Waveform Audio, an uncompressed (typically PCM) RIFF audio container.
| 0x00000000 | 52494646 | RIFF | RIFF container |
| 0x00000008 | 57415645 | WAVE | 'WAVE' form type |
WAV stores audio as raw PCM samples inside a RIFF container, giving lossless quality and simple editing at the cost of large files — the standard for recording and production. The header is 'RIFF', a length, then the form type 'WAVE'.
Have a file that might be WAV? Identify it with the File Type Identifier — it reads the magic number locally, nothing is uploaded. Or browse all formats.