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Topic: What's the best AAC encoder today? (Read 12013 times) previous topic - next topic
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Re: What's the best AAC encoder today?

Reply #26 –
Hi

Few months rolled since last post.
There is a hydrogenaudio wiki page about AAC encoders.
Most to least recommended AAC encoders from this wiki page.

Where can I download the newest version of the top three (Apple, FhG, FDK) encoder?
Considering FDK-AAC there is a few months old fdkaac 1.0.1 using libfdk-aac 4.0.1 version created by john33.
However I can not find newer from this and nothing usable available regarding other two.

Regards
szabi

Re: What's the best AAC encoder today?

Reply #27 –
Just FYI. There is also newer Fraunhofer IIS AAC encoder and newer Fraunhofer FDK AAC with VBR improvement (available in the Android master repository)

Re: What's the best AAC encoder today?

Reply #29 –
FhG AAC from Winamp is v. 3.02.15. EZ CD Audio Converter uses v. 3.5.3.
Apple's last encoder is on iTunes (search for tutorials to get it then use qaac).

All three encoders are probably not really updated anymore. Except maybe for bugfix don't expect quality progress with the very last version of these encoders.

Re: What's the best AAC encoder today?

Reply #30 –
EZ CD now uses Fraunhofer IIS AAC v3.5.5 (xHEAACEnc) . It would be interesting to test it against Apple's yet again. Yes there will be updates.  :D

Re: What's the best AAC encoder today?

Reply #31 –
Hi
Now I had time to try.
Firstly, EZ CD Audio Converter 9.3.2 has four exe files only (ezcd.exe, register32.exe, register64.exe, uninstall.exe).
There is no "fhgaac.exe" file to use.
Secondly, considering Apple AAC, I followed the tutorial, qaac_2.72 and iCloud was downloaded. Unpacking iCloud "AppleApplicationSupport.msi" (v.20200829) is available to install.
After I want to use "qaac.exe" I got failure message: "The encoder has terminated prematurely".
Thirdly, regarding FDKAAC still fdkaac 1.0.1 using libfdk-aac 4.0.1 version created by john33 is the newest which available to use.

To be honest the availability and usage of top three "aacenc" is terribly overcomplicated.

Regards
szabi

Re: What's the best AAC encoder today?

Reply #32 –
Quote from: szabi on
Hi
Now I had time to try.
Firstly, EZ CD Audio Converter 9.3.2 has four exe files only (ezcd.exe, register32.exe, register64.exe, uninstall.exe).
There is no "fhgaac.exe" file to use.
Secondly, considering Apple AAC, I followed the tutorial, qaac_2.72 and iCloud was downloaded. Unpacking iCloud "AppleApplicationSupport.msi" (v.20200829) is available to install.
After I want to use "qaac.exe" I got failure message: "The encoder has terminated prematurely".
Thirdly, regarding FDKAAC still fdkaac 1.0.1 using libfdk-aac 4.0.1 version created by john33 is the newest which available to use.

To be honest the availability and usage of top three "aacenc" is terribly overcomplicated.

Regards
szabi
If it helps, I use this commandline for VBR for the qaac encoder, you can change the V value to find your quality or bitrate sweet spot. 64 corresponds to about 130 kbps.

Code: [Select]
-V 64 --no-optimize --threading -o %d -

Re: What's the best AAC encoder today?

Reply #33 –
@szabi

This will solve your Apple AAC issue (assuming you want to use Foobar2000) in a easy-to-use manner... https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=115883.msg962088#msg962088

while that post is from 2018, it's still valid today since Apple has not tweaked the Apple AAC encoder (from a sound quality perspective) in about 10+ years now.
For music I suggest (using Foobar2000)...
1)Opus @ 64kbps or 96kbps. NOTE: using 64kbps on Samsung J3 /w Foobar2k.
2)AAC (Apple or FhG(Winamp)) @ 96kbps.
3)MP3 (LAME) @ V5 (130kbps). NOTE: using on AGPTEK-U3 as of Mar 18th 2021. I use 'fatsort' (on Linux) so MP3's are listed in order on AGPTEK-U3.

Re: What's the best AAC encoder today?

Reply #34 –
Hi

After your help now I can use all three encoder by foobar2000.
Apple AAC has version "qaac 2.72, CoreAudioToolbox 7.10.9.0".
Winamp FHG AAC runs on "fhgaac v03.02.16" version.
FDK AAC is on "fdkaac 1.0.1, libfdk-aac 4.0.1" version.
I do not know whether it is the latest one by Apple.
I could not extract the newer FHG AAC from EZ CD Audio Converter.
I found there is a new version of FDK-AAC fdk-aac-2.0.2 released 2021-04-28 however there is nothing usable on linked page, I still use above mentioned version given by John33.

Away from foobar2000, I could not use eac3to (v3.34) over UsEac3To (v.13.0) gui to run any of the above encoders.

Above all I want to say many thanks for your help, it is a 2 years old story for me to use them, now I am happy that all three is available finally.

Regards
Szabi

Re: What's the best AAC encoder today?

Reply #35 –
Quote from: szabi on
After your help now I can use all three encoder by foobar2000.
Apple AAC has version "qaac 2.72, CoreAudioToolbox 7.10.9.0".
I do not know whether it is the latest one by Apple.

I think there are 'newer' versions of CoreAudioToolbox available (like in newer versions of iTunes), but it does not really matter since in terms of the audio quality of the AAC files produced, no improvements have been made in about 10+ years now when it comes to standard AAC (i.e. AAC-LC) files.

so basically any version of Apple AAC encoder used after that point (after about 2009-2011) is just as good as whatever is the most recent which is why I never bothered to use anything newer myself as the one your using is what I am using in Foobar2000 (i.e. CoreAudioToolbox 7.10.9.0 ; although I am still on 'qaac v2.69' as I just use whatever is included in the Foobar Encoders Pack (which the most recent Encoders Pack release is from Jan 2021) as I never manually update qaac in particular as I just use whatever they give you in the Foobar2000 Encoders Pack). so while the CoreAudioToolbox your using is from the year 2018, it does not matter if you used one from 2013 or the most recent from 2021 etc, it's all basically the same where it matters.

the Apple AAC encoder your using (which I extracted from the iTunes installer in 2018) is 32-bit. but the last I knew the 64-bit version was only negligibly faster at encoding, so I never really bothered to change to 64-bit. besides, it seems the encoders they give you in the Foobar2000 Encoders Pack in general are 32bit as I think it's safer to use these since more CPU's will be supported even though the 64-bit ones can encode things a bit faster in general. but it's not really a big deal either way as unless someone encodes A LOT of music, the speed difference is not significant enough to really matter, especially given any decent CPU over the last 10 years or so is plenty fast enough.
For music I suggest (using Foobar2000)...
1)Opus @ 64kbps or 96kbps. NOTE: using 64kbps on Samsung J3 /w Foobar2k.
2)AAC (Apple or FhG(Winamp)) @ 96kbps.
3)MP3 (LAME) @ V5 (130kbps). NOTE: using on AGPTEK-U3 as of Mar 18th 2021. I use 'fatsort' (on Linux) so MP3's are listed in order on AGPTEK-U3.

Re: What's the best AAC encoder today?

Reply #36 –
@ThaCrip

Ok, I understand your point.
Once more many thanks for your help.

Re: What's the best AAC encoder today?

Reply #37 –
You forgot something: MainConcept AAC, used in all pro apps.
Please test MC AAC.
 
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