WAV to AAC for Music Production

Keep AAC out of the session itself. Lossy files inside a project mean the DAW decodes on import and re-encodes on export, and any processing you apply — EQ, compression, limiting — amplifies the codec's artifacts rather than hiding them. AAC is a delivery format: reference mixes, client sends, demos on a phone.

One trap catches people out: lossy encoding can push peaks slightly above the source, so a mix sitting exactly at 0 dBFS can clip once it becomes a AAC. Leave about -1 dBTP of headroom on the bounce you encode from — standard practice for masters, and it applies to reference files too.

Never send a lossy file to a distributor or streaming platform. They transcode whatever you upload into their own formats, so handing them an already-compressed file stacks a second lossy generation onto what your listeners actually hear. Deliver lossless; convert to lossy for humans.

The size drop is the point — around 8× less data, which is what turns an unsendable file into an attachment. Encoding straight from an uncompressed master means one lossy generation, not two — noticeably better than re-encoding from an already-compressed file.

WAV files come from recording sessions, DAW bounces, and anything captured uncompressed. WAV is uncompressed, so files are enormous — an hour of audio runs past 600 MB — which is the whole reason this conversion exists. AAC is the destination because it plays essentially everywhere — HLS streaming segments and every ordinary phone, browser, and player. Expect roughly 8× smaller: WAV runs about 10 MB per minute, AAC about 1.2. Because WAV is uncompressed, encoding to AAC here is the clean, single-generation case — the encoder sees the whole original signal, so this AAC is as good as the format gets.