WEM to WAV Converter
Get an editable WAV out of a Wwise .wem file: the decoder's output is written straight to WAV with no extra compression step in between. This page only goes one way; it decodes WEM to WAV but cannot build WEM files from WAV.
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Why Decode WEM to WAV
Every sound in a Wwise-powered game, from footsteps to dialogue to the score, ends up as WEM data inside the game's .pck and .bnk files. The format is made for the game engine, not for people: it uses Wwise-specific codecs that audio editors such as Audacity, Reaper or Adobe Audition can't read. WAV is the opposite. It is uncompressed PCM, so it opens in every editor and digital audio workstation and can be cut, cleaned up or layered without another round of compression.
On MiConvert the .wem is decoded on the server by vgmstream, the open-source game-audio decoder, and the WAV it writes is the file you download. FFmpeg never touches it, so there is no resampling, no channel mixing and no second encoder in the chain. The output is 16-bit PCM at whatever sample rate the WEM uses. Looping is ignored during the decode, which means a looping track is rendered as a single play-through.
Because WAV can hold any number of channels, every channel in the WEM is kept. A 5.1 ambience bed becomes a six-channel WAV, and ambisonic or height-layer files keep their 4, 9, 10, 12 or 16 channels. That is what a sound designer wants, but an ordinary music player may play such files oddly; for a stereo listening copy, use WEM to MP3. What the WAV does not get: Wwise loop points and markers, since no sampler loop chunk is written, and any detail the original Vorbis or ADPCM encoding already threw away. You get a faithful copy of what the game plays, not the studio master.
Typical users are modders preparing replacement audio, people ripping voice lines to transcribe or subtitle, and anyone who searched for a WEM extractor but really needs the sound as a normal file. Expect the WAV to be much larger than a Vorbis-encoded WEM, since nothing in it is compressed.
How to Turn WEM Files into WAV
- Pull the sounds you want out of the game's .pck and .bnk packages with a Wwise unpacker. The converter accepts the resulting .wem files, not the packages.
- Leave out any .wem of about 100 bytes. Those are streamed stubs that carry a header but no audio, and they will be rejected.
- Upload up to 10 .wem files at once on a guest or free account, 25 on Plus or 50 on Pro. WEM files are small, so the 50 MB guest size limit rarely matters.
- Convert. Because the WAV is written straight from the decoder, files are usually ready almost as soon as the upload finishes.
- Download the WAVs and import them into your editor or DAW. If one sounds wrong in a normal player, check its channel count first.
- When rebuilding audio for a mod, edit the WAV and then encode it back to WEM in the Wwise authoring app; MiConvert cannot create WEM files.
WEM to WAV Details
- vgmstream decode written directly to 16-bit PCM WAV
- No resampling, channel mixing or second encoding pass
- Every channel kept, from surround beds to ambisonic layouts
- Looping cues rendered as one complete pass
- Streamed header-only stubs detected and reported by name
- Batches of 10 files, or 25 and 50 on paid plans
Video Tutorial
Are you struggling with how to convert your WEM file to WAV format? Don't worry, in this video I will reveal a super convenient tool to help you change your file extension completely for free without
WEM to WAV FAQ
Can I convert WAV to WEM here?
No. MiConvert only decodes WEM; there is no WEM encoder on the site. To make a .wem for a mod, import the WAV into Audiokinetic's Wwise authoring application and generate the sound there, or follow your game's modding guide, because many games expect specific Wwise conversion settings.
Is this a WEM extractor for .pck and .bnk files?
Not quite. It turns individual .wem files into WAV. Getting the .wem files out of a game's .pck or .bnk packages is a separate job for a bank extractor. Once you have the loose files, upload them here.
Is WEM to WAV lossless?
The WAV is an exact copy of the decoder's output, with no compression added on our side. It cannot restore detail the original Wwise encoding removed, so a Vorbis-compressed WEM gives you a WAV that sounds like the game's version, not like the uncompressed studio file.
What is a 'streamed-audio stub' error?
Games that stream long sounds can leave behind loose .wem files that contain a header and a zero-length data chunk; the actual samples are stored in the packages. The converter detects these and refuses them rather than handing back an empty WAV. Extract the full sound with the same ID from the .pck or .bnk and convert that.
My WEM failed with 'could not be decoded'. What now?
The decoder didn't recognize the data. That happens with truncated extractions, files that aren't really WEM, encrypted audio, or a codec vgmstream doesn't handle. Extract the file again, preferably with another tool, and make sure it is more than a few hundred bytes.
Why does my converted WAV sound strange in a media player?
It probably has more than two channels. Ambisonic WEMs store a sound field rather than left and right speakers, and the WAV keeps every one of those channels. Open it in a multichannel editor, or use WEM to MP3, which mixes such files down to stereo.
Does the WAV keep loop points?
No. The decoder plays the file once and writes no loop chunk, so set the loop again in your editor or in Wwise.
How long are my WEM and WAV files stored?
Your .wem is removed from the server right after it is decoded. The WAV can be downloaded for about four hours; after that a scheduled cleanup deletes it.