What is a WAV file?
Uncompressed audio standard for professional recording
WAV files are audio files saved in the ‘Waveform Audio File Format,’ a highly standardized digital audio format created by Microsoft and IBM. It is the most popular way of storing audio waveform data on computers. WAV files can be saved with different sampling and bitrates. WAV files usually contain raw, uncompressed audio data and their file sizes can be quite large. It is normally saved for CD quality audio with 44.1 KHz, 16-bit, stereo format. WAV files are similar to .AIF files, but they are based on the Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF), rather than the Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF). Hence, WAV files are more popular on the Windows platform while AIF files are more popular on MacOS systems.
Common uses for WAV files
- Professional audio recording
- Music production
- Sound design
- Broadcast audio
- Audio mastering
- Professional recording studios
- Audio interfaces
- Windows Sound Recorder
- DAW exports
- Broadcast equipment
Who works with WAV files?
Court reporters, legal teams, and oral-history archivists record depositions and interviews in WAV when bit-perfect audio matters more than file size, and academic researchers often standardize on it for qualitative interview data. Game developers and film post-production teams also work in WAV for dialogue stems and source audio before final delivery.
WAV vs FLAC: which should you use?
WAV stores raw, uncompressed PCM audio, while FLAC applies lossless compression that typically shrinks the same recording to roughly half the size with no loss in quality. WAV has near-universal support in recording hardware, DAWs, and editing software, whereas FLAC is preferred for archiving and file transfer because of its smaller footprint. Choose WAV for recording and editing where compatibility matters; choose FLAC when storage space or upload time is the priority.
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