Newsgroups: comp.speech
Path: pavo.csi.cam.ac.uk!warwick!uknet!mcsun!uunet!haven.umd.edu!darwin.sura.net!sgiblab!nec-gw!nec-tyo!wnoc-tyo-news!sh.wide!wnoc-kyo!atrwide!atr-hr!atr-hr!eaw
From: eaw@hip.atr.co.jp (Eric Woudenberg)
Subject: Audio File Formats / Headers?
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1993 00:18:42 GMT
Organization: ATR Human Information Processing Research Labs., Kyoto, JAPAN
Sender: news@hip.atr.co.jp (USENET News System)
Message-ID: <EAW.93Jun29091842@haiku.hip.atr.co.jp>
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I'm interested in knowing if there are any standard audio file headers
_that people like_. I know about the waves+ headers, but I think they
are a bit of overkill. Before I go and invent my own simple 1Kbyte
Ascii header, I thought I'd ask what's available.

I'm looking for a *simple* header format, in Ascii, that can hold
basic information such as the sampling rate, data type (mu-law, short,
float), number of channels (mono, stereo, or n-channel fft/filterbank
data), byte order, etc. The header should be trivial to strip, as in:
    "dd bs=1k skip=1 <in >out".

I find that headers end up being such a hassle that most folks here
prefer to live without them, which unfortnately cuts down on the
usefulness of the data and the ability to automate parameter settings
of tools.

I'll summarize if people want to email me.

Thanks,

Rick Woudenberg
