nu774, firstly many thanks for qaac!
i've encountered a rather strange glitch trying to encode in HE-AAC:
output file's length(in seconds) is exactly 50% of the input.
meanwhile, qaac.exe command line output displays correct processed length in seconds, also no complaints in --verbose mode except that it runs suspiciously fast.
..\qaac_2.17\qaac>qaac --verbose --he test1.wav
qaac 2.17, CoreAudioToolbox 7.9.8.2
test2.m4a
Using default channel layout.
Output layout: Stereo
AAC-HE Encoder, CVBR 80kbps, Quality 96
[100.0%] 7:11.506/7:11.506 (28.8x), ETA 0:00.000
19029444/19029444 samples processed in 0:15.000
Overall bitrate: 88.272kbps
423/423 chunks written (optimizing)
..\qaac_2.17\qaac>qaac --verbose test2.wav
qaac 2.17, CoreAudioToolbox 7.9.8.2
test2.m4a
Using default channel layout.
Output layout: Stereo
AAC-LC Encoder, TVBR q91, Quality 96
[100.0%] 7:11.506/7:11.506 (25.1x), ETA 0:00.000
19029444/19029444 samples processed in 0:17.234
Overall bitrate: 213.081kbps
423/423 chunks written (optimizing)
test1.m4a
4.57MB (4 802 231 bytes)
3:35.753 (9514722 samples)
test2.m4a
11.0MB (11 571 769 bytes)
7:11.507 (19029444 samples)
9514722*2=19029444 )))
apart from this issue with --he, AAC-LC performs flawlessly in both --tvbr or --cvbr modes.
any suggestions much appreciated))