[linux-audio-dev] file format

Hi all,

For one of my current projects (to be presented at LAC2006) I'm
looking for a suitable file format.

Each file should contain:

- A number of short (+/- 10 seconds) chunks of PCM audio. The number
  of channels will be different in each chunk. The only sample format
  required is single precision floating point. For multi-channel
  chunks, non-interleaved is preferred. All chunks will normally use
  the same sample frequency.

- Metadata, both numerical and textual. The format should allow to
  have several chunks of these, and to add new ones later without
  breaking compatibility (i.e. readers will ignore parts they do
  not understand).

There is no need for the audio to be usable with normal players -
it's not meant to be listened to directly.

Is there any standard file/container format that would provide for
this sort of thing ? I've been looking at ogg, but it's a bit over
the top - I don't need any streaming features.

The alternative is of course to have separate WAV files and some
text file for the metadata, and combine all of this into a directory
that would then be handled as a unit. But I'd prefer to have all
data in a single file.

-- 
FA