One-page reference: the four ideas (psychoacoustic masking, MDCT, linear prediction, entropy coding) and a table mapping each major codec to the ideas it uses.
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The book · Volume 4 of 7
Audio for Video: A Complete Guide to Sound in Video Products: From PCM and Codecs to Loudness, Accessibility, and Real-Time Voice Processing
This cheat sheet explains how audio compression works through four ideas, psychoacoustic masking, MDCT, linear prediction and entropy coding, mapped to major codecs. Volume 4 covers these ideas in depth, with PCM, sampling, bit depth and dynamic range and the inner workings of Opus, AAC and speech codecs. Written by Nikolay Sapunov, CEO at Fora Soft.
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