Skip to main content

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: AAC instead of M4A in foobar converter (Read 5229 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

AAC instead of M4A in foobar converter

I wasn't able to find the answer through search.
I'd like to convert my FLACs into low bitrate AAC files and put them into my portable music player.
However, with the latest 1.3.3 foobar version, built in AAC (Apple iTunes) converter is creating M4A files, which are unsupported by the player.
How to make foobar create AAC instead?

AAC instead of M4A in foobar converter

Reply #1
It would be curious to know which player only supports raw AAC bitstream. You can create such files with Converter quite easily. Use the "AAC (iTunes)" profile as your base and set all the options to your liking. Then change the Encoder profile to "Custom" and you will see the exact command line that your options need. Now change file extension from "m4a" to "aac", replace "--no-optimize" in the parameters line with "--adts" and change the name from "AAC (Apple) to "Raw AAC (Apple)". You can now use this encoder profile to create the files you need.
Note that these files can't be gapless and don't have any supported tagging.

AAC instead of M4A in foobar converter

Reply #2
What player is this that doesn't support AAC in the standard MPEG-4 container? It's the same format that Apple uses to distribute music from their store.

AAC instead of M4A in foobar converter

Reply #3
Does it play the files if you change the extension to .mp4?
It's only audiophile if it's inconvenient.

AAC instead of M4A in foobar converter

Reply #4
Case I have previously used "Custom" profile and I was able to generate AAC files, however I found built in support of AAC (Apple) in 1.3.3 more convenient - it has a slider to adjust quality.

This is a player from a probably unknown to you brand: Pentagram, coming from Poland.
It is cabaple of playback of the following:
Movies: AVI, RM, RMVB, FLV, DivX, XviD, MP4, VOB, MKV, DAT, FLV
Music: MP3, WMA, WAV, APE, FLAC, AAC

Kohlrabi I will try renaming it to .mp4 and playing it back as Movie. Renaming to AAC did not work.

It would be convenient to be able to choose the extension type in latest foobar Convert.

AAC instead of M4A in foobar converter

Reply #5
Yeah, I'm gonna bet it only supports ADTS AAC files. You can create a custom preset for those, as Case described.

(Word from a certain Polish developer, Pentagram is a horrible brand. In a land of lots of horrible 'MP4 Player' brands. And don't forget there are also 'mp5 players'...)

AAC instead of M4A in foobar converter

Reply #6
And don't forget there are also 'mp5 players'...
H.265?

Anyway, instead of using raw AAC, why not simply stick to MP3? Transparent filesizes might be a bit larger, but at least MP3s are not completely inconvenient like raw AAC.
It's only audiophile if it's inconvenient.

AAC instead of M4A in foobar converter

Reply #7
Like Kohlrabi said, in your specific situation, you're probably better using MP3 over AAC/MPEG-4.

AAC instead of M4A in foobar converter

Reply #8
Thank you all for your help.