Re: [ARSCLIST] What type of file are music CD's saved as

[Michael Fingerhut <mf@xxxxxxxx>]

> Does anyone know what type of file a regular music cd is actually
saved
> as?

If by "regular music cd" you mean audio CD, the format of the contents
is linear PCM (similar to a WAV file, say, without any headers), i.e.,
uncompressed. The format on the CD itself is not really a file format
per se. The ".cda" extension some systems show now are not really the
audio contents themselves, but more of an index into the CD.  More (and
plenty thereof) information on the CD Faq, at http://www.cdrfaq.org/.
The CDA info is in section 2-36.

So in order to burn an audio CD, the source will have to be
uncompressed, either to begin with or through digital or analogue means.
The only way, in the latter case, not to loose any quality would be if
the compression used was lossless, and if the uncompression is done
digitally.

Michael Fingerhut
Director, Multimedia Library
and Engineering Bureau
IRCAM - Centre Pompidou
Paris, France