WAV
WAV is a RIFF container, commonly 16-bit or 24-bit PCM.
Common uses
- Editing
- Archival captures
- DAW interchange
Strengths
- Lossless PCM
- Simple
Weaknesses
- Huge
- Limited metadata compared with BWF variants
Compatibility. Universal for PCM WAV. Some compressed WAV variants are rarer.
Size and quality. About 10 MB per minute for stereo 16-bit 48 kHz, order of magnitude.
How to open it. Any DAW or player.
How to convert it. Compress to AAC/MP3/Opus for delivery. Not a ConvertPass phase-one encoder.
Security and privacy. Untrusted binary. Truncated files should fail safely in players.
Related tools
- Duration and file-size calculator
Estimate how big a clip will be from duration and bitrate.
Related comparisons
Last reviewed 16 August 2026.