ByeBye Bush:
-64 days
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ByeBye Bush:
-64 days
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Why OGG?: Simply put, OGGs sounds great and are more pleasing to the ears than MP3s of equivalent file size. Moreover, at equivalent audio fidelity, the OGGs are significantly smaller than MP3s (put another way, OGGs offer "better sound at the same filesize, and equivalent sound at smaller filesizes than MP3s"). Every modern media player of which I am aware, with the exception of iTunes, can play OGG files natively (and there's a plugin for iTunes). Programs that support OGG natively include, but are not limited to, Zinf, XMMS, and Winamp, just to name three. Finally, OGG is a completely open, non-patent encumbered format. MP3 is a patented, royalty-charging format in certain countries and I try to do my part for the destruction of an outdated and outmoded intellectual property system... especially when there are better options available.
Which to choose?: You are probably already aware that OGG and MPeg I, Layer 3 (MP3) use lossy compression algorithms to achieve their ends; compression is, after all, how they achieve their small filesize. Because the compression is lossy, however, some amount of information is lost upon conversion from the original format. Theoretically, the lost information is "uneccesary" because the human ear can't distinguish between them. This, not to put too fine a point on it, is utter bollocks. Of course you can hear the difference, but the key is that the lossy compressions are generally good enough. The higher the bitrate used to encode, the fewer bits that are thrown away and the better the fidelity. Even with a 256kbps MP3, though, you're going to lose some information and the higher the bitrate the less reason there is to use either OGG or MP3. The typical listener will probably not hear a difference between the CD and the MP3, but an audiophile probably will and any musician or engineer worth their salt definitely will. To my ears, any MP3 encoded below 160kbps can get particularly ugly on the high end, and white noise generators (like cymbals) are where you hear the artifacts the most. OGG is a bit different in that it uses a Variable Bit Rate so the hard and fast rules do not apply, but I wouldn't want to encode at anything less than a 6 or 6.5 on the 10 scale.
FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) files are another beast entirely, and in many ways far superior to either OGG or MP3. FLAC, as you may have gathered from the name, is a lossless compression format and the compressed file contains every bit of information that the original did. Naturally, this fidelity comes at a price, namely some monster file sizes (when compared to OGG or MP3), though they are around 2/3rds the size of the original WAV. See also, Shorten
You should choose whichever format you feel most comfortable with. I heartily encourage you to give OGG a try if you haven't yet, and FLAC if you really like my stuff.