Appendix > Appendix C - Faac encoder command line

Faac encoder, used during the development of this product, is available for download from the following link.

Below you can find the full list of command line's options for Faac version 1.24.1

Freeware Advanced Audio Coder

FAAC 1.24.1 (May 17 2005) UNSTABLE

Usage: faac [options] infiles ...

Quality-related options:

-q <quality> Set default variable bitrate (VBR) quantizer quality in percent.

(default: 100, averages at approx. 120 kbps VBR for a normal

stereo input file with 16 bit and 44.1 kHz sample rate; max.

value 500, min. 10).

-b <bitrate> Set average bitrate (ABR) to approximately <bitrate> kbps.

(max. value 152 kbps/stereo with a 16 kHz cutoff, can be raised

with a higher -c setting).

-c <freq> Set the bandwidth in Hz (default: automatic, i.e. adapts

maximum value to input sample rate).

Input/output options:

- <stdin/stdout>: If you simply use a hyphen/minus sign instead

of an input file name, FAAC can encode directly from stdin,

thus enabling piping from other applications and utilities. The

same works for stdout as well, so FAAC can pipe its output to

other apps such as a server.

-o X Set output file to X (only for one input file)

only for one input file; you can use *.aac, *.mp4, *.m4a or

*.m4b as file extension, and the file format will be set

automatically to ADTS or MP4).

-P Raw PCM input mode (default: off, i.e. expecting a WAV header;

necessary for input files or bitstreams without a header; using

only -P assumes the default values for -R, -B and -C in the

input file).

-R Raw PCM input sample rate in Hz (default: 44100 Hz, max. 96 kHz)

-B Raw PCM input sample size (default: 16, also possible 8, 24, 32

bit fixed or float input).

-C Raw PCM input channels (default: 2, max. 33 + 1 LFE).

-X Raw PCM swap input bytes (default: bigendian).

-I <C[,LFE]> Input multichannel configuration (default: 3,4 which means

Center is third and LFE is fourth like in 5.1 WAV, so you only

have to specify a different position of these two mono channels

in your multichannel input files if they haven't been reordered

already).

MP4 specific options:

-w Wrap AAC data in MP4 container. (default for *.mp4, *.m4a and

*.m4b)

--artist X Set artist to X

--writer X Set writer/composer to X

--title X Set title/track name to X

--genre X Set genre to X

--album X Set album/performer to X

--compilation Mark as compilation

--track X Set track to X (number/total)

--disc X Set disc to X (number/total)

--year X Set year to X

--cover-art X Read cover art from file X

Supported image formats are GIF, JPEG, and PNG.

--comment X Set comment to X

Expert options, only for testing purposes:

--tns Enable coding of TNS, temporal noise shaping.

--no-midside Don't use mid/side coding.

--mpeg-vers X Force AAC MPEG version, X can be 2 or 4

--obj-type X AAC object type. (LC (Low Complexity, default), Main or LTP

(Long Term Prediction)

--shortctl X Enforce block type (0 = both (default); 1 = no short; 2 = no

long).

-r Generate raw AAC bitstream (i.e. without any headers).

Not advised!!!, RAW AAC files are practically useless!!!

Documentation:

--license Show the FAAC license.

--help Show this abbreviated help.

--long-help Show complete help.

More tips can be found in the audiocoding.com Knowledge Base at

<http://www.audiocoding.com/wiki/>