RK Audio: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 09:35, 28 December 2021

RK Audio (RKAU) is a legacy lossless (and lossy) audio compressor for the Windows platform. It was developed by Malcolm Taylor together with RK (a general purpose data compressor) and RKim (a lossless image compressor).

Development ceased around year 2000. The author offered it for download until circa 2005 at his new company MSoftware while marketing RK as the WinRK archiver (also discontinued).

Testing by ReallyRareWares indicated excellent compression level at the time, at the cost of high CPU usage. Features were few.

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-'''RK Audio''' ('''RKAU''') is a [[lossless]] (and [[lossy]]) audio compressor. It was developed by Malcolm Taylor together with RK (a general purpose data compressor) and RKim (a lossless image compressor).
+'''RK Audio''' ('''RKAU''') is a legacy [[lossless]] (and [[lossy]]) audio compressor for the Windows platform. It was developed by Malcolm Taylor together with RK (a general purpose data compressor) and RKim (a lossless image compressor).
-At some point, some years ago, it featured the best compression levels among the lossless audio encoders. But then development halted and competitors like [[Monkey's Audio]], [[OptimFROG]] and [[Lossless Audio]] caught on.
+Development ceased around year 2000.  The author offered it for download until circa 2005 at his new company MSoftware while marketing RK as the WinRK archiver (also discontinued).
-It was closed source. Added to that, it was very slow on decoding and had few features. So, it never became a really popular format.
+Testing by ReallyRareWares indicated excellent compression level at the time, at the cost of high CPU usage.  Features were few.
-Recently, RKsoft was revived by Malcolm Taylor, now with the name MSoftware, so there is hope RKAU development will start again.
+=== Further reading ===
+* [https://www.rarewares.org/rrw/rkau.php RKAU at ReallyRareWares]
+{{navbox audio codecs}}
 [[Category:Codecs]]


Audio codecs: type/usage	for end-users to encode	on physical media etc.	legacy formats
Lossless	(Uncompr. LPCM) • ALAC • FLAC • Monkey's Audio • MPEG-4 ALS • OptimFROG • TAK • TTA • WavPack	MLP/Dolby TrueHD	La • LPAC/LTAC • RealAudio Lossless • RK Audio • Shorten • WMA Lossless • (others)
Lossy	(ADPCM formats) • AAC • AC-3 • MP2 • MP3 • Musepack • Opus • Vorbis	AC-3 • DTS • (Bluetooth codecs)	ATRAC • QDesign • Real Audio • RK Audio (lossy modes) • Speex • VQF • WMA
Hybrid lossless&lossy	OptimFROG DualStream • WavPack	DTS-HD MA • MPEG-4 SLS	ATRAC Advanced Lossless • mp3HD