Original File Sound Quality

Question

Hi, this is a concern that's been bugging me a bit so I wanted to ask, if I import any kind of audio, does the original audio where it came from stay as it is? I'm asking because when I drag an audio file into Audition, it converts the audio into the WAV format. So just to be sure, does the original audio stay completely untouched, or could there be any slight change in quality from the source file?

Thanks

SteveG_AudioMasters_ · Answer

Wav files are uncompressed, and are the highest quality files you can have - that's why Audition uses Wav as its native format, and everything else is converted to this upon opening. No your original file doesn't get touched, but if, for instance, it is an MP3 compressed file and you open it, do something to it and then save it again with the same file name, the quality will be reduced - because Audition has to re-encode the original file, and all MP3 coding is inherently lossy; if you do it over and over again, you end up with nothing other than a mess.

So if you want to retain your original file intact, then if you make changes to it, store it with a different name.

But the direct answer to your question is no, having your sound as a wav file doesn't compromise it in the slightest. The only way a file could be compromised in this way would be in the decoding, and generally that's not a problem. For instance with MP3, the specification says that all decoding has to be the same in all apps - it's only the way it's encoded that may make a quality difference, which is why some people prefer to encode using, for instance, LAME.

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