MP4 to WAV Converter

When you want WAV rather than MP3

WAV is the format audio software expects as input. Choose it when the sound is going somewhere to be worked on, not just played:

• Editing: Audacity, GarageBand, Logic, Reaper, Premiere’s audio tools and every DAW import WAV without a conversion step, and cutting or applying effects to a WAV doesn’t lose quality with each save.
• Transcription and captions: speech-to-text tools and subtitle editors accept WAV everywhere; uncompressed audio also avoids one more round of compression artefacts in quiet speech.
• Sampling and sound design: a WAV loads into a sampler or a drum pad without decoding delay.
• Archiving a recording you may want to process later.

For listening on a phone or sending to someone, MP3 is a fraction of the size and sounds the same to most ears: switch the format chip back to MP3.

Converting MP4 (or MOV) to WAV

1. Drop the video on the box above: MP4, MOV, MKV and WebM all work, as do audio files such as M4A.
2. Keep WAV selected. The quality menu offers 16-bit PCM; if the video already holds 16-bit PCM audio, it also offers Original PCM, which copies the samples untouched.
3. Trim to the part you need, and choose Mono for a single voice.
4. Extract and download. The file keeps the video’s name, so interview.mov becomes interview.wav.

Surround and multi-track videos

A movie file with 5.1 sound gives a six-channel WAV, which editors that understand surround keep as is. Pick Stereo under Channels to fold it down to two channels for an ordinary editor or a transcript. Videos with several languages show an Audio track menu: each extraction takes one track.

Once you have the WAV, the BPM finder reads its tempo and audio to MIDI turns a melody into notes.

How big the WAV file will be

Uncompressed 16-bit audio takes the same space for every minute, whatever it contains. Per minute of sound: