About Downloadable File Formats

Productiontrax.com offers currently offers several options for downloading royalty free music, sound effects, stock footage, and stock photos. You can also opt to have .WAV or .AIF files shipped to you physically on CD-ROM by selecting this option at checkout. In order to download these formats, you must select the delivery format before you add the item to your cart.

MP3 Download
This is the default for all tracks. MP3s are compressed audio files that can be used on any platform, in almost any program. MP3s save file space and download time because the encoding process shaves some bits from the audio signal. Generally, an MP3 that is encoded at a high bit rate sounds the same as CD-quality.

FLAC Download
FLAC is a lossless audio format that compresses an audio file in a manner similar to ZIP. No audio data is lost in the process, and the result is Master-quality audio that can be played back in a number of programs. FLAC is supported on all major computing platforms, and we have provided free utilities to easily convert FLAC downloads back to their source format such as AIF or WAV. FLAC saves bandwidth and disk space without sacrificing any data from the original file.

WAV Download
WAV Files are PC Audio Files. This is the original, uncompressed version of the mix of a royalty free music track or a sound effect. WAV files tend to be large and take up a lot of room and take a long time to download. Usually, WAVs are provided in CD quality, at either 16 or 24 bit. WAV files work exactly the same way as AIF, and are fairly interchangable on most systems.

MOV Download
MOV files are the preferred delivery format of quicktime movie files for stock footage. Originally developed as a mac video format, Quicktime has become the industry standard for presenting video and sharing online in both compressed and uncompressed formats. Quicktime files are fairly universal across operating systems and video editing systems, though some older PCs may have trouble playing these files.

JPEG Download
JPEGS are image files, and are our preferred delivery format for stock photos. JPEGs are similar to GIF and PNG, and can easily be read by all programs and online. In general, higher resolution equals better quality image.