MP3 / WAV / OGG / MIDI players

What audio recording format should I use?

Of the dozens of audio recording formats, three standards are currently the most popular:

• WAV - this is called uncompressed audio - the audio samples are recorded and played back one by one, exactly as they were recorded. WAV files offer the highest quality sound (lossless recording), but they take up quite a bit of memory.
• MP3 - the world's most popular lossy recording format - the data is compressed, which means that for a greater or lesser loss of sound quality we can save many times longer recordings on the same capacity of the medium. By choosing the level of compression we can establish a compromise between quality and file size.
• Ogg - lossy (compressed) recording format, providing comparable or better sound quality than MP3. When using this format you should check if your MP3 module has the function to play this type of files.

MP3 / WAV / OOG / MIDI players - the Swiss Army Knife of audio

One player module can allow you to play several types of files, and the most sophisticated models also provide the ability to record audio using the built-in microphone or line input. A simple WAV or MP3 player can be a universal module with goldpin terminals or an Arduino shield. For those who deal with sound production or home recording, we recommend a functional, modular MIDI player.

Small but memorable

MP3 or WAV player in a form of module can be easily connected to Arduino or any microcontroller and control playback of recordings without getting into the intricacies of audio technology. In our offer you'll find player modules compatible with memory cards. Thanks to this you can easily save new files, and with a large capacity memory card you will never run out of space for new recordings. However, if you do not need many hours of recordings, but instead just a few or several short audio messages, consider buying a module with built-in flash memory. The Adafruit Audio FX Mini Sound Board WAV/OGG player has 2MB of built-in memory on board, so without the need for an SD card, you can upload the messages you need to the module using a microUSB cable.