Music on the Internet is offered in a variety of formats and it is important to understand, and distinguish between, them. Broadly speaking, there are three different families of formats, and each has its own benefits and limitations. (The Classical Archives offers contents in all three format families. See the Introduction for details.)

• MP3/WAV/AIF/WMA/ASF formats
  • Very large files (long downloads)
  • Higher fidelity sound reproduction
  • Can be easily burned into an audio CD

  A file in this family of formats contains the audio in the form of a sound file. The WAV format is essentially the format used in regular audio CDs. The performance is digitized by sampling very quickly very small portions of the analog sound. The higher the rate, the higher the fidelity, but also the larger the file. An MP3 file is made by compressing a WAV file to reduce the amount of data. Some data is simply lost. But this is done very intelligently by essentially abandoning the sound features that the human ear is least capable of hearing. The data is then further compressed by using clever algorithms which recognize repeating sequences and encode them only once. There are several software packages available that allow the easy conversion to and from WAV and MP3. (Note however that it is always better to go from WAV to MP3 than the reverse, since the MP3 format is a "lossy" format as explained above.) You can burn MP3 files onto an MP3 CD-ROM or store the file in an MP3 player's memory. If you want to make an audio CD, you must use WAV files. WMA/ASF files belong to the same family of formats but offer other features such as copyright management.

  
  
• Streaming audio formats (WMA, M3U, Real)
  • Fairly quick to start playing
  • The stream can often be interrupted if your bandwidth is limited
  • Storing on your PC isn't possible as a rule
  • Not made for saving on an audio CD.

  Streaming audio files are usually made from highly compressed files. They are streamed so that you can start listening to a file before it is completely sent. While the beginning of the file is playing, the next portion is received in the background, ready to be played when needed. When you start listening to a streamed file, you will usually see an indicator telling you that the file is being "buffered." This means that the computer is waiting to collect enough of the data to start playing the file seamlessly. The quality of the sound will depend on the rate at which the file is streamed and you need to have enough bandwidth to receive that stream without interruption. An WAX/ASX file is actually a small text file that points to a Windows Media Audio (WMA) file to be streamed. An M3U file is actually an MP3 file that is pseudo-streamed. If you are not a hacker, it is not possible to save a streaming audio performance; you can listen to it only once by clicking on its link on a webpage. You will need to click on the link one more time if you want to listen to it again.

  
  
• MIDI format
  • Small (fast downloads)
  • Contains a score which can be displayed like sheet music
  • Reproduced by a synthesizer. May sound "tinny."
  • Can be stored as a .mid file but not burned to an audio CD

  A MIDI file is not an actual sound file; rather, it is the score of a performance. It needs to be processed by a synthesizer (see Your Hardware below) and the sound produced depends entirely on the quality of the sound samples on the synth's database. (Some synthesizers are purely in software. These and some of their hardware counterparts make use of sound files called "sound fonts.") In addition, the making (called "sequencing") of an outstanding MIDI file is not a trivial endeavor and only a limited number of people have truly mastered this art. Since sequencing software allows almost anyone to make a MIDI file fairly easily, there is a large number of MIDI files out there that are less than ideally produced.
  
  MIDI, as a medium, is usually not the first choice of classical music listeners: too many MIDI files sound "tinny" and make for rather poor performances (to be charitable) as compared with that of audio files containing live recordings of gifted musicians on real instruments. MIDI however, when used by a true sequencing master, can and does offer a wonderful listening experience. In addition, MIDI has two notable redeeming features: the files are very small compared to those of audio recordings (even after compression) and they can, in many cases, be used to generate a useful score while using the appropriate software (see Notation Musician in our store.) The quality of a MIDI rendition also depends a lot on the synthesizer you use. And both audio and MIDI renditions are best played through a good audio amplifier and speakers.

The sound coming from your computer depends primarily on two pieces of equipment: your sound card and your speakers. The sound card is inside your machine; it converts the digital data bouncing around your PC into the analog signal that is then amplified and sent to your speakers or headphones. Your sound card also contains a MIDI synthesizer on a chip (MIDI is an acronym for "Musical Instrument Digital Interface.") The chip contains a digitized database of instruments sound samples. The synthesizer receives data from the computer in the form of a score (what note, when, for how long, how loud, by what instrument) and interprets it according to the database. Thus, from a relatively small amount of data, one can generate a complete performance. The quality of your synthesizer is crucial when playing MIDI files (it is not used when playing audio files such as WMA and MP3) and many music buffs prefer to purchase an external synthesizer and bypass the synth on their sound card. In that regard, we recommend Roland's synthesizers. If you prefer to use an internal synthesizer on a good sound card, look at the SoundBlaster cards. Your sound card also amplifies and sends music from files in formats other than MIDI, such as MP3, WAV, etc. to your speakers or headphones. These formats differ from MIDI in that they contain a digitized version (compressed or uncompressed depending on the format) of a real recording made by real instruments, or real people's voices — (although sometimes, they also contain sounds originally generated by synthesizers.) Once the data is uncompressed and transformed into an analog signal, your sound card amplifies it and sends it to you. The second piece of equipment that determines the quality of the audio you experience is your speakers or headphones. The design of the speaker enclosure, for example, is important to the production of deep bass sounds. Ideally you also want enclosures with several sets of speakers (woofer, mid-range, tweeter) - each responsible for a portion of the audio spectrum - since no one speaker can successfully reproduce the whole range by itself. Note that you may also link your PC to your home stereo to take advantage of the quality of your audio system. To do this, simply plug a stereo cable between the LINE OUT mini-jack of your sound card and the LINE IN jack(s) of your stereo system.

You may also want to see
An Introduction To The Archives
Take the Classical Archives Music History Tour while listening to great concerts!
Our Music Appreciation Guide