Opus Audio: A Superior Music Codec with Superb Quality
The latest audio codec that is on everyone’s lips is Opus. There has been a lot of talk about this, so why all the fuss? After all, we already have mp3s and Ogg Vorbis and AACs and WAVs, so how good could it be? Well, that’s what this article will try to find out.
Opus is new advanced audio codec. The greatest feature of Opus is that it has very low latency (33ms). This makes Opus suitable for gaming, VoIP, teleconferencing, listening to music and watch videos online.
Opus Audio Codec is a format for lossy audio that is optimized for streaming. It’s similar to MP3, but it offers a better sound quality and a smaller file size.
Opus uses a compression algorithm that allows it to achieve better audio quality than other formats with a smaller file size. This means you can get the same or better quality but using less bandwidth, which makes streaming easier and faster.
Opus also supports multichannel audio, which means that you can listen to music or watch movies in surround sound.
How Does It Sound?
How Good Compared to MP3?
First of all, you should know that Opus is a more modern format than MP3. MP3 was designed in 1993 and has been updated several times since then, but Opus was designed in 2012 and has already been updated several times since then. That might not seem like a big deal at first glance, but just look at the difference between these two formats:
Opus supports up to 255 channels of audio at once (compared to 2-channel stereo)
Opus supports dynamic range compression or expansion so that your music sounds better when it’s played back on different devices or speakers with different volumes.
How Do I Use Opus?
Opus is supported by most major operating systems including Windows 10, macOS 11+. Google added native support for Opus audio playback in Android 5.0 “Lollipop”. You can also play Opus files using third party apps such as VLC Player or Audacity if you prefer not to use Google Play Music’s built-in player app on Android devices or desktop computers running Windows 10/8/7 operating systems respectively.
Converting audio to Opus with Audacity
You can use Opus in Audacity by installing the FFmpeg library, then enabling the Opus option in your encoding settings.
1. In Audacity, go to File > Export > Export audio.
2. ‘Save File Type’ Choose Opus (OggOpus) as the export format.
3. Select bit-rate and compression level (1–10).
4. Select the application (VOIP, Audio, or Low Delay)
5. Save file.
Conclusion
In short, Opus is a revolutionary audio format that is used by the most loved online radio streaming services. It is a way better option to MP3 and AAC because of its highly efficient file size, resulting in faster load times and reduced buffering times. The improved quality of sound may be the main selling point for Opus; however, it also offers excellent use for internet speed test sites or even music download sites.
So, while Opus might seem to be another addition to the wide field of streaming applications available today, it offers a unique solution for audio storage. Users can store audio in an easy-to-access format that offers almost “unlimited” space for music, podcasts and other files backed up online.
Fore audio samples, check out my playlist https://www.mixcloud.com/exum/ all tracks are encoded streaming in Opus HQ on Mixcloud.
For more info visit the official website https://opus-codec.org/
