A common thought new users of HLSS have is the idea that you can play any sound, as long as it has the .wav extension... this is incorrect! A wav file has settings in it that must be changed in order for it to play correctly over the microphone in Steam games. If you try to play just any old .wav file without converting it correctly it could do one of the following: sound terrible, not play at all, or crash your game.

This article will teach you how to properly convert a .wav file. Once you have properly converted a .wav the way this article shows you, then it's ready to be played in the game with HLSS! With that being said, here's the steps to convert a .wav:

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Step 1
- You are going to have to change the quality settings in the wav, so we will use the program called dBpowerAMP Music Converter to make those changes. If you don't have it, you will need to download it and install it. You can find it in the downloads section, or at it's official website. Once you have it downloaded and installed, move on to step 2.

Step 2
- Open dBpowerAMP. It will ask you which music file(s) you would like to convert. Locate the file(s) you want to convert (mp3 or wav will work), and then click open.

Step 3
- In the next window, you will have to set the program's options differently depending upon the type of engine your game uses:

- For Half-Life 1 engine based games:


- For Source engine based games:

The rest of the settings in this window are optional. They just let you choose where you want the wav file(s) to go when the conversion is complete, if it should delete the original file(s), etc... so you can adjust those settings to your own preference.

Step 4
- Now just click convert. It will take a moment to convert your wav(s). After that, you're done! You now have a correctly converted wav file!

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This article was last updated July 30, 2007.