(
WAVe) The native digital audio format in Windows. Using the .WAV file extension, 8- or 16-bit samples can be taken at rates of 11,025 Hz, 22,050 Hz and 44,100 Hz. The highest quality (16-bit at 44,100 Hz) is the sampling rate of an audio CD and uses 88KB of storage per second. Windows employs WAV files for general system sounds, and new WAV files can be placed in the Windows Media folder (\WINDOWS\MEDIA or \WINNT\MEDIA) and assigned in the Sounds control panel.
The WAV format is widely used as the audio medium for professional recording and editing. For creating music CDs, WAV files are converted to the CD-DA audio format, and both WAV and CD-DA files take up a similar amount of storage space. See
CD-DA.
Mostly Uncompressed PCM
The default content of a WAV file is uncompressed, pulse code modulated (PCM) digital samples derived from the analog source. However, WAV files can also be used to store compressed formats, including MP3, ADPCM, GSM, G.723.1 and others. A header in the file indicates the content type. See
sampling and
PCM.