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Wave File Format References

jstrait edited this page Jul 4, 2011 · 3 revisions

So you'd like to learn about the wave file format!

First, it will probably be helpful to read up on the basics of digital audio. There are a million and one articles about this out there (just search Google), but here is one that I wrote: http://www.joelstrait.com/blog/2009/10/12/a_digital_audio_primer

Next, check out https://ccrma.stanford.edu/courses/422/projects/WaveFormat/ for a simplified introduction to what a wave file looks like. If you'd like to know how to write a vanilla wave file, this will help you out.

Then, check out http://www-mmsp.ece.mcgill.ca/Documents/AudioFormats/WAVE/WAVE.html for more information on what the format chunk looks like for non-PCM formats. Also, http://www.sonicspot.com/guide/wavefiles.html has some helpful info on what some less common chunks look like.

Finally, these reference PDF documents from Microsoft are the official spec document (I believe). If you're writing code to read arbitrary wave files (such as the WaveFile gem), you should check these out.

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