Answer to Question #69931 in Python for Adam

Question

A game contains sound effects. Explain 2 ways that the sound files could be made smaller so that the game can be played on mobile devices.

Answer 1

There are two ways to compress audio (sound) file - lossy and lossless.
Lossless formats use compression algorithms that preserve audio data so the audio is exactly the same as the original source. It make quality of sound on higest level (high resolution audio) despite on smaller "value" (but in this way size of file is bigger then with use lossy format, like mp3). The losseless formats are FLAC, ALAC, APE, WavPack, WMA Lossless, etc.
Losses formats use algorithm audio format compression in a way that discards some information. This means that the encoded audio isn't identical to the original and has worse sound quality (as result we have small-resolution audio with smaller size). Examples of losses formats are MP3, AAC, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, etc.