Loading a WAV file

This page uses AudioClip from Unity. The glossary says what each one is.

A WAV file is a sound file. LoadWav reads one from disk and gives you a clip you can play.

Sounds loads WAV files

Call LoadWav with the path to a WAV file, then play the clip with PlayClip or PlayClipAt. It gives null when the file cannot be used.

public static class Sounds
{
    public static AudioClip LoadWav(string path);
}

Method	Returns	What it does
LoadWav(path)	AudioClip	Reads a WAV file into a clip. Returns null when the file can’t be used.

Things to know

• These WAV types work: 8, 16, 24 and 32-bit whole-number sound, and 32-bit decimal-number sound, with any number of channels. Files that carry extra information (unknown chunks) are fine too. (RIFF/WAVE with PCM at 8, 16, 24 or 32 bits and IEEE float at 32 bits. Unknown chunks are skipped. A data chunk size of -1, or larger than the file, reads to the end of the file. WAVE_FORMAT_EXTENSIBLE files are accepted when the sub-format is PCM or float. The clip is built with AudioClip.Create.)

Limits

• Only WAV files work. .ogg, .mp3 and every other format give null. Convert the sound to WAV first.
• LoadWav gives you null for a missing file, a file that is not a WAV, a format it can’t read, or a file that is cut short. A path that is null or empty throws an error.
• WAV files bigger than 16 MiB are refused (you get null). The game keeps the sound in memory as decimal numbers, so a big file can use a lot of memory. A 16 MiB file with 8-bit sound takes about 64 MiB while it loads.