WAV, MP3, or OGG: which format should you actually export?

You just finished a recording. The app asks what format you want. WAV, MP3, OGG. You pick one, probably the one you picked last time, and move on. Most people never think about it again.

That is fine for most situations. But if you are recording a podcast master, sending stems to a collaborator, or emailing a quick voice note to a client, the right format actually changes. And picking wrong can mean re-recording, re-exporting, or losing quality you cannot get back.

This is a short guide to help you pick. No codec theory, no bitrate charts. Just "what are you doing with this file?" and "which button should you press?"

WAV: the master copy

WAV is uncompressed audio. Every sample from your microphone gets written to disk exactly as captured. Nothing is thrown away. The file is large (roughly 10 MB per minute of stereo audio at 44.1 kHz) but the quality is as good as it gets.

Use WAV when:

• You are keeping a master copy of a recording you might edit later. You can always convert a WAV to MP3 afterward. You cannot go the other direction.
• You are sending stems or raw takes to a producer, editor, or collaborator who will process the audio in a DAW.
• You are a voice actor delivering final takes to a client. Most production houses expect WAV or AIFF.
• You are uploading to a platform like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. These platforms re-encode your file into their own format. Starting from a lossless source means the re-encoding only happens once, so you lose less quality.

The downside is file size. A 30-minute recording is about 300 MB as a WAV. That is too large for email and slow to upload on a weak connection. But storage is cheap and hard drives are big. If you have the space, WAV is the safest default.

Orec exports WAV by default for local downloads. The reasoning is simple: you can always compress later, but you cannot uncompress.

MP3: the universal format

MP3 has been around since the early 1990s. Every device, every browser, every media player on earth knows how to open an MP3. That compatibility is its biggest advantage.

MP3 is lossy compression. The encoder analyzes your audio and discards information it predicts your ears will not notice. A 128 kbps MP3 is roughly one-tenth the size of the equivalent WAV. At 192 kbps or 320 kbps, most listeners cannot tell the difference from the original in a blind test.

Use MP3 when:

• You are emailing a recording to someone. A 30-minute MP3 at 128 kbps is about 30 MB instead of 300 MB.
• You are sharing with non-technical people who might not know what OGG or FLAC is. MP3 just works.
• You are uploading to a platform that re-encodes anyway. The platform will compress it again regardless, so starting from a high-bitrate MP3 is usually fine.
• You want a quick backup that does not eat your cloud storage quota.

The downside is quality loss. At low bitrates, MP3 can sound thin or introduce artifacts (a metallic shimmer on cymbals, a slight warble on sustained notes). At 192 kbps and above, this is rarely an issue for speech. Music is more demanding.

OGG/Opus: better quality, less compatibility

OGG is a container format. Opus is the codec inside it. Together they deliver better audio quality than MP3 at the same file size. At 96 kbps, Opus sounds as good as MP3 at 128 kbps or better. The compression is more efficient because Opus was designed decades after MP3, with the benefit of modern psychoacoustic research.

Orec uses Opus under the hood for sharing links. When you share a recording with someone via a link, the audio is encoded in Opus because it gives the best quality per byte. The recipient does not need to install anything because every modern browser supports Opus playback.

Use OGG/Opus when:

• You control the playback environment. If you know the listener will open the file in a browser, a modern media player, or an app you built, Opus is the better choice.
• You are building a web app or game that needs to serve audio efficiently. Opus is the standard for real-time web audio.
• You want smaller files without the quality tradeoff of MP3.

The downside is compatibility. Some older devices, some car stereos, and some basic media players do not support OGG or Opus. If you are handing a file to someone and you do not know what they will play it on, MP3 is the safer bet.

The decision tree

The format question is really a workflow question. Start with what you are doing with the file.

Recording for yourself (archiving, editing later)? Export WAV. Keep the lossless master. Convert to MP3 or Opus later if you need a smaller copy.

Sharing with a client or collaborator? Use Orec's share link. The audio is encoded in Opus for quality, and the recipient opens it in their browser. No format confusion, no file attachment limits.

Uploading to Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or similar? Export WAV. These platforms re-encode everything into their own format. Give them the best source material.

Emailing a recording? Export MP3. Email attachments have size limits (usually 25 MB), and MP3 is compact enough to fit a reasonable recording.

Embedding audio in a website or app you control? Use Opus. Smaller files, better quality, and every modern browser supports it.

Why Orec defaults to WAV

Every format decision involves a tradeoff between quality and file size. But one direction is reversible and the other is not.

You can take a WAV file and compress it to MP3 or Opus whenever you want. The conversion takes seconds. But you cannot take an MP3 and recover the audio data that was discarded during compression. That information is gone.

So Orec defaults to WAV for local downloads. Your first copy of the recording is always lossless. If you need a smaller version, you can export again in a different format or convert with any audio tool. You always have the full-quality original to go back to.

For sharing links, Orec uses Opus because file size matters when streaming audio over the internet, and Opus gives the best quality at small sizes. The local copy on your device stays lossless.