recording audio - which format best

[freebird1963]

hello
I am using magix audio cleaning lab to record my tapes and vinyl to the computer so i can burn to cd.
for quality which is better if any
wav
mp3
ogg vorbis

Thanks
Mark

[DereX888]

WAVE is the only uncompressed format (which guarantees preservation of original sound). All other formats are more or less compressed.

Tip:
Record it at 48kHz instead of 44kHz, and burn them on a DVD-R (as an DVD-Video without video, aka "Audio-DVD-Video"), you'll fit much more stuff there, plus you'll have more modern options (i.e. menus) instead of making just a CDDA.

BTW - if you are going to make CDDA (Audio CD) you shouldn't record your audio in any compressed formats since CDDA is uncompressed WAVE, thus if you record your audio in MP3 or OGG - your CD authoring software will convert it to WAVE anyways...

[Rich86]

my $.02 . .

By all means use .wav to avoid loss of quality due to compression.
But burn to cd as standard digital audio in order to maximize compatibility across various types of players (computer programs, standalone component cd players, car players, portable players).

[guns1inger]

I haven't played with OGG, but MP3 is a butchering compression format. I am still at a loss as to why it has become so big, given that under around 320kbps it is obviously sub CD audio quality.

If you are recording for an sort of preservation, start with wav. If you need to generate a compressed version later you can, and still have an uncompromised version available.