FAAC
Introduction
FAAC, which stands for Free Advanced Audio Converter is, as the name suggests, a free codec to create aac, mp4 or m4a files just like LAME creates mp3 files. It is also an alternative to those who do not wish to use the commercial codecs such as Nero or Quick Time Pro.
Note: Although ITunes uses the same Codec as the one in Quick Time Pro it does not have the "best" setting as it's commercial cousin. However it only makes a difference in 24bit streams.
What Extension Should I Use?
With FAAC you can use either aac, mp4 or m4a. MP4 and M4a are recommended by some because they are i-pod compatible. See M4a.com for more. Reading the m4a.com site you would believe that there was no longer any use for the aac extension. However these files still have their uses.
For example there are hardware
players that decode *.aac files. These include Philips Expanium CD
portables, some newer Nokia mobile phones, the Diva GEM FlashROM
portable, the RCA Lyra A/V Jukebox and the Siemens/O2 Digital Music
Player which is the first HE AAC capable portable with memory card.
Winamp 5.03 still supports the *.aac file extension natively with its
own Nullsoft plugin and all decoders based on FAAD2 can play *.aac as well.
These include
foobar2000. Audiocoding.com's in_mp4.dll is often
used for other players or rippers, both windows and linux, including VLC, XMMS, mp4player from the MPEG4IP project, Mplayer etc.
So the aac extension is not exactly dead!
Choose your extension based on what you are choosing the files for as explained above.
FAAC and Audiograbber
FAAC can easily be used with Audiograbber but only as an external encoder at present. I have covered this in detail on my Audiograbber external parameters page. Audiograbber does not yet support the lib_faac.dll internal codec.
FAAC can also be used with other rippers such as Exact Audio Copy (EAC).
Why use AAC and not mp3?
AAC is gaining in popularity more and more, pushed by Apple with it's Ipod, Itunes and Music Store. Real have now joined in with AAC being available in the latest version of it's player and also offering AAC digital downloads in it's music store. To note most people encode at 128 k/bits. AAC has proven to be superior to mp3 at 64 and 128 k/bits in recent tests. 64 k/bit test 128 k/bit test and would certainly be a better bet at those rates.
FAAC (and AAC) against Lame's -alt--preset standard (aps) preset
Mp3 users, used to using the high quality lame presets, use these as a comparison with AAC and ask how AAC compares with -alt--preset standard which averages between 180 and 220 k/bits.
From an Audiograbber forum thread
"As for FAAC competing with Lame at the higher bitrates it has been mentioned that on other forums that FAAC (and AAC) may be a better bet at 128 k/bits it still may not be ready to compete against Lame's --alt-preset standard but I am sure that it is only a matter of time."
I've read these claims, too, and you have to realize that they are all based on hearsay or on stupid assumptions ("Why doesn't AAC at 128 kbps sound as good as LAME at ~200 kbps?"), because there are no public group listening tests trying to examine any codec at such high bitrates. And the reason is of course that it's pretty hard or close to impossible even for trained listeners to come up with reasonable results, meaning that you won't find enough people to validate such claims statistically.
So what to choose? I would suggest running your own tests to find out which is best for you. Look at the external codec page to find out comparable bitrates across the different codecs. More on testing can be found at:
Explaination Thread at Hydrogen Audio
It should be noted that some of those who took parts in the tests commented that transparency had been achieved at 128 k/bits on some samples. This does not relate solely to FAAC but should be attributed to the Itunes and the Nero codec.
Why Use FAAC instead of Itunes etc
Itunes recently performed the best amongst AAC Codecs, including FAAC, during a recent test at 128 k/bits. However Itunes is a hefty 20mb plus download and is only available for Windows 2000 and XP. This rules out Win 9x users (95, 98, 98se, ME) and those on NT4. Users of 2000 and XP may have other software for managing and encoding their CD's and don't want to download Itunes.
Other codecs such as Nero/Ahead, Compaact and Winamp's are shareware so FAAC, which was third place behind Itunes and Nero, is a viable alternative.
Note that Winamp can rip aac files although since version 5.03 it now has .mp4 and *.m4a files as the default encoder extension.
How do I encode with FAAC
As explained earlier you can use Audiograbber with the external version of FAAC.
Applications with FAAC
There is other freeware available which uses FAAC. These include:
Bonk
Bonk is a CD ripper which has it's own lossless format know as Bonk! The ripper also has internal support for lame mp3 and ogg vorbis as well as FAAC. uses lib_facc.dll
Foobar
Foobar is a minimalist player but is also an incredible tagger/renamer and can rip CD's to various formats via plug-ins. This includes FAAC. An essential piece of software.
DBPoweramp Music Converter
Dbpoweramp Music Converter is a CD and line-in ripper and also converts amongst all the popular formats. Codecs (encoders/decoders) are downloaded seperately and has support for almost all the AAC formats including FAAC. Very easy to use. The application is free but you can register the Powerpack which increases your options including DSP effects, rip to RAM and much more. Uses faac.exe
FAAC with Ivan & Menno Front End
You may well want to rip your files to wav and encode them seperately. In that case download the FAAC binaries from the Rarewares AAC page and download the excellent frontend by Speek to encode/decode your files. The front end also supports Psytel and mp4creator. If you want to decode AAC files download the FAAD binaries from Rarewares (see link above). Note that the frontend comes in versions for both FAAC 1.23.5 and below and FAAC 1.24 and above.
Links
Page Status - Draft
Still To Come: FAAD Decoder
Thanks To Hans-Jurgen for his input!