Audio Codec; a Digital Electronic Device Used to Encode or Decode Analog Data
An Audio Codec , also known as a sound codec, is simply a device or software package capable of decoding or encoding a digital audio data stream that encodes or decodes audio into another digital data format. It is used extensively in music production and distribution, in home computers and multimedia devices, as well as in various online applications. In computer terminology, codec is sometimes referred to as coder. For example, Windows Media provides a framework that compiles a number of codecs into a functional audio converter/decoder. There are several different ways in which an Audio Codec may be used. The most common way to encode audio files into a computer program is to decode the file into its digital representation, which is then converted back into an analog signal or compressed signal using an analog audio converter or decoder. A decoder is used to decode the file into a lossless format that can be freely used on non-licensed computer programs. Opus is ...