While audio takes up a much smaller amount of data on a typical project compared to video, it still bears discussion since, of course, half of the experience of a video presentation is audio. It's also easier for pretty much any device (whether a computer, a camcorder, a playback device, etc.) to process audio than video, regardless of the levels of compression in use.
Take a simple linear PCM file that you'd get if you captured some footage from a Mini DV tape and then separated the audio from the video. This is pretty much the most raw, unprocessed form of audio that you can get. Practically any computer can process linear PCM quickly with reckless abandon - the longest part of the operation would be the time needed by the hard drive to read the file into the system.
On the other hand, before compressed audio can be edited further, the computer has to decompress it. If you, opened, say, an MP3 file in Audacity, the needed operation would happen up-front before you could actually start editing the audio.
Another differentiating factor between audio formats is the ability to encode more than just two channels of audio. Most producers working on 5.1-channel audio mixes will encode them into the Dolby Digital format. This has become the de facto standard for digital surround-sound mixes over the years, mostly as a result of being one of the two mandatory audio formats fo…
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