How to Compress a WAV File? Use These 4 Handy WAV Compressors
If you're searching for how to compress WAV files, well, you've landed in the right place.
WAV files are always larger so that it takes up more storage space than other commonly used formats do. If your target device does not have enough storage space, you will receive this "The storage almost full. Clean up or buy more spaces." alert, which is annoying. Therefore, before you save up the giant WAV files, think about some ways to compress WAV files into smaller sizes.
In the following parts, you will learn how to reduce big WAV sizes by using 4 different WAV compressors, 3 of them are online WAV file reducers. But, before starting the compression, there is something you should know about WAV files.
Time-strapped? Pick up the method you prefer to compress a WAV file.
Part 1: Get to Know About WAV File and Audio Compression
Why is My WAV File So Big
1. WAV is a type of uncompressed audio format. WAV holds up almost all the audio information captured by the audio recording hardware. Other prevalent formats like MP3, AAC, OGG are compressed audio formats that are much more compact than WAV.
2. The overlarge sample rate. "The Audio Engineering Society recommends a 48 kHz sampling rate for most applications but gives recognition to 44.1 kHz for Compact Disc (CD) and other consumer uses, 32 kHz for transmission-related applications." from Wiki. In general words, the higher the sampling rate, the bigger the storage space it will take up.
How Do I Resize a WAV File
The easiest way for us to compress the WAV file is to convert the uncompressed WAV file to a high-compressed audio file. And the best target audio format we recommend is MP3 which is widely compatible, boasts a high compression ratio, but still retains good sound high quality. Another way to shrink the WAV file size is reducing the sample rate. For example, if your sampling rate is higher than 44100 Hz, you can lower down it without audio fidelity loss.
Part 2: Compress Any WAV Files with the No.1 WAV Compressor on Windows or Mac
VideoProc is the best WAV compressor that lets you reduce WAV files separately or in batch. Thanks to its clear interface, a beginner can compress the WAV file in several clicks. Better yet, It's a powerful WAV file reducer and a multimedia processing tool that runs on both Windows and MAC, allowing you to compress or convert video and audios, edit 4K video recordings, and record screen and camera, etc.
Highlight Features of VideoProc on WAV Compression:
- • Compress WAV files and 370+ other audio and video clips.
- • Shrink WAV files by reducing bit rate, codec, and more.
- • Convert audio from/to WAV, OGG, MP3, and other prevalent and rare formats.
- • Merge multiple audio files into one or trim off unnecessary audio.
- • Easy layout and fast speed, allowing a beginner to compress WAV files in seconds.
How to Losslessly Compress WAV File Separately or in Batch?
Step 1. Add the WAV Files to the Audio Compressor.
After free download VideoProc on your Windows or Mac, lauch it up, and then Click Video > +Music to import your WAV audio file(s).
Step 2. Compress WAV Files [2 Methods].
A: Compress the WAV files to high compressed formats.
Move to the bottom function bar, click MP3, OGG or any other audio format with a high compression ratio.
B: Change properties of the WAV files.
Hit the blue icon on top of the selected output audio.
• Move the slider of the Quality to the left.
• Set a lower sample rate and bitrate
You are recommended to lower the Sample Rate to 32000 > reset the bit Rate to lower than 128 kbps, eg. 112/96/80. The recommended data will not lose the audio fidelity only if you are with some special headphones, so edit with ease.
Step 3. Start to Compress WAV File
Click the RUN button and wait several seconds for the compression process to get finished.
Note: Tick the Merge checkbox when you want to merge all WAV files into one single OGG file.
Part 3: Compress Small WAV Files by Using 3 Online WAV Compressors
Many online WAV compressors allows you to compress WAV files without installing a third party plugin or program. Even though they set limits on the file numbers and size for both free and paid accounts, occasional users can still benefit from those web-based tools more or less. Let's have a look at the top 3 rated online WAV compressors.
#1. PS2PDF
PS2PDF allows you to import a WAV file from a computer, Google Drive and Dropbox. It usually takes minutes to load up the audio file, but the specific time always depends on your network and file size. With it, you can compress the WAV file by converting the audio format to MP3, OPUS, M4A, AAC, MMF, OGG, WMA, and FLAC.
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#2. CLIPCOMPRESS
CLIPCOPPRESS does not give you any process to adjust the audio codec or parameters. You just add the source WAV file, and it can do the rest for you automatically. If you are a beginner who knows little about audio, CLIPCOMPRESS might be your easiest option. As for the output file, it is still a WAV audio but comes with 90% of decreasing in size.
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#3. Online-Audio-Converter
Online-Audio-Converter looks similar to a desktop WAV compressor. It has a very straightforward layout which brings you no hidden features. There are 4 grades of output audio quality you can choose: Economy (64kbps), Standard (128kbps), Good (192 kbps), and Best (320kbps). The lower quality, to a large extent, implies the smaller WAV file size.
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Final Words
There are many common drawbacks of online WAV compressors, file size limitation, slow response speed, lack of privacy information protection, to name a few. Thus, it's better for you to use a decent offline WAV compressor like VideoProc. Besides being the best tool for WAV file compressing, other audio formats, namely, MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC, etc. are well-supported in VideoProc, too. This sought-after software is faster processing, user friendly, and most importantly, it's 100% safe and clean. Plus, it enables you to merge multiple audio files into one, edit the track information including title, genre, artist, cover pictures, and many more. So give it a try to shrink your colossal WAV files.
