kHz	5.3, 6.3 kbit/s	13 bit	37.5 ms	Yes	No	No	No
G.726	ADPCM, Lossy	8 kHz	16, 24, 32, 40 kbit/s	13 bit	125us	Yes	No	No	No
G.727	ADPCM, Lossy	8 kHz	16, 24, 32, 40 kbit/s	13 bit		Yes	Yes	No	No
G.728	low-delay CELP, Lossy	8 kHz	16 kbit/s	13 bit	0.625 ms	Yes	No	No	No
G.729	CS-ACELP, Lossy	8 kHz	8 kbit/s	13 bit	15 ms	Yes	No	No	No
G.729D	CS-ACELP, Lossy	8 kHz	6.4 kbit/s	13 bit		Yes	No	No	No
G.729E	CS-ACELP, Lossy	8 kHz	11.8 kbit/s	13 bit	15 ms	Yes	No	No	No
G.729.1	CELP, TDBWE, TDAC, Lossy	8 or 16 kHz	8-32 kbit/s (12 layers; 2 kbit/s steps, (10 kbit/s omitted))	16 bit	48.9375 ms	Yes	Yes	No	No

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