Recording Formats

Several file formats are available when either creating a new file or converting an existing one. Each of these formats have pros and cons.

About real-time recording: certain formats require a lot of computing resources when encoding. On most of the recent phones (ARMv7), TapeMachine can record directly into all formats below. On other phones, certain formats, such as OGG, are only available when converting, not when creating a new file.

WAV
The Waveform Audio File Format is a very common format. It is a hi-fi uncompressed format, which can be read everywhere, but also results in big files. Therefore it is generally not suitable for sending by email.
OGG
Ogg Vorbis is a powerful compressed format, similar to MP3. It is a lossy format with adjustable quality. It is suitable for emails.
FLAC
The Free Lossless Audio Codec is a brilliant hi-fi format, which results in the same quality as WAV, but with files twice smaller.
AIFF
The Audio Interchange File Format is similar to WAV, and commonly used by professionals working on Apple systems.
MP3 (external codec)
The well known MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, a lossy format with adjustable quality, suitable for emails. Note: the MP3 codec is not included by default, it may be installed independently: MP3 info and disclaimer.

You may record by appending to an existing file or by overwriting parts of the sound, but only with uncompressed formats such as WAV and AIFF.

Such formats as OGG and FLAC are open, powerful, and recommended. However, not everyone has the codecs which are necessary to read files in these formats. On computers, one can use the VLC application for this purpose.

Also note that, although direct OGG editing is supported, it is highly recommended to perform edit operations using an uncompressed format, and convert afterwards if needed.