Machine Tongues XVIII: A Child's Garden of Sound File Formats

Stephen Travis Pope* and Guido van Rossum #

*Computer Music Journal
P. O. Box 9496
Berkeley, California, 94709, USA
stp@CNMAT.Berkeley.edu

#Multimedia Kernel Systems Group, CST
Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI)
Kruislaan 413, P. O. Box 94079
Amsterdam NL-1090 GB, The Netherlands
Guido@CWI.nl

• Introduction
• The Design of Sound Storage System
  • Issues in Sound File System
  • The Components of a Sound File System
• Sound File System Throughout History
• Sampling and Digital Sound Representation
  • Sampling Rates
  • Sample Size and Converter Resolution
  • Handling Multi-channel Sounds
  • Sound Compression Schemes
• A Child's Garden of Sound File Formats
  • Self-describing File Formats
  • Header-less File Formats
• Sound File Format Descriptions
  • The NeXT/Sun Sound File Format
    • The SNDSoundStruct Data Structure
    • Format Codes
    • Fragment Sound Data
    • Common Combinations
    • An Example
    • API and Support
    • Discussion
  • AVR File Format
    • API and Support
    • Discussion
  • MIDI Sample Dump Standard
    • Discussion
  • NIST SPHERE Format
    • An Example
    • API Support
    • Discussion
  • Sound Designer Formats
    • Sound Designer I
    • Sound Designer II
    • Discussion
  • AIFF and AIFC Formats
    • An Example
    • API Support
    • Discussion
  • RIFF/WAVE (or WAV) File Format
    • Examples
    • API Support
    • Discussion
  • The csound, IRCAM, EBICSF Sound File Systems
    • An Example
    • API Support
    • Discussion
  • Other Formats
    • 8-Bit Formats
    • Sampler-oriented Formats
    • Sound Interchange via Electronic Mail
    • Proprietary Formats
• Comparision
• Sound File Conversion Software
  • SOX
  • SoundHack
• Internet Sound Archives
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• References
• Appendix: Support for Sound I/O on Current Computers

[ Up | Author Index ]