We are going to develop a train simulator for the education of machinist candidates. The simulator will be realistic like the real train, with all of its features. Hence, we need the sounds to be heard by the machinist like driving the real train. We are planning to collect the real train sounds on the train and use FMOD library to provide the sounds. But we don’t know in which format to collect the sounds. When choosing the sound format to use in our project, we should take into some considerations (such as quality, size, loading time, etc.). Which format is suitable for this purpose (.wav, .mp3, etc.)? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the sound formats? I will be appreciated if you help me… Thanks

mp3 has the disadvantage of licensing problems. I'd recommend you to use Ogg Vorbis instead, it is AFAIK free. Both mp3 and ogg are mainly used for music, not for sound effects. The formats are quite small but difficult to read.

For shorter sound effects (< 20s) .wav would be a good choice. The format is large but loading time is small, sound quality is perfect.

[Edited by - Porthos on April 9, 2008 6:17:46 AM]

Yes, I would agree, OGG for big files, WAV for small ones. OGGs are typically 10% to 20% of the size of the equivalent WAV and sound almost as good, especially at compression rates approaching 20% or more. (You get to choose the size/quality tradeoff during compression.)

I agree, use Ogg Vorbis and I'll add some usefull info: with vorbis you can decode to pcm and maintain that pcm in memory if you wish. Use vorbis for all sounds and for those you will need frequently you can maintain the pcm in memory and use it directly instead of decode it again.

Same advice : OGG for streams, WAVE for samples. mp3 is subject to royalties.

You asked the format to RECORD...

Altough everyone else said to use ogg for big files, and I agree with them, DO NOT TRY to record big files directly in ogg...

So, to record, go for wav, the more bits and the more rate is better (altough they can reach huge file sizes...), in a game here the sound only sounded "right" after being recorded at rates above 80k and using 24bits or better, 48k is ok for music and 28k is ok for soem specific sound effects (ones that are "smooth" and "flat", that is: explosions, voice and smashing sounds are surely not on this category)

Ogg Vorbis is great

Thanks for your advices; they were very useful:)

Hi there,

I'm an audio professional in games.

To record 16bit or 24bit is good more important though is the sample rate. Use 44.1kHZ as absolute MINIMUM sampling frequency. If possible use 48kHz if not 96kHz if you have microphones and equipment that can capture it.

You should be capturing with the right microphone and wind protection for the job.

You can always down sample - but it's impossible to up sample and recapture the lost frequencies.