Add the ability to use ogg audio files?

I just did an experiment compressing the same segment of audio as an .mp3 file at 64 kbps and 32kbps. I also exported the same segment as an ogg file (actually, I did several ogg files - the most compressed bing 32kpbs). The end result is that the ogg file came out the same size as the 64kbps mp3 file, but sounded significantly better and cleaner.

Is it possible to open the door for SAB/RAB to use ogg files? I’ve heard that 3gp isn’t sync-ing well, and I’m curious to know if ogg files would have problems also. The audio is SO much better!

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+1 for open formats.

For our public output (on web pages or WhatsApp broadcasts), we have only used mp3 so far, since this is what people know and what most tools can handle. But including audio inside an app should give more options. Unless…

Does the RAB include some “player” inside each app, or does it rely on “guaranteed” Android system tools for the playing of the audio?

In our part of the world, users are still paying by data. So if we can provide better quality audio with less size, we are willing to train our team and transition to ogg. We are running our own recordings anyway and are set up with Linux and Audacity. So going to ogg should be very easy for us.

I discovered that if I save an audio file in the OGG format, it won’t play in RAB/SAB. However…if I add the extension “.ogg” to the end of the filename, it plays normally in RAB/SAB.

for example: “audiofile.mp3” is renamed “audiofile.mp3.ogg” and works!

This is not entirely clear. Where did you get the name audiofile.mp3 from when you had made a file in OGG format?

Are you saying that you rename audiofile.ogg by squeezing “.mp3” into the file name to give you audiofile.mp3.ogg?

Hello Martin,

Sorry for the confusion. What I did was create an .ogg file (let’s call it “myaudio.ogg”) and after it was created, I just added “.mp3” to the end of the filename (myaudio.ogg.mp3) in order to trick RAB into playing it. Ogg files are supported by the decoder that RAB uses, but RAB is not programmed to recognize ogg files. So by adding “.mp3” to the end of the filename, RAB recognizes the file extension and allows it to be sent to the decoder. Since the decoder can decode ogg files and mp3 files, it doesn’t have a problem with the fact that the file isn’t really an mp3 file.

Does that make it clearer?

Marty

Yes, thanks, muchly clearer now. Your answer makes me think that there must be another - deep and secret - forum, where such amazing things are documented.

Or is that place called “learn java and read the code”? :wink: Oops, I was just assuming that RAB is even opensource. Is it? I am learning my way around Android Studio a little. I have wondered once or twice if there is a way to spy into RAB and DAB by “opening” some of the files from the Studio. Guess that would be another thread.