Libvorbis

Libvorbis is the reference implementation of the Vorbis audio coding format. It is a free, open-source software library developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The library provides encoding and decoding capabilities for Vorbis streams and is commonly used with the Ogg container format, producing Ogg Vorbis audio. Libvorbis is distributed under a BSD-style license, emphasizing permissive reuse in both open-source and commercial projects.

The library implements the Vorbis codec’s psychoacoustic model and compression techniques, enabling lossy audio compression with support for variable bitrate encoding and quality-based settings. It exposes a C API that handles the core components of the Vorbis pipeline, including stream setup, digital signal processing, and bitstream handling. Libvorbis is designed to be portable across a wide range of platforms and environments.

In practice, libvorbis has been integrated into a broad ecosystem of media software, including many open-source players, transcoding tools, and streaming pipelines. It supports various channel configurations and is commonly used as the encoder/decoder behind Ogg Vorbis audio streams in software that prioritizes free and open formats. As the standard reference implementation for Vorbis, libvorbis remains a foundational component in the ecosystem of open audio codecs and the wider Xiph.org project.