Editing Audio file format (section)

===Lossless compressed audio format===
A lossless compressed audio format stores data in less space without losing any information. The original, uncompressed data can be recreated from the compressed version.

Uncompressed audio formats encode both sound and silence with the same number of bits per unit of time. Encoding an uncompressed minute of absolute silence produces a file of the same size as encoding an uncompressed minute of music. In a lossless compressed format, however, the music would occupy a smaller file than an uncompressed format and the silence would take up [[Silence compression|almost no space]] at all.

Lossless compression formats include [[FLAC]], [[WavPack]], [[Monkey's Audio]], [[Apple Lossless Audio Codec|ALAC]] (Apple Lossless). They provide a compression ratio of about 2:1 (i.e. their files take up half the space of PCM). Development in lossless compression formats aims to reduce processing time while maintaining a good compression ratio.