How to compress wav file and make a wav audio file smaller in windows 11?

Fra:ac is a great choice for compressing audio WAV files on a Windows computer. It's a free, open-source audio converter that supports a wide range of formats and allows you to compress audio files by converting them to formats with lower bitrates or different codecs.

How to compress audio files WAV:

1. Install the program following the setup instructions.
2. Open the application after installation.
3. Click on the "Add Files" button or drag and drop your WAV files into the program.
4. Click on the "Encoder" dropdown menu to choose your desired output format:
For smaller files, MP3 or AAC are common choices.
WAV files are uncompressed; to compress, convert to a lossy format.
5. Click on the "Configure" button next to the encoder to adjust:
Bitrate (e.g., 128 kbps for moderate compression)
Sample rate
Channels (mono/stereo)
6. Set the output folder where compressed files will be saved.
7. Click "Start" or "Encode" to begin the process.
8. Fra:ac will process your files and generate compressed versions.

Note:
If you want to keep the output as WAV but with reduced quality (which isn't typical since WAV is uncompressed), you'd need to convert to a compressed format like MP3 or AAC.
For pure lossless compression within WAV, options are limited, but converting to formats like FLAC (lossless but compressed) is possible.