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Audio format

WAV converter

A .wav file is Microsoft's Waveform Audio format, which in practice almost always stores uncompressed PCM samples. Because every bit of the original signal is preserved and no decoding is required, .wav remains the default working format in recording studios and audio editors.

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Runs on your device

Drop WAV files here

Batch files can each use a different output. Nothing uploads for local conversions.

Working inputs include camera RAW, browser-local audio/video, PDF, CBZ/CBR comics, office documents, ebooks, markup, 3D models, structured text, images, and archives.

Where WAV comes from

Microsoft and IBM published the format in 1991 as part of the RIFF family introduced with the Multimedia Extensions for Windows 3.0. The European Broadcasting Union layered Broadcast Wave (BWF) on top in 1997, adding the timestamping and origination metadata professional production required.

How WAV works

  • A RIFF chunk container whose fmt chunk usually declares linear PCM, though compressed codecs are technically permitted
  • Common studio configurations are 16- or 24-bit at sample rates from 44.1 to 192 kHz
  • CD-quality stereo consumes about 10 MB per minute
  • The 32-bit RIFF size field caps files at 4 GB, a limit the RF64 extension removes
  • Sample-accurate editing is trivial because there are no frames or blocks to align

When to use WAV

  • Capturing and mixing sessions in a DAW
  • Delivering audio stems for video post-production
  • Storing sound effects for game engines that stream raw PCM
  • Holding an uncompressed intermediate while processing or resampling audio

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Bit-perfect with zero generation loss
  • Negligible CPU cost to read or write
  • Universally accepted by every editor and DAW
  • Sample-accurate cutting without decode artifacts

Limitations

  • Enormous compared with FLAC, which halves the size losslessly
  • The 4 GB ceiling bites on long multichannel recordings
  • Tagging behavior is inconsistent across software

Compatibility

Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and all major browsers play .wav natively. Recordings that exceed 4 GB require the RF64 variant, which some consumer software fails to recognize.

RIFF INFO chunks hold basic tags, while the Broadcast Wave bext chunk and iXML add description, originator, and timecode for production workflows; some tools also embed ID3 chunks.

Convert WAV to another format

Convert other formats to WAV