The "waveform" is the raw file, usually .aiff (Mac) or .wav (PC). It's the digitized picture of the analog soundwaves. I edit everything using the raw audio file. Other types of files, such as .mp3s, are compressed and not editable. Archive.org is the "it" which does the conversions automatically. I upload the .aiff file and it makes several different kinds of compression files and prepares streaming audio. Kinda neat, though it takes more than two hours for the .aiff to upload.