WAV: Waveform Audio File

Overview

WAV (Waveform Audio File Format) is an audio file format developed by Microsoft and IBM for storing digital audio. It's one of the most common formats for uncompressed audio on Windows systems.

WAV files typically contain uncompressed audio in PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) format, providing lossless audio quality. This makes WAV ideal for professional audio production, mastering, and archival purposes.

History

Development History

• 1991: Introduced by Microsoft and IBM
• 1992: Became standard audio format for Windows
• 1990s: Adopted as standard for CD ripping
• 2000s: Remains the professional standard for audio production

Features and Capabilities

Key Features

• Uncompressed lossless audio quality
• Support for various bit depths (8, 16, 24, 32-bit)
• Multiple sample rates (8kHz to 192kHz and beyond)
• Mono and stereo support
• Multi-channel audio support
• Metadata storage in INFO chunks
• BWF (Broadcast Wave Format) variant for professional use

Common Use Cases

Common Uses

• Audio production: Recording, mixing, and mastering
• Sound effects: Game audio and film sound effects
• Archival: Preserving audio recordings without quality loss
• CD ripping: Extracting audio from CDs
• Broadcast: Professional radio and television audio

Advantages

• Perfect audio quality (lossless)
• Universal compatibility
• Simple format structure
• No generation loss during editing
• Widely supported by audio software

Limitations

• Very large file sizes
• Not suitable for streaming or web use
• 4GB file size limit (BWF extends this)
• No built-in compression
• Limited metadata capabilities compared to modern formats

Technical Information

WAV files are based on the RIFF (Resource Interchange File Format) structure. The format stores audio data in chunks, with the main data chunk containing uncompressed PCM audio samples.