Extract text from NIST SPHERE audio files (NWV)
To convert NWV audio files to another format, you need NIST Speech Toolkit or other Audio software.
To convert other file formats to the "Research Audio Format" file type, you need software like NIST Speech Toolkit or a similar tool.
.NWV files are primarily NIST SPHERE audio files used for speech recognition research, or proprietary user archives for Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
The SPHERE (SPeech HEader REsources) format contains audio data formatted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). These files are heavily used in academic speech corpora and research databases. A secondary, rarer use for the .NWV extension is as a user profile backup archive for Dragon NaturallySpeaking developed by Nuance.
The main disadvantage of the .NWV audio format is its archaic, specialized nature. Standard media players like Windows Media Player or Apple Music cannot open them. They feature a custom 1024-byte ASCII header that breaks normal playback, requiring command-line tools like SoX (Sound eXchange) to process. Similarly, Dragon user archives are closed systems that lock user data and require an active Nuance license to access.
We recommend converting SPHERE .NWV files to WAV for lossless editing or MP3 for broad compatibility. Note that research-specific metadata stored in the ASCII header may be lost during conversion.
This file format is difficult to open or convert because of its specialized research design or proprietary software lock-in. Often, only the original software or specific research utilities can properly read or export the data. Standard online converters fail to process it. Just drag and drop your file to see what it is and convert it if supported. convert.guru can still identify the file format, inspect the file, and show text or internal content. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or conversion may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your NWV file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted GRXML, DRA and 102 files.
If you want to convert NWV file to INI, CFG, CONF, CONFIG, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, ENV, PROPERTIES or RC, you can use NIST Speech Toolkit or similar software from the "Speech Research Audio Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert ZSHRC, CONF, RCFILE, GITCONFIG, RC, PLIST, BASHRC, CONFIG, PROFILE, INI, PREFS or CFG files to NWV, try NIST Speech Toolkit or another comparable tool in the "Speech Research Audio Storage" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our NWV converter.