Speex: a free codec for free speech

Home Page :: Speex :: Xiph.org Foundation
This CODEC kicks ass. I am playing with it as a replacement for low-bandwidth ogg files and it sounds incredible.

The Speex project aims to build a patent-free, Open Source/Free Software voice codec. Unlike other codecs like MP3 and Ogg Vorbis, Speex is designed to compress voice at bitrates in the 2-45kbps range. Possible applications include VoIP, internet audio streaming, archiving of speech data (e.g. voice mail), and audio books. In some sense, it is meant to be complementary to the Ogg Vorbis codec.