Compressing Full-Spectrum WAV Files

Using the Kaleidoscope Pro Sound Analysis Software, you can compress the size of .wav files using a special format called W4V. W4V is a compression format developed by Wildlife Acoustics specifically for bioacoustics recordings. It is designed to reduce file size without changing any vital content of the recording that might be used for species identification or similar analysis tasks. Depending on the compression settings, file sizes can be reduced by 50-75%. W4V-compressed files are saved with a .w4v extension.

The drawback of this format is that the noise floor of the recording is increased. Depending on the background noise level of the original recording, this increased noise floor may have not a practical effect on your analysis or even be discernible. However, it is not recommended for applications involving precision measurement of ambient noise levels.

Kaleidoscope Pro can be used with or without a paid license to convert in both directions between .wav and .w4v files. Note that the increased noise levels produced by W4V compression will remain if the file is converted back to .wav format.