What is WAV?
| Full name | Waveform Audio File Format |
| Format type | Audio |
| Developed by | IBM and Microsoft |
| Description | WAV is short for Waveform Audio File Format, which was created in 1991. Both Windows and Mac systems have native support for WAVs, so you won’t have any issues with how to open and play them. Files in the WAV format can contain compressed or uncompressed audio, but usually, they come without compression, so WAV files can be quite large. Uncompressed WAVs are useful for professionals who require the best sound playback quality. |
| File extension | .wav, .wave |
| Technical details | The specification of the WAV file type is based on the RIFF specification. Both formats are containers for audio and store data in tagged “chunks.” Every “chunk” (or block) holds information about a part of a file, and, when creating a WAV, you can even leave some blocks empty to ease future sound editing. As for audio encoding, you can compress a .wav file with the MP3 or AAC codec, but WAV is mostly used for storing uncompressed audio. |
| Associated programs | Windows Media Player, iTunes, QuickTime, VLC, and others |
Popular conversions
Convert from WAV
WAV to 3G2WAV to 3GPWAV to AACWAV to AC3WAV to AIFWAV to AIFFWAV to ASFWAV to AUWAV to AVIWAV to CAFWAV to DTSWAV to FLACWAV to FLVWAV to GSMWAV to M2TSWAV to M2VWAV to M4AWAV to M4BWAV to M4VWAV to MKVWAV to MMFWAV to MOVWAV to MP2WAV to MP3WAV to MP4WAV to MPAWAV to MPEGWAV to MXFWAV to OGGWAV to OGVWAV to OpusWAV to RAWAV to SWFWAV to TSWAV to VOBWAV to VOCWAV to WebMWAV to WMAWAV to WMV
Convert to WAV
3GP to WAVAAC to WAVAC3 to WAVAIFC to WAVAIFF to WAVAIF to WAVASF to WAVAU to WAVAVI to WAVCAF to WAVDTS to WAVFLAC to WAVFLV to WAVGSM to WAVM2TS to WAVM4A to WAVM4B to WAVM4R to WAVM4V to WAVMKA to WAVMKV to WAVMMF to WAVMOV to WAVMP2 to WAVMP3 to WAVMP4 to WAVMPA to WAVMPEG to WAVMTS to WAVMXF to WAVOGA to WAVOGG to WAVOGV to WAVOpus to WAVRA to WAVRM to WAVSND to WAVSWF to WAVTS to WAVVOB to WAVVOC to WAVWebM to WAVWMA to WAVWMV to WAV