wav

WAV, short for Waveform Audio File Format, is an audio file format standard for storing waveform data on PCs. It was developed by Microsoft and IBM in 1991 as part of the RIFF (Resource Interchange File Format) container and is widely used for high-quality audio data.

As a container format, WAV stores audio data in chunks within a RIFF file. The essential structure includes a fmt subchunk that describes the audio format, such as the encoding (most commonly PCM), number of channels, sample rate, byte rate, block alignment, and bits per sample. A data subchunk then contains the raw audio samples. While PCM is the predominant encoding, WAV can also hold other codecs within the RIFF container, though PCM remains the standard for lossless audio.

Metadata in WAV files is optional and can be stored in additional chunks, notably the LIST INFO chunk, which may include subrecords like INAM (name) and IART (artist). Some non-PCM formats use extra chunks such as the fact chunk, and there are extensions like RF64 to accommodate files larger than 4 GB.

Key characteristics include its status as a lossless, uncompressed format when using PCM, which preserves original audio quality. It is supported across nearly all operating systems and audio software, making it a common choice in professional audio production, mastering, and archival work. The main trade-offs are larger file sizes compared to compressed formats and its less convenient streaming behavior, since WAV is primarily a storage format rather than a streaming container.

See also: RIFF, RF64, PCM, audio file formats.