Guys i went through faac site at sourceforge, and i found faac version 1.29 uploaded at 2017-07-17, did someone already try it ? How's the quality guys ? Is there some improvement from previous version (1.28-mod) ?
Note : I got it from here => https://sourceforge.net/projects/faac/files/faac-src/faac-1.29/
Based on the commit history (https://sourceforge.net/p/faac/faac/commit_browser), I wouldn't expect the output quality to vary much, if at all, from the version released in 2009. The code changes seem related to security bugs, compilation fixes, etc.
Did you try it? I mean try to use it? Not just look at their commit history at sourceforge, with the gear that i have right now, it doesn't really fit for listening test, that's why I'm asking for someone that would try it for me, so i can get an idea that there is quality improvement over the last version...
And
@Heliologue just explained, there have been no quality related changes since 2009.
Encode the same file with both encoders and check if the stream is identical. Could be the only difference in the output file is the version number in the header. The rest of the changes are probably bugfixes that have nothing to do with the outputfile.
I just released faac 1.29.5 with a few real changes.
Encoding is definitely much faster and quality may also be better with many samples, definitely worth trying.
Also, I just noticed there is noise coding available and it always was a part of standard AAC LC.
Apparently I totally missed it back in the days.
I will try to develop this thing for upcoming releases, it can give a real quality boost, especially at lower bitrates.
It's great to see some work on FAAC again after such a long time! Especially as you're actually trying to improve quality. Thanks
@knik! Looking forward to future improvements! :)
Thanks enzo!
It looks like faac is missing two key AAC features: intensity stereo and perceptual noise substitution, it will be interesting to hear how it performs after implementing these.
Is the Command Line Switches changed in FAAC 1.29?
It looks like faac is missing two key AAC features: intensity stereo and perceptual noise substitution...
LAME MP3 encoder has no intensity stereo nor PNS ... and yet it's better than FAAC at 64-96 kbps.
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/kamedo2/20111029/1319840519
I'm not a dev but as far as I know PNS is only useful at 32-64 kbps. And that ranges belongs to HE-AAC. There is no reason to use LC-AAC instead of HE-AAC at such low bitrates. Intensity may be useful at 96 kbps and lower ... maybe or maybe not. That will depend how smart implementation will be. :-X
Is the Command Line Switches changed in FAAC 1.29?
There were some changes recently.
LAME MP3 encoder has no intensity stereo nor PNS ... and yet it's better than FAAC at 64-96 kbps.
Actually, that may be true, faac-1.28 probably is slightly worse than lame @64-96 but what's the point to argue about such ancient versions.
I just released faac 1.29.5 with a few real changes.
Encoding is definitely much faster and quality may also be better with many samples, definitely worth trying.
Congratulations!
The encoding speed improvement was confirmed on my Ryzen 5 1600X. The real output bitrate was strange when the input was a short stereo white noise file. It was not so on other files.
(https://ss1.coressl.jp/listening-test.coresv.net/img2/faac1296-small.png)
Why the foobar's parametres "--mpeg-vers 4 --q 500 -w - -o %d" (working in FAAC 1.28) doesn't work in FAAC 1.29.6?
Why the foobar's parametres "--mpeg-vers 4 --q 500 -w - -o %d" (working in FAAC 1.28) doesn't work in FAAC 1.29.6?
That may be related to a recent change not to overwrite existing files by default. --overwrite option enables it.
Congratulations!
The encoding speed improvement was confirmed on my Ryzen 5 1600X. The real output bitrate was strange when the input was a short stereo white noise file. It was not so on other files.
Thanks!
Yes, the bitrates aren't very predictable, I think I need to develop some proper psymodel, that should improve encoding in general and possibly also the bitrates. We'll see.
I really wanted to give a try to a new encoder.
First things first.
"faac.exe --long-help" doesn't work. It took 10 minutes to figure out that it was "--help-long". It's not documented a proper way.
It's not funny. I deleted a files and never came back to it.
Bye.
"faac.exe --long-help" doesn't work. It took 10 minutes to figure out that it was "--help-long". It's not documented a proper way.
Bye.
You are a bit late, it was reported already:
https://github.com/knik0/faac/issues/1
And a fix was commited:
https://github.com/knik0/faac/commit/8064528230ac5bb7d3911b79716d6b60430f94ee
But thanks for you your invaluable help anyway.
The encoding speed improvement was confirmed on my Ryzen 5 1600X. The real output bitrate was strange when the input was a short stereo white noise file. It was not so on other files.
It was strange on ordinary music tracks, sorry. Setting -b 200 sounds like a 0.9kHz LPF, and the filesize is tiny.
(https://ss1.coressl.jp/listening-test.coresv.net/img2/faac1296-2.png)
It was strange on ordinary music tracks, sorry. Setting -b 200 sounds like a 0.9kHz LPF, and the filesize is tiny.
Indeed, it's just unusable. Thanks for finding the problem!
It definitely has to be sorted out.
-b option fixed, what a stupid but it was.
Since it was a serious usage problem I just released a new version 1.29.6.2:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/faac/files/faac-src/faac-1.29/faac-1.29.6.2-win32.zip/download
Hooray! It was fixed!
(https://ss1.coressl.jp/listening-test.coresv.net/img2/faac1296-3.png)
New version with better support for higher bitrates.
This time the binary package contains changelog and help.txt
Please test and report:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/faac/files/faac-src/faac-1.29/faac-1.29.7-win32.zip/download
Thanks for the update
@knik
(https://ss1.coressl.jp/listening-test.coresv.net/img2/faac1296-4.png)
Why the foobar's parametres "--mpeg-vers 4 --q 500 -w - -o %d" (working in FAAC 1.28) doesn't work in FAAC 1.29.6?
That may be related to a recent change not to overwrite existing files by default. --overwrite option enables it.
So, in the end it turns out it doesn't work. Windows version has some problem with standard input.
It probably will be fixed in next release.
Bugfix release:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/faac/files/faac-src/faac-1.29/faac-1.29.7.2-win32.zip/download
Thanks. There are no problems with foobar2000 in FAAC 1.29.7.2 release.
New bugfix release. Thanks to all who reported problems.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/faac/files/faac-src/faac-1.29/faac-1.29.7.4-win32.zip/download
Recent changes:
* allowed even higher bitrates, including ADTS
* framebuffer size bug fixed
* removed broken object types: Main and LTP
* some mp4 atoms fixed for better compalibility
* stdin seek bug fixed
It worked!
(https://ss1.coressl.jp/listening-test.coresv.net/img2/faac1297-4.png)
Hello everyone, everything good?
Can anyone with experience help with the following question?
Using Free Audio Converter 1.0.30 what is the best FAAC configuration 1.29.7 using bit rate per channel without Joint-Stereo?
128, 130, 150 ....
Because in the version I used 1.0.28 with FAAC 1.28 I used 128 per channel and the songs got the final quality this way:
247kbps, 265, 270 ....
And with FAAC 1.29.7 when choosing which rate per channel the songs have the same qualities for example:
130 per channel result = 260kbps.
What is the best bitrate per channel setting in FAAC 1.29.7 without Joint-Stereo?
I apologize for extending the text too much.
Thank you!
Using Free Audio Converter 1.0.30 what is the best FAAC configuration 1.29.7 using bit rate per channel without Joint-Stereo?
I don't think there are any good settings for that. You should use joint stereo and probably a more mature AAC encoder. Even with the improvements, FAAC is still probably not the best choice.
Even with the improvements, FAAC is still probably not the best choice.
It was true as of 1.29.7.4.
If you want bulk encode with faac don't do it yet, better wait for upcoming releases.
Encoding improvements are underway.
So should I use FAAC 1.28 for now?
Thanks!
So should I use FAAC 1.28 for now?
FAAC 1.29.7 will be better than 1.28, but until quality improvements arrive, it's best to use a different encoder if possible. You can use Apple's Core Audio AAC Encoder with fre:ac 1.1 Alpha if you have iTunes installed. The Core Audio encoder seems to provide the best quality at the moment.
The Core Audio encoder seems to provide the best quality at the moment.
Damn, installing the thing on Linux is not that easy. I just had to download a whole bunch of dlls before qaac agreed to work.
The Core Audio encoder seems to provide the best quality at the moment.
Damn, installing the thing on Linux is not that easy. I just had to download a whole bunch of dlls before qaac agreed to work.
You can use the FDK-AAC encoder on Linux. The quality is comparable to that of the mighty Core Audio encoder maintained by Apple.
NeroAACEnc, used to be distributed as Win/Linux binaries, also works. The quality is lower than the Apple/FDK/FhG encoder.
Indeed, FDK-AAC is not bad, native Linux binary of reasonable size as opposed to 28M for qaac.
Because in the version I used 1.0.28 with FAAC 1.28 I used 128 per channel and the songs got the final quality this way:
247kbps, 265, 270 ....
And with FAAC 1.29.7 when choosing which rate per channel the songs have the same qualities for example:
130 per channel result = 260kbps.
I just modified that functionality to allow some bitrate variation. The updated bitrate control code generally seems better.
Now with 128 per channel, you can get something like 263, 281 ...
New version:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/faac/files/faac-src/faac-1.29/faac-1.29.7.7-win32.zip/download
Note that sourceforge had some issues last days, hopefully it will work today.
You can use the FDK-AAC encoder on Linux. The quality is comparable to that of the mighty Core Audio encoder maintained by Apple.
It may be even better than that. I just did a couple of quick listening tests (60-80kbps AAC-LC) and it looks like FDK sounds better than Core Audio. :)
I just did a couple of quick listening tests (60-80kbps AAC-LC) and it looks like FDK sounds better than Core Audio. :)
Can you provide some ABX logs?
ABXing CoreAudio AAC-LC @ 80k is too easy.
Previously I was trying two test samples That_s_What_I_Get and Home_Computer but the latter is a joke so for this ABX I took That_s_What_I_Get@80k
Encoding:
./qaac.sh -v 80 ~/tmp/web/aactest/That_s_What_I_Get.wav -o q1.m4a
./aac-enc -t 2 -r 80000 ~/tmp/web/aactest/That_s_What_I_Get.wav f1.aac
ABXed with 'abx' on linux one sample encoded with FDA, one with Core.
Result: 10/10 but that's just too easy due to annoying CoreAudio artifacts.
f1.aac actually has a little lower bitrate than q1.m4a so FDK is definite winner here.
Thanks for this, what do you think about FhG/Winamp vs FhG/FDK? FhG/Winamp is so fast when converting.
Yeah, not going to happen for now, FhG/FDK gives me ~160-170x and FhG/Winamp ~400x, I don't use lossy much anymore but speed is very convenient.
The "afterburner" fdk option makes difference, about twice slower but produces a little better sound.
I just ABXed @80kbps afterburner vs nonafterburner 9/10.
Maybe Winamp has this option disabled. I don't know.
Encoding:
./qaac.sh -v 80 ~/tmp/web/aactest/That_s_What_I_Get.wav -o q1.m4a
./aac-enc -t 2 -r 80000 ~/tmp/web/aactest/That_s_What_I_Get.wav f1.aac
Passing --lowpass 14000 to qaac and -r 84000 to aac-enc would probably provide a better comparison.
I confirmed that the new version faac-1.29.7.8 is getting even faster.
https://github.com/knik0/faac
(https://ss1.coressl.jp/listening-test.coresv.net/img2/faac1297-8.png)
Very nice graphs :)
I have just uploaded 64-bit version and I think it may be a little faster than -win32:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/faac/files/faac-src/faac-1.29/faac-1.29.7.8-win64.zip/download
Great, it's even faster.
(https://ss1.coressl.jp/listening-test.coresv.net/img2/faac1297-864.png)
faac-1.29.8 was buggy, 1.29.8.2 is much better:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/faac/files/faac-src/faac-1.29/faac-1.29.8.2-win64.zip/download
Noticeable changes since 1.29.7.8:
- implemented short windows grouping
- rewritten mid/side coding (makes very audible difference at lower bitrates)
Sounds promising. I will check it later.
1.29.8.2 is very fast, to the point I'm running out of the legend space!
(https://ss1.coressl.jp/listening-test.coresv.net/img2/faac12982.png)
However, I've got many errors while playing the output on foobar2000 v1.3.15.
It happens on many bitrate settings, on many tracks including white noise, sine waves, and music tracks.
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 236 of 236
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_whit_16.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 236 of 236
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_whit_24.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 236 of 236
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_whit_32.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 236 of 236
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_whit_40.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 236 of 236
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_whit_48.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 236 of 236
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_whit_56.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 236 of 236
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_whit_64.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 863 of 863
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_sine_16.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 863 of 863
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_sine_24.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4009 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4010 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4011 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4012 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4013 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4014 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4015 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4016 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4017 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4018 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4019 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4020 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4021 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4022 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4023 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4024 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4025 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4026 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4027 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4028 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4029 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4030 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4031 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4032 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4033 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4034 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4035 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4036 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4037 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4038 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4039 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4040 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4041 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_512.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4009 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4010 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4011 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4012 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4013 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4014 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4015 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4016 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4017 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4018 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4019 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4020 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4021 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4022 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4023 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4024 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4025 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4026 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4027 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4028 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4029 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4030 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4031 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4032 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4033 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4034 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4035 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4036 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4037 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4038 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4039 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4040 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
File verification error: Decoding error: Unsupported format or corrupted file, frame: 4041 of 12921
"C:\vbrtest2\FAAC_vk_12982_64_7s40_192.mp4"
Very interesting finds. Could you upload a couple of those corrupt files somewhere.
Edit:
Never mind. There were a couple of relevant bugs actually and I think I quashed them all.
1.29.8.2 is very fast, to the point I'm running out of the legend space!
I'm afraid I have a plan to speed it up even more, like several percent. Maybe you could remove faac-1.28 and put legend to the bottom.
Anyway, new bugfix release:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/faac/files/faac-src/faac-1.29/faac-1.29.8.3-win64.zip/download
Another bit of faac progress:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/faac/files/faac-src/faac-1.29/faac-1.29.9-win64.zip/download
- initial version of Intensity Stereo
- initial version of PNS
- speed increase
Contrary to popular belief PNS is not that bad. It's more subtle than SBR and allows to throw some noise here and there unobtrusively. Overall, it sounds better than I expected.
With all the recent changes it looks like faac starts to be usable at low bitrates, e.g. faac --over -b40 -c10000
Look at this! The new version is even faster!
(https://ss1.coressl.jp/listening-test.coresv.net/img2/faac12992-en-small.png)
Great. Thanks!
[SOLVED]
Hi,
Tried to use the latest 64-bit version for windows 1.29.9.2.
Conversion speed is impressive on my sample file shows about 130x encoding speed.
However, there is a major issue with raw input (PCM) on 64-bit, after encoding sound is corrupted, i can hardly hear the voice which is almost suppressed by noise.
Older version i have (1.26.1 32 bit) works ok (but speed is about 25x), 32 bit version 1.29.9.2 works ok, but shows the speed about 22x.
My sample file: 2 channel 44100 decoded from 160kb mp3 file.
I tried:
passing -P with and without -C -R
passing quality settings (however, i don't think it matters)
passing stream via pipe and passing via file
packaging stream to wav and passing it to faac as stream via pipe and as file (omitting -P), works well.
I tried to produce pcm file via ffmpeg and via my program - neither works.
For me packing to wav not an option, are there any other ideas?
Thank you
UPDATE: Solved, 64-bit version has bigendian by default, had to switch with -X option
I just released faac 1.29.5 with a few real changes.
Encoding is definitely much faster and quality may also be better with many samples, definitely worth trying.
Also, I just noticed there is noise coding available and it always was a part of standard AAC LC.
Apparently I totally missed it back in the days.
I will try to develop this thing for upcoming releases, it can give a real quality boost, especially at lower bitrates.
Wow, and it seems I totally missed this posting, knik! ;) Just downloaded the new FAAC version, might even check it with ye olde listening test samples.
Also very nice that Audiocoding.com is back up again, did Menno do that? Maybe the old Audiocoding site wiki is still available somewhere as well? Neither Sourceforge nor GitHub has one, HydrogenAudio only a short one.
Last but not least: does YouTube still use FAAC for AAC/MP4 encoding? ;)
did you just bump 2 year old thread?
Last but not least: does YouTube still use FAAC for AAC/MP4 encoding? ;)
Why use faac if it can use better FDK-AAC ?
Why use faac if it can use better FDK-AAC ?
where can read about it ?
For example, an older version of https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/AAC , available at http://archive.is/SnQzp :
Which encoder provides the best quality?
For AAC-LC the likely answer is: libfdk_aac > Native FFmpeg AAC encoder (aac) > libfaac
Last but not least: does YouTube still use FAAC for AAC/MP4 encoding? ;)
No. Youtube doesn't use neither FAAC nor FDK-AAC. Most probably it uses coder licensed from FhG, identical to proprietary FhG-AAC coder from Winamp (not FDK). https://audiophilesoft.ru/publ/my/youtube_audio_quality/11-1-0-285 (The article is quite old. But as far as I can guess, the AAC encoder on Youtube has hardly changed since then).
For example, an older version [...]
"how good is the quality of new faac 1.29"
any test with 1.28.* will be deprecated.
Here are the results of FAAC 1.30.
Not as good as FDK-AAC, but better than the native FFmpeg AAC encoder.
https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=119861.msg988681
I was attracted to FAAC by the fact that after encoding a 45s recording I had a file of the same duration out of the box, and not 45s 01ms-70ms as with other AAC encoders. (Of course, Qaac offers
--no-delay flag to achieve the same thing, but you have to know about that one, have to remember it. And what about FFMPEG AAC and FDK AAC?)
Right, now I'm exploring FAAC's impressive
-q range from 10 to 5000.
$ faac.exe --help-qual
Freeware Advanced Audio Coder
FAAC 1.30
Usage: faac [options] infile
Quality-related options:
-q <quality> Set encoding quality.
Set default variable bitrate (VBR) quantizer quality in percent.
max. 5000, min. 10.
default: 100, averages at approx. 120 kbps VBR for a normal
stereo input file with 16 bit and 44.1 kHz sample rate
-b <bitrate> Set average bitrate to x kbps. (ABR)
Set average bitrate (ABR) to approximately <bitrate> kbps.
max. ~500 (stereo)
-c <freq> Set the bandwidth in Hz.
The actual frequency is adjusted to maximize upper spectral band
usage.
Is it worth spending the effort and not just use Qaac and remembering to add the --no-delay flag?
@Big_Berny, as it turned out, even
--no-delay flag does not save the day. There are millisecond discrepancies on some records*, which turn into alarming seconds when rounded up. But by and large, the thing that pushes me to explore the possibilities of other encoders, including Qaac alternatives, is that Qaac is a Windows wrapper for an Apple in-house product, a hack if you will. It is obvious from the extravagant installation (https://github.com/nu774/makeportable), the very extraction of some DLLs from a huge app that you have yet to find and download. This brings back the long-forgotten vibes of the first proprietary MP3 encoders, while I'm looking for something like Vorbis, i.e. a mighty effort of will and intellect for the benefit of humanity in the form of lightweight, portable, cross-platform, future-proof. hassle-free solution. That's why I was happy when QOA (https://qoaformat.org/) was announced.
00:06:53.99 = 413.994 = Dead can dance - 1993 - Yulunga.flac
00:06:54.01 = 414.012 = Dead can dance - 1993 - Yulunga.qaac-tvbr109.m4a
Qaac is a Windows wrapper for an Apple in-house product, a hack if you will. It is obvious from the extravagant installation (https://github.com/nu774/makeportable), the very extraction of some DLLs from a huge app that you have yet to find and download.
What?
You can just install Quicktime and have no need for "extravagant installation", which is, by the way, just extracting needed files from the installer. Once extracted, it's quite portable.
Or you can use it natively on Mac OS.
Or use FDK-AAC, which is also good.
Or use Nero AAC encoder. On high enough bitrates it's quite OK.
@itisljar, you don't seem to understand the ideological implications when choosing tools, or I'm having a hard time finding the right words to explain it. Ask yourself, why CoreAudioToolbox.dll and some other files are not supplied next to qaac.exe on Videohelp.com (https://www.videohelp.com/software/qaac), why Qaac is not even mentioned on Rarewares and Free-codes, why we have a bunch of files instead of a single file like opusenc.exe, why users are having trouble (https://sourceforge.net/p/bonkenc/discussion/85470/thread/4e11c97dd3/) getting Qaac to work? Because it depends on Apple's explicit and implicit restrictions. And it just does not feel right after you have experienced the friendly warmth of solutions such as Vorbis and Musepack, FLAC and WavPack.
As for other AAC encoders, my personal testing has shown that they all have missteps. For example, try encoding the following sample (https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,118077.0.html) with max settings. In that case, FAAC performed the worst, FFMPEG's one turned out to have a lot of noise, FDK came closest to Qacc, but it tends to cut too much even max VBR5 and introduces delays.
I agree it doesn't feel right . There is neroaacenc from 2010 that is good quality and default setting produces
musepack like vbr bitrate.
@itisljar, you don't seem to understand the ideological implications when choosing tools
Thank you for your valuable input, I wish you the best with your future endeavours.