Convert WAV to WMA - online and free - this page also contains information on the WAV and WMA file extensions.
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How to convert a WAV to a WMA file?
- Choose the WAV file that you want to convert.
- Select WMA as the the format you want to convert your WAV file to.
- Click "Convert" to convert your WAV file.
Zamzar Pro Tip: Pretty much all modern media players will play WAV files.
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Zamzar has converted over 510 million files since 2006
Zamzar has converted over 510 million files since 2006
| File extension | .wav |
| Category | Audio File |
| Description | WAV (WAVE) files are audio files playable via multimedia playback software such as Windows Media Player and other software available for your operating system. These files contain any sounds such as sound effects, music or spoken words. WAV files are large in size and with the advent of MP3 and MP4 WAV files are becoming less popular and less common. They were created and developed by IBM and Microsoft but unlike MP3 and MP4 the WAV file format does not use a form of lossy compression so file sizes are therefore much bigger and now less popular. |
| Actions | WAV to WMA - Convert file now View other audio file formats |
| Technical Details | Wav files are the standard 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 being th 16-bit at 44,100 HZ, this highest level is the sampling rate of an audio CD and uses 88KB of storage per second. All general sounds in Windows, such as when you log in, are in the .WAV format. The default content of a WAV file is uncompressed (although they can be used to store compressed formats such as MP3), pulse code modulated (PCM) digital samples derived from the analog source. |
| Associated programs | CyberLink PowerDirector Microsoft Windows Media Player Roxio Creator 2009 |
| Developed by | Microsoft & IBM |
| MIME type | audio/wav audio/wave audio/x-wav |
| Useful links | Find out more about the WAV format When to use WAV files ? Convert WAV file |
| File extension | .wma |
| Category | Audio File |
| Description | Developed by the Signal Processing Group at Microsoft, the WMA file format is part of the Windows Media framework and was first released commercially in 1999, with support for playback of WMA encoded files as part of Windows Media Player. Creation of WMA files did not come until Windows Media Player version 7. The original codec was targeted as a direct competitor to the MP3 and RealAudio formats, and has achieved a broad level of adoption thanks to support for playback on numerous DVD players, Nokia mobile handsets and Playstation portable devices. |
| Actions | Convert WMA file View other audio file formats |
| Technical Details | In almost all circumstances WMA files are part of the Advanced Systems Format (ASF) container, a proprietary container format developed by Microsoft for both digital video and digital audio. Every WMA file contains an audio track encoded in one of four mutually distinct codecs - WMA, WMA Voice, WMA Lossless or WMA Pro - WMA is the most commonly found of the four, but is a lossy codec, with the ability to encode audio signals sampled at up to 48 kHz. WMA Pro is an improved version, allowing sampling up to 96 kHz, but has achieved little hardware and software support. WMA Lossless is designed to compress audio signals with no loss of quality from the original source (up to 96 kHz) and is used in some Windows Mobile devices as well as the Logitech Squeezebox Touch. Finally, WMA Voice is a lossy codec optimized for low-bandwith voice playback applications, with mono sampling support up to 22.05 kHz - it is perhaps most well known for being used by the BBC World service for streaming Internet radio. |
| Associated programs | MPlayer Realplayer VLC Media Player Windows Media Player Windows Movie Maker |
| Developed by | Microsoft |
| MIME type | audio/x-ms-wma |
| Useful links | Encoding Audio and Video with Windows Media Codecs Microsoft overview of ASF Format Differences between ASF and WMV/WMA files WMA format information from the Library of Congress Convert WMA file |
Convert WAV file
Using Zamzar it is possible to convert WAV files to a variety of other formats
- wav to aac (Advanced Audio Coding File)
- wav to ac3 (AC3 Audio File)
- wav to flac (Free Lossless Audio Codec)
- wav to m4a (Compressed video file)
- wav to m4r (iPhone Ringtone File)
- wav to mp3 (Compressed audio file)
- wav to mp4 (MPEG-4 Video File)
- wav to ogg (Ogg Vorbis Compressed Audio File)
- wav to wma (Windows Media Audio)