Convert 3-byte stereo WAV-file to numpy array

Question

I have been given a large WAV-file of continuous underwater recording which I would like to convert to a numpy array for analysis. I am struggling to do this.

So far

Answer 1

This is an old question but if someone needs additional options and there is no restriction on using external modules, then you can probably use librosa

myNdArray = librosa.core.load(wav_path, sr=sample_rate)[0]