Talk:Size limits for WAV and AIFF files

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Revision as of 10:20, 23 April 2019 by PeterSampson (talk | contribs) (archiving the alternatives)
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WAV files are limited to a maximum size of 4GB, see the following table for how this translates to time durations

Original based on 4GB = 4,000,000,000 bytes

Maximum sizes of WAV files in time duration (hours:minutes)
Sample Format Stereo Mono
16-bit PCM (default) 6h:18m 12h:36m
24-bit PCM 4h:12m 8h:24m
32-bit float PCM 3h:09m 6h:18m

Revised - Based on 4GB = 4,294,967,296 bytes

Maximum sizes of WAV files in time duration (hours:minutes)
Sample Format Stereo Mono
16-bit PCM (default) 6h:45m 13h:31m
24-bit PCM 4h:30m 9h:01m
32-bit float PCM 3h:22m 6h:45m


We could provide greater accuracy by providing seconds - but I don't think that is really necessary. It accounts for the rounding errors shonw in the table, which we could smooth out.


Smoothed - Based on 4GB = 4,294,967,296 bytes

Maximum sizes of WAV files in time duration (hours:minutes)
Sample Format Stereo Mono
16-bit PCM (default) 6h:45m 13h:30m
24-bit PCM 4h:30m 9h:00m
32-bit float PCM 3h:22m 6h:44m