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WAV

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Waveform Audio File Format
Filename extension.wav
Internet media typeaudio/vnd.wave
audio/wav
audio/wave
audio/x-wav
Type codeWAVE
Uniform Type Identifier (UTI)com.microsoft.waveform-​audio
Developed byMicrosoft & IBM
Type of formataudio file
Extended fromRIFF

WAV (or WAVE), short for Waveform Audio File Format, is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs. It resembles the RIFF bitstream format in the sense that it stores data in “chunks”. It is also close to the IFF 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 default bitstream encoding is the Microsoft Pulse Code Modulation (LPCM) format, although other codecs, such as MP3, are allowed as well.