Interchange / GeneralValidated with real files

WAV Audio

.wav

Any recording/DAQ software that writes standard RIFF/WAVE audio (from audio editors to acoustic-measurement instruments)

What it is

The standard uncompressed PCM audio container. AltaiPlot reads it as a time-series signal — amplitude vs. time — rather than as something to play back, which makes it usable for acoustic or vibration measurement data recorded as WAV.

Who produces it

Audio-recording software, and any acoustic/vibration data-acquisition setup that happens to log through a standard WAV writer.

What we read / what we don't read

What we read

  • PCM integer audio: 8/16/24/32-bit
  • IEEE float audio: 32/64-bit
  • Mono files → a single "amplitude" column
  • Multi-channel files → one "channelN" column per channel
  • Time axis, reconstructed from the sample rate (evenly spaced, not stored per-sample)

What we don't read

  • Compressed or non-PCM WAV payloads (ADPCM, MP3-in-WAV, etc.) — rejected with an explicit error, never decoded incorrectly

How to import it into AltaiPlot

  1. Open AltaiPlot and drag your .wav file onto the window, or use File → Import.
  2. AltaiPlot detects the RIFF/WAVE signature and hands it to the bundled Python reader automatically.
  3. Amplitude (per channel) vs. reconstructed time lands as plotting-ready columns.
  4. Compressed/non-PCM WAV files are rejected with an explicit message rather than producing garbled data.

Auditability note: this page's capability claims are sourced fromresources/python/app_sidecar.py:1313 — see the full format list for every extension AltaiPlot recognizes.