.wav

What is a .wav file?

WAV is uncompressed audio — raw waveform data exactly as captured, full quality, about 10 MB per minute at CD quality.

Safe format
Type Audio
By Microsoft / IBM
MIME audio/wav

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What is it

You're working with audio — recording a podcast, editing a music track, or processing sound effects. The file is a WAV because that's what professional audio workflows run on. No compression, no quality decisions, just the raw signal captured sample by sample.

WAV stores audio as uncompressed PCM data, which means the file is a direct representation of the sound wave. Nothing is discarded, nothing is approximated, nothing degrades when you re-save. That fidelity comes at a cost: about 10 MB per minute of stereo audio at CD quality (44.1 kHz, 16-bit). A three-minute song weighs 30 MB as WAV versus 5 MB as MP3. This is why WAV is the format you record and edit in, not the format you distribute in.

Every media player on every platform opens WAV. For music production, your DAW (Logic, Ableton, Pro Tools, Audacity) works natively in WAV. When you're done editing, export to MP3 for distribution, FLAC for lossless archiving, or AAC if your audience is primarily on Apple devices. WAV is the starting point, not the endpoint.

Technical details
Full Name
Waveform Audio
MIME Type
audio/wav
Developer
Microsoft / IBM
Magic Bytes
52 49 46 46 ?? ?? ?? ?? 57 41 56 45
Safety
.wav is a known, safe format.
What opens it
Every media player
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FAQ
What is the difference between WAV and MP3?
WAV is uncompressed — full quality, large files (about 10 MB per minute). MP3 is lossy compressed — smaller files (about 1 MB per minute) at the cost of discarding audio data your ears are unlikely to notice. Use WAV for editing and archiving. Use MP3 for sharing and streaming. Convert with fwip's WAV to MP3 converter.
Why are WAV files so large?
Because they store every single audio sample without compression. A CD-quality WAV (44.1 kHz, 16-bit, stereo) uses about 10 MB per minute. A 24-bit recording session at 96 kHz uses even more. That is the point — no data is thrown away.
What is the difference between WAV and FLAC?
Both are lossless — identical audio quality. FLAC compresses the data to about 50–70% of the original size without losing anything, like a ZIP file for audio. WAV stores it raw. FLAC saves space; WAV is simpler and more universally supported in audio editors.
Can I convert WAV to MP3 without losing too much quality?
Yes. At 320 kbps, most people cannot distinguish MP3 from the original WAV in a blind test. Use fwip's WAV to MP3 converter for a quick, private conversion right in your browser.
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