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Why wave (.wav) files?
Whether you’re capturing bird sounds with a smartphone or a more advanced system, the Macaulay Library encourages you to create .WAV files when you’re recording. WAV is the standard audio format used at the Macaulay Library, the Library of Congress, the British Library, Indiana University, and other sound archives dedicated to the long-term preservation of audio. WAV is an uncompressed audio format that provides an accurate copy of wildlife sounds. By recording in the WAV format, you will maximize the usefulness of your recordings for research and conservation both today and in the future. Recent research found that compression impeded the ability of scientists to examine sound files, particularly peak frequency (Araya-Salas et al. 2017). With the proliferation of cheap digital storage, WAV recording apps for smartphones, and the eBird/ML upload tool’s ability to accept large WAV files, there’s no reason not to record WAV files!