See also
- AIFF
- IFF File Format
- WAV
- Paula, the digital audio processor for the Commodore Amiga computer
| Filename extension | .8svx, .iff |
|---|---|
| Internet media type | audio/8svx, audio/x-8svx |
| Type code | 8SVX |
| Developed by | Electronic Arts and Commodore International |
| Initial release | 1985 [1] |
| Type of format | audio file format, container format |
| Extended from | IFF |
| Extended to | 16SVX, MAUD |
8-Bit Sampled Voice (8SVX) is an audio file format standard developed by Electronic Arts for the Amiga computer series. It is a data subtype of the IFF file container format. It typically contains linear pulse-code modulation (LPCM) digital audio. [1]
The 8SVX subtype stores 8-bit audio data within chunks contained within an IFF file container. 8SVX subtypes can exist alone within IFF file containers (audio only), or can be multiplexed together with other IFF subtypes, such as video animation streams. [2]
Metadata about the 8SVX data stream is contained in separate descriptor chunks that come prior to the main data body chunk. Sample rate, volume and compression type are described in a VHDR chunk. Various other chunks are available to describe the name, author and copyright.
8SVX supports features such as attack, release and section repeat, which are useful for storage of musical instrument samples.
An example layout of an audio-only 8SVX IFF audio file:
FORM
|
The majority of 8SVX data streams are encoded using uncompressed linear PCM streams. Optionally, Fibonacci-delta lossy data compression is also available, resulting in a 50% compression ratio at the cost of decreased fidelity. [3] Multi-byte values are stored in big-endian format, the native byte order for the Motorola 68000 family.
IFF-8SVX encoded audio was the default audio format for the Commodore Amiga. Most audio programs for the Amiga supported the format. AmigaOS 3.0 introduced a multimedia framework using the datatype subsystem that included an 8SVX decoder (8SVX.datatype). [4]
Many sound editing programs and music tracker programs of the late 1980s and early 1990s supported the format. It is still a common format for cross-platform audio editing programs (such as Sound eXchange).
8SVX support is also available to modern programs via libavcodec [5] (and the related ffdshow codec package) as well as via libsndfile. [6]
The Commodore Amiga computer series never received native hardware support for 16-bit digital audio before the decline of the platform. As such, the related 16SVX and MAUD subtypes never saw wide adoption.
Apple Computer developed a separate subtype known as AIFF which included support for 16-bit samples and additional compression types. It superseded 8SVX as the dominant audio subtype for IFF files.
Microsoft and IBM co-developed the RIFF file container and the related WAVE audio subtype for Windows. Both formats are heavily influenced by the IFF/8SVX container format, but like AIFF, were extended to support higher bit-depths and additional compression types.
An audio file format is a file format for storing digital audio data on a computer system. The bit layout of the audio data is called the audio coding format and can be uncompressed, or compressed to reduce the file size, often using lossy compression. The data can be a raw bitstream in an audio coding format, but it is usually embedded in a container format or an audio data format with defined storage layer.
A codec is a device or computer program that encodes or decodes a data stream or signal. Codec is a portmanteau of coder/decoder.
JPEG Network Graphics is a JPEG-based graphics file format which is closely related to PNG: it uses the PNG file structure as a container format to wrap JPEG-encoded image data.
Ogg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The authors of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high-quality digital multimedia. Its name is derived from "ogging", jargon from the computer game Netrek.
Portable Network Graphics is a raster-graphics file format that supports lossless data compression. PNG was developed as an improved, non-patented replacement for Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)—unofficially, the initials PNG stood for the recursive acronym "PNG's not GIF".
Waveform Audio File Format is an audio file format standard, developed by IBM and Microsoft, for storing an audio bitstream on personal computers. It is the main format used on Microsoft Windows systems for uncompressed audio. The usual bitstream encoding is the linear pulse-code modulation (LPCM) format.
Audio Video Interleave is a proprietary multimedia container format and Windows standard introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows software. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback. Like the DVD video format, AVI files support multiple streaming audio and video, although these features are seldom used.
Interchange File Format (IFF) is a generic digital container file format originally introduced by Electronic Arts in 1985 to facilitate transfer of data between software produced by different companies.
Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio devices. The format was developed by Apple Inc. in 1988 based on Electronic Arts' Interchange File Format and is most commonly used on Apple Macintosh computer systems.
Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used for audio and video, though it can be used for arbitrary data.
Interleaved Bitmap (ILBM) is an image file format conforming to the Interchange File Format (IFF) standard. The format originated on the Amiga platform, and on IBM-compatible systems, files in this format or the related PBM format are typically encountered in games from late 1980s and early 1990s that were either Amiga ports or had their graphical assets designed on Amiga machines.
ANIM is a file format, used to store digital movies and computer generated animations, and is a variation of the ILBM format, which is a subformat of Interchange File Format.
Smacker video is a video file format developed by RAD Game Tools, and primarily used for full-motion video in video games. Smacker uses an adaptive 8-bit RGB palette. RAD's format for video at higher color depths is Bink Video. The Smacker format specifies a container format, a video compression format, and an audio compression format. Since its release in 1994, Smacker has been used in over 2300 games. Blizzard used this format for the cinematic videos seen in its games Warcraft II, StarCraft and Diablo I.
The Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC), also known as Apple Lossless, or Apple Lossless Encoder (ALE), is an audio coding format, and its reference audio codec implementation, developed by Apple Inc. for lossless data compression of digital music. After initially keeping it proprietary from its inception in 2004, in late 2011 Apple made the codec available open source and royalty-free. Traditionally, Apple has referred to the codec as Apple Lossless, though more recently it has begun to use the abbreviated term ALAC when referring to the codec.
A FourCC is a sequence of four bytes used to uniquely identify data formats. It originated from the OSType or ResType metadata system used in classic Mac OS and was adopted for the Amiga/Electronic Arts Interchange File Format and derivatives. The idea was later reused to identify compressed data types in QuickTime and DirectShow.
A container format or metafile is a file format that allows multiple data streams to be embedded into a single file, usually along with metadata for identifying and further detailing those streams. Notable examples of container formats include archive files and formats used for multimedia playback. Among the earliest cross-platform container formats were Distinguished Encoding Rules and the 1985 Interchange File Format.
Amiga support and maintenance software performs service functions such as formatting media for a specific filesystem, diagnosing failures that occur on formatted media, data recovery after media failure, and installation of new software for the Amiga family of personal computers—as opposed to application software, which performs business, education, and recreation functions.
CDXL is motion video file format developed by Commodore in the late 1980s and early 1990s for the Amiga computer platform. It is notable for being one of the earliest formats created for motion video playback from CD-ROM.
A file format is a standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file. It specifies how bits are used to encode information in a digital storage medium. File formats may be either proprietary or free.