Awave reads a veritable host of audio carrying file formats from different platforms, synthesizers and trackers. It can be used in a variety of ways: as an audio file format converter, an audio editor, an audio player, and, last but not least, as a generic wavetable synthesizer instrument editor and format converter. Data is internally represented in a superset of the format defined by the DownLoadable Sounds architecture level 1 standard. It can be viewed in an ‘Explorer like’ view with two ‘panes’. The left pane handles the wavetable synth architecture using a tree with the ‘collection’ as the stem, instruments, layers, and regions as branches, and finally, waveforms as leaves (the basic sound producing units). The right panes is a ‘pool’ of all loaded waveforms.

If you have one of the supported wavetable synthesis sound cards you can simply click on an item, and directly 'audition' it using either a midi keyboard or the computer keyboard. If don't have such a card, you are still in luck since there is a crude software synthesizer that runs on any sound card!

Saving to any of the supported export formats is just a button away! Sending and receiving MIDI SDS dumps are also supported for transferring waveforms to professional synthesizers. There are visual editors for all parameters like waveform loop points and layer keymaps. Basic audio processing and editing functions are also provided, including a ‘process all’ dialog, from which you can apply selected operations to all items. DirectShow audio effect filters are supported so that you can use many 'effect plugins' from other companies.

The ‘AudioPlayer’ feature is a nice audio playback control, sporting both real-time oscilloscope and frequency analyzer graphs. It is available from inside Awave as well as integrated into the Windows 95 shell in order to easily let you play the sounds of any of the supported file formats!

In conclusion, if you are into any form of sampled audio on the Windows platform, you'll most likely find this program useful!