7.6.2.2. Choose the Export Format
Ardour offers quite a variety of output formats, and knowing which to choose can be baffling. Not all options are available with all file types. Fedora Linux does not support MP3 files by default, for legal reasons. For more information, refer to
MP3 (Fedora Project Wiki) http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Multimedia/MP3.
The tutorial's regions have 24-bit samples, recorded at a 48 kHz rate. Exporting any part of the session with a higher sample format or sample rate is likely to result in decreased audio quality.
Recommended File Types:
WAV: An uncompressed format designed by Microsoft. Recommended only if further audio manipulation is intended. Carries only audio data, so information like title, artist, and composer will be lost. Playable with almost any device.
AIFF: An uncompressed format designed by Apple. Recommended only if further audio manipulation is intended. Carries only audio data, so information like title, artist, and composer will be lost. Playable with almost any DAW and some audio players.
FLAC: An open-source compressed format. A "lossless" format, meaning no audio information is lost during compression and decompression. Audio quality is equal to WAV or AIFF formats. Capable of carrying metadata, so information like title, artist, and composer will be preserved. Widely supported in Linux by default. For other popular operating systems, refer to
Download Extras (FLAC Website) at
http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html#extras for a list of applications and programs capable of playing FLAC files. This is usually the best choice for distributing high-quality audio to listeners.
Ogg/Vorbis: An open-source compressed format. A "lossy" format, meaning some audio information is lost during compression and decompression. Audio quality is less than WAV or AIFF formats, but usually better than MP3. Capable of carrying metadata, so information like title, artist, and composer will be preserved. Widely supported in Linux by default. For other popular operating systems, following the instructions on the
Vorbis Website http://www.vorbis.com/. This is a good choice for distributing good-quality audio to listeners.
A higher setting for the sample format (explained in
Section 1.3.2, “Sample Format”) allows a greater amount of audio information to be stored per sample. 32 bit support is virtually non-existant, but and you will probably not need to use this format in the near future. The "float" format stores samples in a different internal format, and you will need it only rarely.
If you are exporting audio for high-end equipment, or for further processing, choose the 24-bit format. Otherwise, choose the 16-bit format, which is the sample format of audio CDs.
"Sample endianness" is a difficult concept to understand, and it has no effect on the resulting audio - just how it is stored.. Unless you are using a rare PowerPC computer, choose the "Little-endian (Intel)" option.
A higher sample rate (explained in
Section 1.3.3, “Sample Rate” allows a greater amount of audio information to be stored, but increases the size of audio files.
"Convesion quality" and "dither type" are not available options for the file formats offered in Fedora Linux.
The "CD Marker File Type" allows you to export a CUE- or TOC-format list of CD tracks in the exported file. This is most useful when exporting a whole session, which contains a whole CD, that would be subsequently burned to disc.
