WMA and WAV File Formats
Windows Media Audio (WMA) is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. WMA is a proprietary technology which forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs. The original WMA codec, known simply as WMA, was conceived as a competitor to the popular MP3 and RealAudio codecs. Today it is one of the most popular codecs, together with MP3 and MPEG-4 AAC. In 2003 it came second after MP3 in terms of standalone players supporting it. WMA Pro, a newer and more advanced codec, supports multichannel and high resolution audio. A lossless codec, WMA Lossless, compresses audio data without loss of audio fidelity.
WAV is probably the simplest format for storing audio samples. Unlike MPEG and other compressed formats, WAVs store samples in the raw where no pre-processing is required other that formatting of the data. WAV, a variant of the RIFF bitstream format, is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing audio on PCs.
Uncompressed WAV files are quite large in size. WAV file consists of three chunks of information: The RIFF chunk which identifies the file as a WAV file, The FORMAT chunk which identifies parameters such as sample rate and the DATA chunk which contains the actual data samples.
Converting WMA to WAV, WAV to WMA
NoteBurner is one of our favorite programs in our review of audio conversion software, and its reliability in converting music files, even DRM protected songs, earned it our “TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award.” -----TopTenREVIEWS Award Editor's Review
NoteBurner WMA to WAV Converter applies virtual CD burning technology to simulate the burning and ripping process. By doing so NoteBurner WMA to WAV Converter converts DRM protected audio files, such as m4p, m4a, m4b, wma and audio book, and unprotected audio, such as wma, mp3, wav, rax, mp4, ra, snd, aac, ogg, aa and aif, etc. to mp3, wav and wma.
NoteBurner WMA to WAV Converter is an audio tool that removes DRM copy protection from audio files. Purchased songs from digital music services like Napster, or the iTunes Store often come with DRM restrictions that stop you from using other portable devices. NoteBurner WMA to WAV Converter installs a software driver that emulates a CD-RW drive which works with your media player software to remove DRM protection.
NoteBurner WMA to WAV Converter has a clean and simple interface that is easy to learn. When first run, you will be greeted with a startup screen that gives you basic tips on how to get started. At the top of the screen there are four icons to click on that quickly get you to all the features of NoteBurner WMA to WAV Converter ; incidentally, hovering your mouse pointer over each one displays a tooltip that describes what each icon is for. On the main screen there is a convenient feature where you can click on an icon to launch your default media player. Overall the interface is user-friendly, and efficient to use.
The settings menu has a reasonable set of configuration options so that you can tweak how NoteBurner deals with your audio files. You can set the default folder that music is saved to, change audio formats, choose various CBR and VBR encoding bitrates, select ID3 tag versions 1 and 2, and enable NoteBurner to automatically run every time you start Microsoft Windows.
