Should I save my audio as an mp3 or wav file?

Once you've finished editing your audio, Sodaphonic let's you choose whether you save it as an mp3 or wav file. These are two most popular audio formats and should be playable by anyone anywhere. Each are quite different and have their benefits and drawbacks so it's good to know when to use which.

WAVs

WAVs are what is know as a lossless audio format. When you hit "save" the file will contain precisely all the audio information that's in the editor. This means it's extremely high-quality and will suitable for radio broadcasts or audiophiles who love to listen to sound that's as close to the original as possible. This quality does come at a cost however. Wav files are usually quite large in size and are therefore not convenient when it comes to sharing online -- most emails containing even just a one-minute-long WAV will fail to send due to its large size.

MP3s

MP3s on the hand are a lossy audio format. This time when you press "save", some audio information is thrown away in order to reduce the size of the file. This is called audio compression (not to be confused with dynamic range compression) and is a great way of storing and sending audio online due to the fact it still sounds great despite its small size.

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