ATRAC3 compresses audio data to half that achieved by the ATRAC technology originally developed by Sony for MD, while...

It was renamed to ATRAC3! Seriously though, audio coders are evolving computer programs with few natural dividing lines between them, though perhaps it's fair to rename them when their stored formats become incompatible. ATRAC2 (described briefly and in slightly more detail) differs substantially from the original, existing ATRAC system, having twice the transform window size (1024 samples [23.2ms], vs. 512 samples [11.

Windows users can download this ATRAC3.zip file, unpack it into a new folder, then right click on the atrac3.inf file and choose "Install". This loads an ATRAC3 codec (.acm file) into the system so that .wav files containing ATRAC3 audio can be played (and recorded!) with your normal system tools (Sound Recorder, Windows Media Player 7, Winamp, Goldwave [encode ATRAC3 in Goldwave by selecting "File->Save As->Save as type: 'Wave', File Attributes: 'ATRAC3'"]).

Sony and Real Networks negotiated a deal in which Real adopted ATRAC3 for their RealAudio8 wideband audio coder. The freely downloadable RealSystem Producer Basic (available for Linux, Mac and PC) can encode ATRAC3 audio at 352, 264, 176, 132, 105, 96, 64, 44, 32 and 20kbps. The 146kbps ATRAC3 rate is apparently only available with the $200 RealSystem Producer Plus package.

A4. Yes. MP3 is the abbreviated name for MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 standard and is a different type of data compression method from the ATRAC3 music data compression technology. A5. No. Playback of recordings in ATRAC3 requires a playback device with a built-in ATRAC3 decoder. Playback is not possible with the IC recorder’s ADPCM™ and LPEC™ decoders.

Download and intall Sonic Foundry (now Sony) Sound Forge. I believe the demo is fully-functional for 30 days. This FAQ is a collection of thoughts and information gathered from various forums and the kindness of users who have contributed time and willingly partecipated with valuable information.