MP3 is the format for listening; WAV is the format for working. When you need the sound from a video in an audio editor, a DAW, a sampler, a speech analysis tool or a broadcast system, WAV is what those tools expect. It is uncompressed, so every edit, fade and effect starts from a clean signal instead of decoding a compressed file over and over.
This converter takes the sound track of a video (MP4, MOV, MKV, WEBM, AVI and more) or an audio file (MP3, M4A, AAC, OGG, FLAC, WMA) and returns a standard WAV: 16-bit PCM, 44.1 kHz, stereo.
How to convert MP4 to WAV
- Drop the video or audio file onto the box above or click to choose it. The drop box shows today's size and length limits.
- Check the line under the file name: it shows the length and the expected WAV size when your browser can read the file.
- Click Convert to WAV. You see the upload, your place in line and the conversion.
- The WAV downloads and plays on the result screen. Import it into your editor.
The WAV format you get
| Property | Value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Encoding | 16-bit PCM (uncompressed) | Opens in every editor, DAW, sampler and media player |
| Sample rate | 44.1 kHz | The CD standard, accepted everywhere |
| Channels | Stereo (mono sources are copied to both sides) | One consistent format for every file |
| Size | About 10 MB per minute | Uncompressed audio is large |
If your project runs at 48 kHz, the usual rate for video work, set the project to 48 kHz and let the editor convert the file on import, or resample in the editor. Every major DAW does this without audible change.
What WAV can and cannot do
The sound inside an MP4 is almost always compressed, typically AAC. Converting it to WAV stores the decoded sound without further loss, which is exactly what editing needs. It does not bring back detail the AAC encoder removed when the video was made, and the WAV will be much larger than the MP4's audio for the same sound. Think of it as unpacking the audio for work, not as an upgrade.
Note: If you only want to listen to or share the audio, an MP3 is far smaller. Use MP4 to MP3 for that, and WAV for editing.
Who needs WAV from a video
Video editors cleaning up dialog
Export the camera audio as WAV, clean it in Audacity, iZotope RX or a DAW (noise reduction, EQ, de-click), then bring it back into the video timeline. Editing a WAV avoids generation loss from repeated compressed exports.
Musicians and producers sampling their own footage
A riff from a rehearsal video or a sound from your own field recording goes into a sampler or a DAW as WAV. Samplers and older hardware often accept WAV only.
Transcription, captioning and speech tools
Some speech recognition, captioning and research tools ask for WAV input. 16-bit, 44.1 kHz WAV is accepted by nearly all of them. If a tool asks for 16 kHz mono, resample in Audacity after converting.
Voiceover and podcast work
Narration recorded as a phone video or a Zoom call becomes a WAV you can edit and master. If you are producing new voiceovers rather than extracting old ones, AM Jarvis Voice Studio makes narration from a script, with natural voices and captions timed to the audio, and exports WAV and MP3 directly.
Fixing a video's sound with a WAV, step by step
- Convert the video here and download the WAV.
- Open the WAV in Audacity (free) or your DAW.
- Select a second or two of background noise only, and use it as the noise profile for noise reduction. Apply gently; strong settings make voices sound metallic.
- Normalize or compress the voice so quiet and loud parts are closer, and leave about 1 dB of headroom.
- Export as WAV again, under a new name.
- In your video editor, mute the original sound track and place the new WAV under the video, starting at the same point.
- Export the video. Only this last step re-encodes the audio, once.
A worked example
A creator filmed a 7 minute talking-head video on a phone. The voice has a fan humming in the background. The MP4 is 520 MB; the WAV of its sound track is about 74 MB (7 minutes at about 10.6 MB per minute, in millions of bytes). In Audacity, a noise reduction pass removes the hum, the WAV is exported again, and the editor swaps it in under the video. The video file never had to be re-encoded for the audio fix.
From an iPhone video
On an iPhone, open this page in Safari, tap the box and choose the video from Photos. The WAV saves to Downloads in the Files app. From there, AirDrop it to a Mac or share it to an editing app. iPhone videos usually record AAC sound in stereo, so the WAV keeps the stereo image of the recording.
WAV, AIFF and BWF
All three hold the same kind of uncompressed audio. AIFF is Apple's equivalent of WAV and is common in Mac audio software. BWF (Broadcast Wave) is a WAV with extra metadata such as timecode, used in film and broadcast. A standard WAV like the one you get here imports everywhere those are used, without the extra metadata.
Which videos give the best WAV
The WAV can only be as good as the video's sound track. Videos straight from a camera or phone, at their original quality, give the cleanest audio. Videos downloaded from social apps or sent through messaging apps have usually been compressed again, sometimes heavily, and the WAV keeps those artifacts. When you can, export from the original recording rather than from a shared copy.
Other audio to WAV
The same tool converts audio files: MP3 to WAV for a DJ program that wants uncompressed audio, M4A voice memos to WAV for a podcast session, OGG or Opus voice messages to WAV for a transcription service, and FLAC to WAV for software that does not read FLAC. The rules are the same: the WAV is exactly as good as the file it came from.
Privacy and limits
Your file is uploaded over HTTPS, converted and deleted when the job ends; the WAV is deleted 30 minutes after it is ready. Because WAV is uncompressed, results are large: an hour of audio is over 600 MB. The length limit shown in the drop box keeps results to a practical size. For long recordings, trim the part you need first with the video trimmer.
Troubleshooting
"This file has no sound"
The video has no sound track, which is common for screen recordings made without audio and for clips muted in an app. There is nothing to extract.
The WAV is very large
That is how uncompressed audio works: about 10 MB per minute. For sharing, convert to MP3 instead.
My editor shows a slightly different length
The WAV follows the video's sound track, which can start or end a fraction of a second apart from the picture. A difference of a few frames is normal and does not affect sync when you line up the starts.
The WAV is out of sync when I put it back under the video
The WAV starts at the beginning of the sound track. Line up the start of the WAV with the start of the video clip in your editor; if the original video started its sound late, slide the WAV by the same offset.