Editing Advanced Audio Coding (section)

=== Tools ===

==== Apple AAC ====
[[Apple Inc.|Apple]]'s AAC encoder was first part of the [[QuickTime]] media framework but is now at Audio Toolbox.

====FAAC and FAAD2====
{{Main|FAAC}}

FAAC and FAAD2 stand for Freeware Advanced Audio Coder and Decoder 2 respectively. FAAC supports audio object types LC, Main and LTP.<ref>{{cite web |title=FAAC |url=http://www.audiocoding.com/faac.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091211205237/http://www.audiocoding.com/faac.html |archive-date=2009-12-11 |access-date=2009-11-03 |website=AudioCoding.com}}</ref> FAAD2 supports audio object types LC, Main, LTP, SBR and PS.<ref>{{cite web |title=FAAD2 |url=http://www.audiocoding.com/faad2.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091211215311/http://www.audiocoding.com/faad2.html |archive-date=2009-12-11 |access-date=2009-11-03 |website=AudioCoding.com}}</ref> Although FAAD2 is [[free software]], FAAC is not free software.

====Fraunhofer FDK AAC====
{{Main|Fraunhofer FDK AAC}}

A [[Fraunhofer IIS|Fraunhofer]]-authored open-source encoder/decoder included in [[Android (operating system)|Android]] has been ported to other platforms. FFmpeg's native AAC encoder does not support HE-AAC and HE-AACv2, but GPL 2.0+ of ffmpeg is not compatible with FDK AAC, hence ffmpeg with libfdk-aac is not redistributable. The QAAC encoder that is using Apple's Core Media Audio is still higher quality than FDK.

====FFmpeg and Libav====
{{See also|FAAC#Alternatives for AAC encoding in Unix-like operating systems}}

The native AAC encoder created in [[FFmpeg]]'s [[libavcodec]], and forked with [[Libav]], was considered experimental and poor. A significant amount of work was done for the 3.0 release of FFmpeg (February 2016) to make its version usable and competitive with the rest of the AAC encoders.<ref>{{cite web |title=December 5th, 2015, The native FFmpeg AAC encoder is now stable! |url=https://ffmpeg.org/index.html#aac_encoder_stable |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160716124052/http://ffmpeg.org/index.html#aac_encoder_stable |archive-date=16 July 2016 |access-date=26 June 2016 |website=ffmpeg.org}}</ref> Libav has not merged this work and continues to use the older version of the AAC encoder. These encoders are [[LGPL]]-licensed open-source and can be built for any platform that the FFmpeg or Libav frameworks can be built.

Both FFmpeg and Libav can use the [[Fraunhofer FDK AAC]] library via libfdk-aac, and while the FFmpeg native encoder has become stable and good enough for common use, FDK is still considered the highest quality encoder available for use with FFmpeg.<ref name="ffmpegdoc">{{cite web |title=FFmpeg AAC Encoding Guide |url=https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/AAC#fdk_aac |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160417000546/http://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/AAC#fdk_aac |archive-date=17 April 2016 |access-date=11 April 2016 |quote=Which encoder provides the best quality? ... the likely answer is: libfdk_aac}}</ref> Libav also recommends using FDK AAC if it is available.<ref>{{cite web |title=Libav Wiki - Encoding AAC |url=https://wiki.libav.org/Encoding/aac |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420213129/https://wiki.libav.org/Encoding/aac |archive-date=2016-04-20 |access-date=11 April 2016}}</ref> FFmpeg 4.4 and above can also use the Apple audiotoolbox encoder.<ref name="ffmpegdoc" />

Although the native AAC encoder only produces AAC-LC, ffmpeg's native decoder is able to deal with a wide range of input formats.

====Nero Digital Audio====
In May 2006, [[Nero AG]] released an AAC encoding tool free of charge, ''Nero Digital Audio'' (the AAC codec portion has become [[Nero AAC Codec]]),<ref>{{cite web |title=Nero Platinum 2018 Suite - Award-winning all-rounder |url=http://www.nero.com/eng/downloads-nerodigital-nero-aac-codec.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121214011559/http://www.nero.com/eng/downloads-nerodigital-nero-aac-codec.php |archive-date=14 December 2012 |access-date=8 May 2018 |website=Nero AG}}</ref> which is capable of encoding LC-AAC, HE-AAC and HE-AAC v2 streams. The tool is a command-line interface tool only. A separate utility is also included to decode to PCM [[WAV]].

Various tools including the [[foobar2000]] audio player and [[MediaCoder]] can provide a [[GUI]] for this encoder.