A raw audio file is any file containing un-
containerized
Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers (also called shipping containers and ISO containers). Containerization is also referred as "Container Stuffing" or "Container Loading", which is the pro ...
and
uncompressed audio. The data is stored as raw
pulse-code modulation
Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, compact discs, digital telephony and other digital audio applications. In a PCM stream, the ...
(PCM) values without any metadata
header information (such as
sampling rate
In signal processing, sampling is the reduction of a continuous-time signal to a discrete-time signal. A common example is the conversion of a sound wave to a sequence of "samples".
A sample is a value of the signal at a point in time and/or spac ...
,
bit depth,
endian, or number of channels).
[Raw Audio File Formats Information](_blank)
(at the Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...
)
Extensions
Raw files can have a wide range of file extensions, common ones being .raw, .pcm, or .sam.
They can also have no extension.
Playing
As there is no header, compatible audio players require information from the user that would normally be stored in a header, such as the encoding, sample rate, number of bits used per sample, and the number of channels.
References
{{Reflist
Digital audio
Computer file formats