Supported File Formats

WaveLab Elements can open and save audio files in a number of file formats.

Wave (.wav)

The following bit depths are supported: 8 bit, 16 bit, 20 bit, 24 bit, 32 bit float, and 64 bit float.

WavPack (.wv/.wvc)

This file format allows digital audio to be losslessly compressed, including 32 bit float audio files.

AIFF (.aif, .aiff, .snd)

Audio Interchange File Format, a standard defined by Apple Computers Inc. The following bit depths are supported: 8 bit, 16 bit, 20 bit, and 24 bit.

MPEG-1 Layer 3 (.mp3)

The most common audio compression format. The major advantage of MPEG compression is that the file size is significantly reduced, while there is little degradation of sound quality.

Note

When you open an MPEG compressed file in WaveLab Elements, the file is converted to a temporary wave file. On saving, the temporary wave file is converted back to MP3.

MPEG-1 Layer 2 (.mp2, .mpa, .mpg, .mus)

MP2 (sometimes referred to as Musicam files) is a common file format in the broadcast industry.

Original Sound Quality (.osq, read-only)

This is the proprietary lossless compressed audio format of WaveLab.

Sound Designer II (.sd2)

This audio file format is used by Digidesign applications (such as Pro Tools). The following bit depths are supported: 8 bit, 16 bit, and 24 bit.

U-LAW (.ulaw, .vox)

This is an audio encoding and compression technique supported by Windows and Web phones, using 8 bit precision. The U.S. telephone system uses U-law encoding for digitization.

A-LAW (.alaw, .vox)

This is an audio encoding and compression technique for telephony, using 8-bit precision. The EU telephone system uses A-law encoding for digitization.

Sun/Java (.snd, .au)

This is an audio file format used on Sun and NeXT computers. The following bit depths are supported: 8 bit, 16 bit, and 24 bit.

ADPCM – Microsoft/Dialogic (.vox)

This is a format commonly used for games and telephony applications. It offers a lower bit rate than linear PCM and therefore requires less storage space/bandwidth.

Ogg Vorbis (.ogg)

Ogg Vorbis is a compressed file format that is open, patent-free, and which creates very small audio files maintaining comparatively high audio quality.

Text/Excel (.txt)

This is a text representation of a waveform. By saving an audio file as a text file and then opening it in a spreadsheet application such as Excel, you can view it in textual, decimal form, and edit the sample values. When you open a text file representing a waveform in WaveLab Elements, it is decoded and opened as an audio file. These files are not compressed in any way, so they can become very large.

When using 64-bit float files, the .txt format is not 100 % lossless. This is because it is not possible to express a binary floating point value in textual decimal form without some precision loss.

Windows Media Audio (.wma, .asf)

Microsoft’s own compressed format. WaveLab Elements lets you import/export audio in this format (Windows only). To import/export audio in WMA surround format, Windows Media Player 9 or later must be installed on your system.

Ensoniq Paris (.paf)

Used by the Ensoniq Paris™ system. The following bit depths are supported: 16 bit and 24 bit.

FLAC (.flac)

Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) is a codec which allows digital audio to be losslessly compressed.

Apple formats (.caf, .3gp, .3g2, .caf)

If Quicktime is installed on your system, these formats are available (read-only and only on 32-bit Windows or Mac systems).

AAC (.aac)

Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) is a codec that allows lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio.