Sony Wave-64 support

SONAR fully supports reading and writing to the Sony Wave-64 format, which has a limit of 8,388,608 terabytes!

SONAR only creates Wave-64 file when needed. The Wave-64 format allows an application to dynamically switch from classic RIFF WAVE to Wave-64 format even if the data was originally created as a RIFF wave file. SONAR detects when a file will exceed 2GB and will dynamically switch to the new Wave-64 format.

The following table shows the maximum duration for a stereo WAVE file before we hit the 2GB limit, as well as the max duration for a stereo Wave-64 file before we hit the 8,388,608 terabyte limit.

Sample Rate	Bit Depth	RIFF-Wave	Sony Wave-64
44,100 Hz	16	3.38 hours	14,524,080,431 days
44,100 Hz	32	1.69 hours	7,262,040,215 days
44,100 Hz	64	50.7 minutes	3,631,020,108 days
192,000 Hz	16	46 minutes	3,335,999,724 days
192,000 Hz	32	23.3 minutes	1,667,999,862 days
192,000 Hz	64	11.65 minutes	833,999,931 days

When Wave-64 Files are created

Wave-64 files are created behind the scenes automatically under the following usage scenarios:

When the number of samples recorded exceeds the file size limit of a 32-bit RIFF WAV file (approximately 2GB file size).

When you export, bounce or freeze tracks or clips and the resultant wave size exceeds 2GB.

When you destructively process audio effects on a SONAR clip whose duration exceeds 2GB.

When you import audio and choose a wave file that exceeds 2GB in size (this could be a Wave-64 file).

When you save a CWB file and the size of any chunk in the CWB file exceeds 2GB, the entire CWB is saved in the new Wave-64 format.

Note: 64-bit CWB files are incompatible with previous versions of SONAR.

64-bit CWB files

CWB files are RIFF files with multiple WAVE chunks. Therefore, CWB files in previous versions of SONAR were subject to the same file size limitations of normal RIFF Wav files. This could potentially result in a CWB file that failed to save because a chunk was too large.

SONAR will automatically use the Wave-64 format if a CWB file exceeds 2GB.

Note: 64-bit CWB files are incompatible with previous versions of SONAR.

Wave-64 file extension

Wave-64 files have a .w64 extension associated with them. Whenever a Wave-64 file is written, SONAR saves it with an extension of w64.

CWP file persistence for 64-bit sample offsets

The SONAR project file format supports writing 64-bit sample offsets for regions and clips. When a project containing 64-bit sample times is detected, saving that project automatically rewrites it in this new format.

Note: Projects that contain 64-bit sample times are incompatible with SONAR 6 and earlier.