Audio Formats

All audio on MerrillvilleChoir.com is published in two formats. They are:

• Windows Media Audio (WMA) - 32 kbps, mono - This protocol is used to provide streaming audio to modem users. It has the quality of a typical streaming connection (sounds very processed & compressed) because of the extreme data processing that must occur to take an audio signal and transmit it with such little bandwidth. WMA is a proprietary Microsoft protocol, so it is unlikely that you will be able to listen to a WMA file if you are not using Windows. Windows Media Player is the most common player for WMA files, although others do exist. To download WMA files, click the button that looks like this:
  Note that we are phasing out the WMA format and all new concerts will be encoded in OGG format.



• OGG Vorbis (OGG) - ~45 kbps, stereo - All new additions to the site are encoded using the OGG Vorbis audio compression codec. This is an open standard for audio compression which (in our opinion, anyway) is vastly superior to the MP3 standard you may be familiar with. We plan on encoding at two bitrates, which will provide both low-bandwidth streaming audio for modem users and larger, higher quality files for those who wish to download the music to listen to later or burn to CD. OGG's sound almost identical to the original audio file and do not exhibit any of the artifacts found in the WMA files on this site. OGG is a standard format that is being more and more widely accepted for audio compression, so you should be able to find a player for nearly any platform. The most commonly used player for Windows is WinAmp. To download OGG files, click the button that looks like this:

Looking to make a CD of choir music? Send us e-mail; we have higher-quality versions of every concert available to send you. (They aren't stored online because of limited space on our server.)