Äänikoodekki

An äänikoodekki, or audio codec, is a piece of computer software or hardware that compresses and decompresses digital audio data. The primary purpose of an audio codec is to reduce the amount of data required to represent an audio signal, making it more efficient to store and transmit. This compression can be lossless, meaning no audio information is lost, or lossy, where some information is discarded to achieve higher compression ratios.

Lossless audio codecs, such as FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) or ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), reduce file size without sacrificing any audio quality. They achieve this by identifying and eliminating redundant information in the audio data. Lossy codecs, like MP3 or AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), achieve much smaller file sizes by selectively removing audio information that is less perceptible to the human ear. While this results in a loss of fidelity, the perceived quality can often be very good for many applications.

Audio codecs are fundamental to many digital audio technologies. They are used in digital audio players, streaming services, video conferencing, voice over IP (VoIP) communication, and digital broadcasting. The choice of codec impacts storage space, bandwidth requirements, and ultimately, the audio quality experienced by the listener. Different codecs employ various algorithms and techniques to achieve their compression goals, leading to trade-offs between file size, computational complexity, and audio fidelity.