Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC), a digital audio file format used in Sony music players. ::  Close

Developed by Sony engineers in the early 90's, ATRAC is an audio codec which offers near-CD sound quality. The MiniDisc format uses ATRAC to fit a whole CD's worth of music on a 2-1/2" disc. ATRAC3 is a newer version of this codec that squeezes music into even smaller files. It's used for MDLP recording with some MiniDisc recorders, for music storage in some portable memory players, and in other Internet music applications like Liquid Audio and RealAudio. A MiniDisc recorder with MDLP gives you a range of compression options (in order of increasing compression): * regular recording mode - standard ATRAC codec (292 Kbps encoding bitrate), * LP2 mode - ATRAC3 codec (132 Kbps encoding bitrate), * LP4 mode - ATRAC3 codec (66 Kbps encoding bitrate)

Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding. ATRAC removes inaudible sound from the audio signal and compresses the data to 1/5 its original volume. The listener does not perceive any deficiency in sound quality as a result of this compression process. Thus a MiniDisc can store the same quantity of music as a CD, despite being much smaller.

Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding. A compression system designed to enable storage of large amounts of audio information with marginal loss of quality.

The audio compression algorithm used by MiniDisc players. It involves dropping all frequencies below and above the human hearing range (20Hz to 20KHz).

The system of data reduction used by Sony in its MiniDisc format.

Short for daptive TR ansform coustic oding, ATRAC is the digital data compression technology that makes it possible to fit up to 80 minutes of high-fidelity stereo digital audio onto a tiny 2-1/2" disc. Ultra-compact MiniDiscs can hold only about 1/5th of the data of a CD, but thanks to ATRAC, MiniDisc offers CD-like specs for dynamic range, frequency response, and low distortion.

Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding A method of compression of audio signals as used for Mini Disc.

Acoustic Transformation Adaptive Coding. A perceptual encoding system used in the Sony MiniDisc format. See: Perceptual Coding

Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding. The low-bit-rate data-reduction encoding process used in the Sony-developed minidisk system. See also Data reduction.

ATRAC (Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Coding) is a family of proprietary audio compression algorithms used to store information on Mini Discs and other Sony-branded audio players. The original ATRAC-1 was first developed by Sony in 1992; the higher compression versions known as ATRAC3 and ATRAC3plus followed in 1999 and 2002, respectively.