That is, a FLAC file for stereo audio at “CD quality” runs roughly 5 MB per minute. Typically, you’re seeing about half the size of WAVs. The difference between zipped files and FLAC files is that FLAC is designed specifically for audio, and so has better compression rates without any loss of data. The Free Lossless Audio Codec, Apple Lossless Audio Codec, and Monkey’s Audio are all formats which compress audio, much in the same fashion that anything is compressed in digital world: using algorithms. Image by CyboRoZ Lossless Formats: FLAC, ALAC, APE If you’re recording at home for the purposes of mixing, this is what you want to use because it’s full quality. They are both also considered “lossless,” are uncompressed, and a stereo (2-channel) PCM audio file, sampled at 44.1 kHz (or 44100 times per second) at 16 bits (“CD quality”) amounts to roughly 10 MB per minute. PCM audio, for most people, comes in these formats, depending on whether you use Windows or OS X, and they can be converted to and from each other without degradation of quality. Both WAV and AIFF are lossless audio container formats based on PCM, with some minor changes in data storage.

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