WVE to SOU Converter

Transform Psion WVE audio into SBStudio SOU

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Retro Platform Bridge

Connect two vintage computing eras — convert Psion WVE recordings into SOU for other retro platform projects.

No PsiWin Needed

Convert WVE files without PsiWin or SoX. The entire process runs in your web browser on any operating system.

Secure Processing

Uploaded WVE files are deleted immediately after conversion. Output files are purged from our servers within 24 hours.

How to convert WVE to SOU

1

Select files from Computer, Google Drive, Dropbox, URL or by dragging it on the page.

2

Choose sou or any other format you need as a result (more than 200 formats supported)

3

Let the file convert and you can download your sou file right afterwards

About formats

WVE is the audio format native to the Psion Series 3 family of personal digital assistants, released by British company Psion PLC beginning in September 1991. These clamshell PDAs included a built-in voice recorder, and all dictation functionality relied on WVE files to store captured sound. Each file begins with the ASCII signature "ALawSoundFile**" followed by a minimal header, then raw A-law encoded audio sampled at 8 kHz — a rate inherited from digital telephony standards. At 8000 bytes per second, a one-minute recording occupies just 480 KB, which was essential given that Psion devices stored data on SRAM cards typically ranging from 128 KB to 2 MB. The A-law encoding provides reasonable speech clarity within these tight storage constraints, prioritizing intelligibility over high-fidelity reproduction. WVE files can be converted to WAV or other modern formats using SoX, Awave Studio, or specialized Psion file utilities. While the format is firmly a product of early-1990s handheld computing, it holds historical significance as one of the first audio recording formats designed for pocket-sized consumer devices. Collectors and researchers studying mobile computing history occasionally encounter WVE files when recovering data from legacy SRAM media.
Developer: Psion PLC
Initial release: 1991
SOU is a raw audio format designation that functions as an alias for unsigned 8-bit PCM data (u8) in the SoX audio processing framework. Files with the .sou extension contain headerless, uncompressed audio samples stored as unsigned 8-bit integers — each byte represents a single amplitude value from 0 to 255, with 128 as the silence midpoint. Because there is no header, playback parameters such as sample rate and channel count must be specified externally. The default assumption is typically mono at 8000 Hz, though the data can represent any rate the recording hardware supported. The u8 encoding that SOU aliases is one of the simplest possible digital audio representations, predating structured audio containers like WAV and AIFF. Raw unsigned PCM was commonly produced by early sound cards and digitizers in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when storage constraints and limited processing power made headerless formats a practical choice. One advantage is absolute simplicity: SOU files can be read by any program capable of basic file I/O, with no parsing of container structures or metadata decoding required — useful for embedded systems, hardware diagnostics, and educational contexts where audio fundamentals are being explored. The format's minimal overhead also means that conversion to any modern container is lossless and instantaneous, since the raw PCM samples can be wrapped in a WAV or AIFF header without any transcoding.
Developer: SoX Contributors
Initial release: 1991

Frequently Asked Questions

Why convert WVE to SOU?

SOU is the SBStudio II format. Converting WVE connects Psion audio with the Creative Labs ecosystem.

What can open SOU files?

SBStudio II and SoX handle SOU files.

What is the WVE format?

WVE is the native audio format of Psion PDA devices (Series 3, 5, Revo). It stores 8-bit A-law encoded audio — a legacy from the EPOC operating system.

Can modern systems play WVE?

SoX and PsiWin on Windows can process WVE files. Standard media players do not support it — conversion is the easiest path to playback.

Can I convert multiple WVE files?

Yes. Upload several Psion recordings and batch-convert them all at once — efficient for archiving an entire PDA audio library.