Free online WAV to BWF converter

What the WAV format is

WAV is a RIFF container developed by Microsoft and IBM. It commonly stores uncompressed PCM audio and records technical properties such as sample rate, bit depth, channel count, and audio codec. Audio editors, DAWs, field recorders, video applications, operating systems, and screen-recording software widely use it.

WAV does not require broadcast metadata. A WAV file can therefore contain suitable PCM audio while lacking fields that identify a take, production, recording date, origin, or timeline position. WAV can also contain formats other than PCM, so the extension alone does not guarantee lossless audio.

What the BWF format is

Broadcast Wave Format is a WAV-based specification standardized by the European Broadcasting Union. A typical BWF file contains the normal WAV audio structures plus a bext chunk with fields such as description, originator, originator reference, origination date and time, time reference, BWF version, and coding history.

Broadcasters, film and television production teams, live-recording engineers, sound archives, and media-asset systems use BWF because its metadata can identify recordings and preserve their position in a production timeline. A BWF file usually keeps the .wav extension; use .bwf only when the receiving application specifically requires it. Changing the extension does not create a BWF file.

Using 101convert

For a conversion without installed software, upload the WAV file to the WAV-to-BWF converter on 101convert.com, select the BWF output, start the conversion, and download the result. If the converter exposes BWF metadata fields, enter the description, originator, reference, date, time, and time-reference values before exporting.

Do not use an online conversion for confidential recordings unless the file-handling policy permits it. Verify the downloaded file with a BWF metadata inspector when a broadcaster, archive, or production system requires specific fields; a basic format conversion may not populate every field required by that system.

Using FFmpeg

FFmpeg can create the Broadcast Extension while copying compatible PCM audio without another lossy encoding step:

ffmpeg -i input.wav -map 0:a:0 -c:a copy -write_bext 1 -metadata description=Interview_take_03 -metadata originator=Example_Studio -metadata originator_reference=TAKE03 -metadata origination_date=2026-08-26 -metadata origination_time=14:30:00 -metadata time_reference=0 output.wav

Use -c:a copy when the source contains suitable PCM audio. If the delivery specification requires a particular format, encode it explicitly; this example creates 48 kHz, 24-bit little-endian PCM:

ffmpeg -i input.wav -map 0:a:0 -c:a pcm_s24le -ar 48000 -write_bext 1 -metadata description=Interview_take_03 output.wav

Encoding changes the audio representation and can alter quality, although PCM encoding itself is lossless. For detailed field editing, validation, and batch metadata work, BWF MetaEdit is more suitable than a general audio editor. Use File → Open or the equivalent import command, edit the BWF fields, and save without changing the audio data.

Inspect the result with:

ffprobe -show_format -show_streams output.wav

In the inspection output, confirm the audio codec, sample rate, bit depth, channels, and BWF metadata. A receiving application that insists on a .bwf filename can be given a file written with FFmpeg's WAV muxer:

ffmpeg -i input.wav -map 0:a:0 -c:a copy -write_bext 1 -f wav output.bwf

Quality and compatibility limitations

Adding BWF metadata does not improve sound quality. With stream copying, the audio remains determined by the source codec, sample rate, bit depth, channel layout, and existing defects. Resampling or re-encoding changes those properties.

Broadcaster specifications may require 48 kHz, 24-bit PCM, a particular BWF version, a valid sample-count time reference, coding history, UMID, iXML data, or separate loudness metadata. BWF itself does not guarantee that all of these values exist or are correct; follow the recipient's delivery specification.

Some software reads BWF metadata only from files with a .wav extension, while other software expects .bwf. Preserve the usual .wav extension unless the target system says otherwise. A valid BWF file requires an actual bext chunk, not merely a renamed WAV file.