Looking for an AAC-LC encoder from Frauenhofer

[Vane]

Ahoi

I'm dissatisfied with the quality of the AAC encoders that I have access to, namely the one from Nero which is used by foobar2k and the libvo_aacenc which is the default one in ffmpeg and thus also the one that Audacity uses.

It's said that the one from the Frauenhofer Institute produces the best quality, but there are no binaries of ffmpeg which include libfdk_aac, since the latter is not under GPL.

I tried a bunch of guides showing how to cross compile it but none worked (they seemed to be out of date).

Does anyone know how or where I can get any AAC-LC encoder which uses the encoder from Frauenhofer?

A windows exe of ffmpeg with libfdk_aac or actually any command line tool would be fine.

[hello_hello]

What don't you like about the quality of the Nero encoder? It mightn't be the best at very low bitrates, but at sensible bitrates it's still considered to be very good. http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Nero_AAC

There's two Fraunhofer AAC encoders. The open source encoder (FDK AAC) was originally intended for portable devices, and it's the one mostly used by audio encoding GUIs these days as it's open source (and NeroAAC disappeared for a while, although apparently it's back on Nero's web site again). The other is the FhG AAC encoder. If anything, that's the fun one, because it's very fast. I can't pick a quality difference between the four popular AAC encoders at reasonable bitrates (over 128kbps for stereo), although then again I haven't really tried, but FhG AAC encodes at around twice the speed of the others. If memory serves me correctly their original MP3 encoder was much faster than anything else and also considered to be the highest quality.

Anyway, you can get the open source Fraunhofer encoder (FDK AAC) here. Download "fdkaac_autobuild.zip" and follow the instructions within. When you're done all you'll need is fdkaac.exe

I always use VBR LC-AAC encoding myself, and for that FDK AAC doesn't excite me all that much. There's a big bitrate jump between the second highest and highest VBR options (m4 and m5), although that's probably largely due to m4 having a fairly aggressive low pass filter by default. I'd mostly use m4 with a higher low pass frequency. You can read about it via the following links, but as an example, this is my foobar2000 FDK AAC command line: --ignorelength -S -w 18500 -m 4 -o %d -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraunhofer_FDK_AAC
http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Fraunhofer_FDK_AAC

The other Fraunhofer encoder front end (FhG AAC) can be found in the foobar2000 encoder pack.
In order to use it you need to download the latest WinAmp installer (version 5.666, it seems) and extract the following files with a program such as 7zip or WinRAR. No need to install WinAmp, just extract the three files and put them in the same location as fhgaacenc.exe.
enc_fhgaac.dll, libmp4v2.dll, nsutil.dll
More instructions here, along with a download link for the "official" fhgaacenc.

The foobar2000 encoder pack also includes qaac.exe, or you can get QAAC here. https://sites.google.com/site/qaacpage/cabinet
The Apple encoder is considered to be the best (or one of the best) at low bitrates (I haven't seen any tests including FhGAAC yet). http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Apple_AAC
Once again though, you need the actual encoder, and that requires the latest QuickTime installer along with "makeportable.zip", which you'll find on the QAAC page I linked to (you can use the iTunes installer instead of QuickTime, but the Quicktime installer is a smaller download). MakePortable will extract the required files from the QuickTime installer to a folder called "QTfiles". Put QTfiles in the same location as qaac.exe and you're good to go.

These days, foobar2000 has built in converter configurations for Nero AAC, FDK AAC, FhG AAC and Apple AAC.

At one stage I asked about the difference between the "official" qaac.exe and fhgaacenc.exe flavours and the ones in the foobar2000 encoder pack. Aside from the fact the encoder pack mightn't contain the very latest versions (it's not updated extremely frequently), the reply was:

http://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=106494&st=0&p=870930&#entry870930
qaac is just a recompile with statically linked C++ runtimes to make the Encoder Pack smaller and get the program to work on Windows XP SP2.
Bundled fhgaacenc has a few more changes. I fixed a crashing bug on close since the original version used too small buffers with FhG's libraries, added some extra help messages for command line parameters, made it accept 32-bit float input (it gets converted to 32-bit int on the fly) and made it use Activation Context for MSVCR9 runtimes so that it works without installing Visual C++ runtimes. And the size increase is the result of it being statically linked to Visual C++ 2013 runtimes it is compiled with. Almost forgot, the modified version is stripped from libsndfile requirement too as its license is too limiting.

The "official" QAAC switched to static runtime linking with version 2.45 so there's probably no difference there any more.
https://sites.google.com/site/qaacpage/news/qaacrelease245refalac145

I started out just intending to answer your question, but I guess I ended up writing a brief summary on the state of AAC encoding at the present time. Chances are, other posters will be able to add to that.

[Keyser]

What don't you like about the quality of the Nero encoder? It mightn't be the best at very low bitrates, but at sensible bitrates it's still considered to be very good. http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Nero_AAC

There's two Fraunhofer AAC encoders. The open source encoder (FDK AAC) was originally intended for portable devices, and it's the one mostly used by audio encoding GUIs these days as it's open source (and NeroAAC disappeared for a while, although apparently it's back on Nero's web site again). The other is the FhG AAC encoder. If anything, that's the fun one, because it's very fast. I can't pick a quality difference between the four popular AAC encoders at reasonable bitrates (over 128kbps for stereo), although then again I haven't really tried, but FhG AAC encodes at around twice the speed of the others. If memory serves me correctly their original MP3 encoder was much faster than anything else and also considered to be the highest quality.

Anyway, you can get the open source Fraunhofer encoder (FDK AAC) here. Download "fdkaac_autobuild.zip" and follow the instructions within. When you're done all you'll need is fdkaac.exe

I always use VBR LC-AAC encoding myself, and for that FDK AAC doesn't excite me all that much. There's a big bitrate jump between the second highest and highest VBR options (m4 and m5), although that's probably largely due to m4 having a fairly aggressive low pass filter by default. I'd mostly use m4 with a higher low pass frequency. You can read about it via the following links, but as an example, this is my foobar2000 FDK AAC command line: --ignorelength -S -w 18500 -m 4 -o %d -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraunhofer_FDK_AAC
http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Fraunhofer_FDK_AAC

The other Fraunhofer encoder front end (FhG AAC) can be found in the foobar2000 encoder pack.
http://www.foobar2000.org/encoderpack
In order to use it you need to download the latest WinAmp installer (version 5.7, I think) and extract the following files. No need to install WinAmp, just extract the three files and put them in the same location as fhgaacenc.exe.
enc_fhgaac.dll, libmp4v2.dll, nsutil.dll

The foobar2000 encoder pack also includes qaac.exe, or you can get QAAC from here.
https://sites.google.com/site/qaacpage/cabinet
The Apple encoder is probably considered to be the best at low bitrates (I haven't seen any tests that include FhGAAC yet). http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Apple_AAC
Once again though, you need the actual encoder, and for that you need the latest QuickTime installer along with "makeportable.zip", which you'll find via the previous link. MakePortable will extract the required files from the QuickTime installer to a folder called "QTfiles". Put it in the same location as qaac.exe and you're good to go.

These days, foobar2000 has built in converter configurations for Nero AAC, FDK AAC, FhG AAC and Apple AAC.

At one stage I asked about the difference between the "official" qaac.exe and fhgaacenc.exe flavours and the ones in the foobar2000 encoder pack. Aside from the fact the encoder pack mightn't contain the very latest versions (it's not updated extremely frequently), the reply was:

http://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=106494&st=0&p=870930&#entry870930
qaac is just a recompile with statically linked C++ runtimes to make the Encoder Pack smaller and get the program to work on Windows XP SP2.
Bundled fhgaacenc has a few more changes. I fixed a crashing bug on close since the original version used too small buffers with FhG's libraries, added some extra help messages for command line parameters, made it accept 32-bit float input (it gets converted to 32-bit int on the fly) and made it use Activation Context for MSVCR9 runtimes so that it works without installing Visual C++ runtimes. And the size increase is the result of it being statically linked to Visual C++ 2013 runtimes it is compiled with. Almost forgot, the modified version is stripped from libsndfile requirement too as its license is too limiting.

The "official" QAAC switched to static runtime linking with version 2.45 so there's probably no difference there any more.
https://sites.google.com/site/qaacpage/news/qaacrelease245refalac145

I started out just intending to answer your question, but I guess I ended up writing a brief summery on the state of AAC encoding at the present time. Chances are, other posters will be able to add to that.

EPIC! Thank you Sir.

[hello_hello]

No problem. I changed/added a couple of links in my earlier post. I found the official fhgaacenc page and there's some instructions and command line descriptions etc that might be useful.

[Chris K]

@hello_hello

Thanks for the wealth of info.

As for FFmpeg; the Sherpya builds support it as a separate dll you can download (also libfaac).

http://oss.netfarm.it/mplayer-win32.php

[Vane]

@hello_hello

Thank you!

It was just yesterday right after posting that I finally found that autobuild that you linked. It was the first one that worked and the quality is good (i.e. transparent at midrange bitrates).

But now I'll try the FhG AAC for the added speed.

I have to rectify, I actually hadn't tried Nero yet (faulty human memory), only libvo_aacenc which is the worst of the worst, according to the ffmpeg documentation.

The issue I had with libvo_aacenc is that it would create aliasing, which I could reduce by applying a lowpass at 13k (which I'd rather not) but even that didn't quite remove all of the aliasing.

I would love to use vbr but it looks like YouTube wants cbr, what I gathered from googling is not conclusive though.

[hello_hello]

I found a little bug in the FhG AAC encoder. Nothing to worry about. Foobar2000's FhG converter preset uses 24 bit for the input by default and it's only a problem for 32 bit input. I reported it and it's been fixed. Until the foobar2000 encoder pack is updated, you can find the fixed version of fhgaacenc.exe here.

[Vane]

That's really nice of you!

[rama]

The other Fraunhofer encoder front end (FhG AAC) can be found in the foobar2000 encoder pack.
In order to use it you need to download the latest WinAmp installer (version 5.666, it seems) and extract the following files with a program such as 7zip or WinRAR. No need to install WinAmp, just extract the three files and put them in the same location as fhgaacenc.exe.
enc_fhgaac.dll, libmp4v2.dll, nsutil.dll
More instructions here, along with a download link for the "official" fhgaacenc.

t.

hi
may i ask you a question ?
is still Fraunhofer encoder developed and updated?
because i guess the last qaac encoder is 2.55
but (FhG AAC) "fhgaacenc.exe & enc_fhgaac.dll, libmp4v2.dll, nsutil.dll " seems to be oudated , i can find information about the last version of it
i don't think with the end of winamp , they stopped to develop
do you know the last FhG AAC version ?
thanks

[hello_hello]

QAAC isn't an encoder though. It's just a front end for the Apple encoder and while it's updated somewhat regularly to add features and fix bugs, the Apple encoder does the actual encoding and it doesn't seem to be updated a lot. If you extract the required files from the QuickTime installer with makeportable you get (unless it's changed recently) CoreAudioToolbox 7.9.8.3, and I have CoreAudioToolbox 7.9.8.3 files dated April 2013.
The last itunes installer I downloaded (version 12.3) contained CoreAudioToolbox 7.10.5.0, which is newer, and the files are dated September 2015, although I'm not sure it encodes AAC any differently. I can't say I've tested that though, at least in respect to the bitrate for a specified quality.

Anyway.... I've no idea if Fraunhofer are still developing their encoder. They're selling it, so I'd assume so, but there's not much information on their site.
http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/en/ff/amm/prod/audiocodec/audiocodecs/aaclc.html#tabpanel-1
I think so far the Winamp installer is the only method of obtaining it for free. Well..... free in that you can get away with not paying for it. The original fhgaacenc.exe doesn't seem to have been updated in quite a while. I guess it just works, although the version in the foobar2000 encoder pack is a modified version. I'd use that one.

[rama]

QAAC isn't an encoder though. It's just a front end for the Apple encoder and while it's updated somewhat regularly to add features and fix bugs, the Apple encoder does the actual encoding and it doesn't seem to be updated a lot. If you extract the required files from the QuickTime installer with makeportable you get (unless it's changed recently) CoreAudioToolbox 7.9.8.3, and I have CoreAudioToolbox 7.9.8.3 files dated April 2013.
The last itunes installer I downloaded (version 2.3) contained CoreAudioToolbox 7.10.5.0, which is newer, and the files are dated September 2015, although I'm not sure it encodes AAC any differently. I can't say I've tested that though, at least in respect to the bitrate for a specified quality.

hi hello_hello
in short the encoder is CoreAudioToolbox 7.9.8.3 or CoreAudioToolbox 7.10.5.0,isn't it?
i have always update only qaac
makeitportable works with itunes and quicktime ,does not it?
thanks hello_hello

[hello_hello]

in short the encoder is CoreAudioToolbox 7.9.8.3 or CoreAudioToolbox 7.10.5.0,isn't it?

Yes. Or some version of CoreAudioToolbox.

i have always update only qaac

Chances are you haven't missed out. I'd always assumed the Quicktime and itunes installers would contain the same version of CoreAudioToolbox. It was only a month or so ago I discovered that's not necessarily the case, so I've been using 7.9.8.3 until recently myself.
The itunes version seems to be updated more regularly. There's a thread about it here, although someone commented that the AAC encoder doesn't seem to have changed since CoreAudioToolbox 9.7.8.1 (which was released Sept 2012), at least not until very recently (CoreAudioToolbox 7.10.5.0 from itunes 12.3.0.44).

makeitportable works with itunes and quicktime ,does not it?

Yes.

BTW, In my last post I said the last iTunes version I downloaded was 2.3, but I meant 12.3, so I've corrected it.