File Extension WAV
You are here: File Extensions > File Extension WAV
File extension .wav is a WAVE Audio File. Detailed information of file extension .wav on what is .wav File and how to open/play .wav file with no trouble.
| Name: | File Extension .wav |
| Type: | Audio Files |
| Update Time: | Sep 3, 2009 |
WAV (or WAVE), short for Waveform audio format, also known as Audio for Windows, is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs.It is an application of the RIFF bitstream format method for storing data in ¡°chunks¡±, and thus also close to the 8SVX and the AIFF format used on Amiga and Macintosh computers, respectively.It is the main format used on Windows systems for raw and typically uncompressed audio. The usual bitstream encoding is the Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) format.
The usage of the WAV format has more to do with its familiarity, its simplicity and simple structure, which is heavily based on the IFF file format. Because of this, it continues to enjoy widespread use with a variety of software applications, often functioning as a 'lowest common denominator' when it comes to exchanging sound files between different programs.
The WAV format is limited to files that are less than 4 GB in size, because of its use of a 32-bit unsigned integer to record the file size header (some programs limit the file size to 2¨C4 GB). Although this is equivalent to about 6.8 hours of CD-quality audio (44.1 KHz, 16-bit stereo), it is sometimes necessary to exceed this limit, especially when greater sampling rates or bit resolutions are required.
As mentioned wav files can be encoded with a variety of codecs to reduce the file size, some different wav codecs including PCM, ADPCM, GSM, CELP, SBC, TrueSpeech and MPEG Layer-3, and so on.
Open WAV files on Windows
Facebook
Twitter