The layman's view... *.WAV (Wave file) is a filename extension for an audio record file. Working with .WAV is turning your PC into a plain recorder, just like "what you hear is what you get." Using a WAV recorder can be a mix of digital and analog recording. In this way, you can add your actual voice to your composition. You can also record your MIDI and save it as WAV. Approximately, a three minute-WAV consumes about 9 to 15 meg in a 16-bit mono mode and twice in stereo mode or depending on the quality of output you want. Well, that is just my practical estimate. Once it is a WAV, you can convert it to any other format you like
1 minute = can range from 644 kb to 27 megabytes of storage
The human ears can actually hear a good quality sound with 22 Khz, but it can go better by bit rate for better audio.
So why do we need 40 meg WAV recoding when MIDIs consume only about 30+ kilobytes for approximately 3-minute stereo music? For the simple reason that MIDI is not an actual audio but just a holder of the sound. It is not stand-alone, it's just like a vessel to run the channels of assigned sounds. A WAV is a compiled audio. So MIDI is enjoyed differently compared to an actual audio sound. This is the main reason why MIDI may vary from system to system:
Well this is the alarming point:
My observation is this: One time, I was listening to a MIDI in which I heard "out of tune" noise in the background. When I opened up a sequencer editor, I found out what appears to be "out of tune" are actually drum patches!!! Simply, the MIDI was done using older version or not conforming to my system. In the net, if you publish your MIDI, you want it almost similar to what you have worked for when your listeners download your MIDI to their local folders. So I mentioned a while ago, if you intend to submit your MIDI to the net, convert them or save them to MIDI 0 format. That is crucial.
Streaming Audio samples:
All audios (including MIDIs) which have been converted to other audio formats (WMV, MP3, etc) are accessible and streamed online. In simpler explanations, the system is a method of sending the audio data piece by piece (streamed) in case of large files handled by plugins to make the listening experience favorable and to avoid waiting for complete download before one can hear at least a part of the audio.
Streaming audio samples are used a lot commercially. An example of this are those sites that sell CDs online, and they put up some actual audio samples for testing purposes (in WAV or MP3 format).
Common formats we encounter in the internet are streamed freshly converted from a digital uncompressed format (say WAV), then reduced in size by no other method than conversion to file formats acceptable in the internet:
MP3 is compressed, reducing your WAV file size into 1/3. There are also other compressed formats so you can share your music via web: WMV, RA, MP4, etc.
Conversion can be handled easily nowadays. Usually there are bit rate assignments which can affect the output of your audio. For an effective MP3 to be of nicer quality, you should assign at least 128 kbps as minimum for a web purposes.
Well, the advent of Cellphone ringtones was not yet born when I started to do this web. So now, you can record your favorite music partially. Save it as WAV format. Edit them gracefully then what is the hard task? Conversion. Check out your cellphone format. Nowadays, Mp3 and Mp4 is workable.
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