MKV → WAV
MKV to WAV converter
The MKV’s first audio track is decoded to PCM and written as WAV with no further loss, keeping all its channels unless you choose stereo or mono. The video is discarded.
…or drag files and folders here. Add as many as you like — everything is processed on this device.
.avi .f4v .m4v .mk3d .mka .mkv .mov .mp4 .qt .weba .webm
In one paragraph
When you need to edit, analyze or remaster the sound from an MKV, WAV is the safest intermediate. It opens in every editor and DAW, and unlike a compressed export it adds no new loss, so a FLAC or high-bitrate AC-3 soundtrack comes out as exactly what the decoder produced. Surround is preserved as a multichannel WAV by default, which is what post-production tools expect.
The file is processed by a WebAssembly build of FFmpeg inside your browser, so codecs browsers cannot play, such as Dolby Digital, E-AC-3 and DTS, still decode. Choose 16, 24 or 32-bit float output, keep the source sample rate (48 kHz for almost all video) or change it, and fold surround down to stereo if your tool only handles two channels.
Does this change the audio quality?
Decoding to WAV is lossless: the WAV holds exactly what the MKV track decodes to. A lossless FLAC or PCM track comes through bit-perfect at 24-bit; a lossy AC-3 or AAC track comes through as the compressed sound it already was.
- A 5.1 WAV is about three times the size of a stereo one: roughly 50 MB per minute at 48 kHz/24-bit.
- Some consumer players only play the front two channels of a multichannel WAV. Choose stereo for listening copies.
- Only the first audio track is extracted.
A worked example
Pulling a 5.1 mix out of an MKV master for a remix
- Add the MKV file. The row shows the codec and the channel count once the engine has read it.
- Keep 24-bit and the source sample rate so nothing is rounded or resampled.
- Leave Channels on Same as source to keep all six channels.
- Convert and import the multichannel WAV into your DAW.
24-bit for lossless sources, 16-bit for everything else
If the MKV soundtrack is FLAC, PCM or TrueHD, use 24-bit so the full resolution survives. For AC-3, AAC, Opus and other lossy tracks, 16-bit already captures everything the file holds and keeps the WAV a third smaller. Fold to stereo only if the destination cannot handle more channels.
Supported formats, limits and browser notes
Sonic Batch decodes with the browser when it can (faster, no engine download) and falls back to the self-hosted WebAssembly engine when it cannot. Every combination below works in every listed browser; the column only tells you which decoder does the work.
| Input | What it is | Chrome | Firefox | Safari | iOS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MKV | Open video container used for films, TV recordings and OBS captures. Audio is often AAC, AC-3, DTS, Opus or FLAC. | Partial | Partial | Engine | Engine |
| WebM | Open container used by browser recorders and YouTube downloads. Audio is Opus or Vorbis. | Native | Native | Partial | Partial |
| MP4 | The standard video container. Its audio track is almost always AAC. | Native | Partial | Native | Native |
| MOV | QuickTime video from iPhone and DSLR cameras. Audio is normally AAC or PCM. | Partial | Engine | Native | Native |
| AVI | Legacy Windows video container from camcorders, older cameras and DivX/Xvid files. Audio is usually MP3, PCM or AC-3. | Engine | Engine | Engine | Engine |
| Output | Encoder | Bitrates / depth | Sample rates | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WAV | pcm_s16le | 16, 24, 32-bit | 8–96 kHz | Yes |
- Max per file
- 400.0 MB
- Max per queue
- 4.00 GB
- Max duration
- 4:00:00
- Max archive
- 1.50 GB
These are enforced ceilings, checked before any decoding starts, not measured maximums — a file over the limit is rejected rather than allowed to exhaust the tab’s memory. Real-world capacity is lower on older phones, which is why the scheduler runs one file at a time on iOS and Safari.
Where your audio goes
Nowhere. Your file is read from disk into this browser tab with the File API, decoded and encoded by code running in that same tab, and handed back to you as a download. It is never transmitted.
That is a structural property of the application, not a policy promise: there are no API routes, no server actions and no third-party processing services in this project, so there is nothing capable of receiving a file. The page’s Content-Security-Policy also restricts connections to this origin, and the automated test suite includes a browser test that fails if any network request during import, preview, conversion or download carries media bytes.
The trade-off, stated plainly: results live in your tab’s memory until you download them. Closing or reloading the page discards them. There is nothing on a server to recover, because nothing was ever put there.
Troubleshooting
My editor only shows two channels.
Some editors import multichannel WAV as separate mono files, others only read the first pair. Convert again with Channels set to stereo for a standard two-channel file.
The WAV is too big to work with.
Long surround tracks make very large WAV files, and some tools struggle with them. Trim to the section you need, fold to stereo, or use FLAC, which stores the same samples in about half the space.
It says the codec is not supported.
A few rare codecs, and DRM-protected files, cannot be decoded. Ordinary AAC, AC-3, E-AC-3, DTS, Opus, Vorbis, FLAC and PCM tracks all work.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert MKV to WAV?
Add the MKV above, choose a bit depth, and press Convert all. The WAV downloads directly or inside a ZIP.
Does it keep 5.1 surround?
Yes, by default. Set Channels to stereo or mono if you want a two-channel or single-channel file instead.
Is the MKV file uploaded?
No. It is read and decoded inside your browser tab. Nothing is transmitted.
Can I extract the video too?
No. Sonic Batch only writes audio. Video-to-video conversion is not something this site does.