How can I determine the length (i.e. duration) of a .wav file in C#?

Question

In the uncompressed situation I know I need to read the wav header, pull out the number of channels, bits, and sample rate and work it out from there: (channels) * (bits) *

Answer 1

What exactly is your application doing with compressed WAVs? Compressed WAV files are always tricky - I always try and use an alternative container format in this case such as OGG or WMA files. The XNA libraries tend to be designed to work with specific formats - although it is possible that within XACT you'll find a more generic wav playback method. A possible alternative is to look into the SDL C# port, although I've only ever used it to play uncompressed WAVs - once opened you can query the number of samples to determine the length.