Programming :: Getting A Open Source Sound File Format For Bitwise Editing?

I was wondering, what would be a good, open-source file format for a beginner in the field, like me, to start editing sound files? This file format would have to be well documented, preferibly open-source, lossless and, most of all, convertible to more popular file formats, such as mp3 or wav maybe. I would like to design my own sound effects through directly editing the binary sequence of a sound file. I imagine this editing would have the purpose of adjusting the voltage variations of the sound device's output in time. It would be perhaps something like a PC-controlled signal generator. I'm thinking I might be able to do this in linux with something like

Code:

$ dd if=mysound.raw of=/dev/audio

But then, which book or resource woule be a good and through explenation of the relationship between the bit sequence in mysound.raw and the signal function generated in the output of, say, my computer's sound card.