Index
Glossary of Digital Audio Terms
27
Contents
ID3 tag
The ID3 tag is the part of the encoded MP3 file that
contains information about the digital music file
such as song title, artist, album title, encoding
bitrate, track time duration, and so on. ID3 Tag
information for each track displays on the Player
mode screens.
MP3
MP3 is short for Moving Pictures Experts Group
Audio Layer 3. MP3 is the most well known com-
pressed digital audio file format. This format allows
for near “CD quality” sound, but at a fraction of the
size of normal audio files. MP3 conversion of an
audio track from CD-ROM reduces the file size by
approximately a 12:1 ratio with virtually no percep-
tible loss in quality. This digital sound encoding and
compression process was developed by the Fraun-
hofer Institut fur Integrierte Schaltungen and
Thomson Multimedia. MP3 compression removes
the redundant and irrelevant parts of a sound signal
that the human ear doesn't hear. The MP3 encoding
process is well suited for the transfer of high quality
audio files with small file size over the Internet.
Playlist
Playlists let you organize lists of tracks to play in the
order you choose. Playlists make it easier to man-
age large collections of music.
Skin
The skin is a software option that lets you change
how software applications display on your computer
screen. Some software applications allow you to
customize the interface color and window design by
changing the skin. Some skins omit certain play-
back controls for simplicity.
Streaming
Streaming technology lets you play audio or video
directly from the Internet without first saving it on
your computer. You can listen to or watch the file
right away, without waiting for it to completely
download.
Treble
Treble is the high notes of the sound spectrum.
Increasing the treble value will raise the levels of
the high sounds in your music files.
VBR
Variable Bitrate (VBR) encoding converts tracks at a
variable rate, using higher bitrate encoding for com-
plex portions and lower bitrate encoding for pauses
in songs.
WMA
Windows Media Audio (WMA) is the compressed
audio format created by Microsoft as an alternative
to MP3. WMA offers comparable quality at greater
file compression than MP3, enabling you to store
more music on your PC or Rio player.