FAAC(1)			    Free Advanced Audio Coder			 FAAC(1)

NAME
     faac - open source MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 AAC encoder


SYNOPSIS
     faac [options] [-o outfile] infiles ...

     <infiles> and/or <outfile> can be "-", which means stdin/stdout.


DESCRIPTION
     FAAC  is an open source MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 AAC encoder, it is licensed under
     the LGPL license.	Note that the quality of FAAC is not up to par with  the
     currently best AAC encoders available.


FEATURES
     * Portable

     * Fast

     * AAC-LC and HE-AAC v1 (SBR) support


HELP OPTIONS
     -h	    Short help on using FAAC

     -H	    Description of all options for FAAC

     --license
	    License terms for FAAC.

     --help-qual
	    Quality-related options

     --help-io
	    Input/output options

     --help-mp4
	    MP4 specific options Quality-related options

     --help-advanced
	    Advanced options, only for testing purposes


QUALITY-RELATED OPTIONS
     --object-type <type>
	    Force  the AAC object type: lc (Low Complexity), he-aac-v1 (High-Ef-
	    ficiency AAC v1, i.e. AAC-LC plus  Spectral	 Band  Replication),  or
	    auto  (default),  which selects LC or HE-AAC v1 from the bitrate and
	    sample rate.  HE-AAC v1 targets low bitrates; its core is  coded  at
	    half  the input sample rate and reconstructed to full rate by SBR in
	    the decoder.

     --joint <mode>
	    Joint  stereo  coding  mode:  0  (off,  independent	 left/right),  1
	    (Mid/Side), 2 (Intensity Stereo), or 3 (Mixed Mode, dynamic per-band
	    Mid/Side and Intensity Stereo). Default is 3.

     --pns <level>
	    Perceptual Noise Substitution level, 0 to 10; 0 disables PNS.

     -q <quality>
	    Set	 encoding  quality.  Set  default variable bitrate (VBR) quality
	    level in percent.  max. 5000, min. 10.  default:  100,  averages  at
	    approx.  120 kbps VBR for a normal stereo input file with 16 bit and
	    44.1 kHz sample rate

     -b <bitrate>
	    Set average bitrate (ABR) to  approximately	 <bitrate>  kbps.   max.
	    ~500 (stereo)

     -c <freq>
	    Set	 the bandwidth in Hz.  The actual frequency is adjusted to maxi-
	    mize upper spectral band usage.

INPUT/OUTPUT OPTIONS
     -o <filename>
	    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).

     -	    Use stdin/stdout.  If you simply use a hyphen/minus sign instead  of
	    a  filename, FAAC can encode directly from stdin, thus enabling pip-
	    ing 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.

     -v <vebose>
	    Verbosity level (-v0 is  quiet mode)

     -r	    Use RAW AAC output file.  Generate raw AAC bitstream  (i.e.	 without
	    any	 headers).   Not  advised!!!, RAW AAC files are practically use-
	    less!!!

     -P	    Raw PCM input mode (default 44100Hz 16bit stereo).	 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 de-
	    fault values for -R, -B and -C in the input file).

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

     -B <samplebits>
	    Raw PCM input sample size (8, 16 (default), 24 or 32bits).	Raw  PCM
	    input sample size (default: 16, also possible 8, 24, 32 bit fixed or
	    float input).

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

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

     -I <C[,LFE]>
	    Input channel config, default is 3,4 (Center third, LF fourth) 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).

     --ignorelength
	    Ignore wav length from header (useful with files over 4 GB)

     --overwrite
	    Overwrite existing output file

MP4 SPECIFIC OPTIONS
     -w	    Wrap AAC data in MP4 container. (default for *.mp4, *.m4a and *.m4b)

     --tag <tagname,tagvalue>
	    Add named tag (iTunes '----')

     --artist <name>
	    Set artist name

     --composer <name>
	    Set composer name

     --title <name>
	    Set title/track name

     --genre <number>
	    Set genre number

     --album <name>
	    Set album/performer

     --compilation
	    Mark as compilation

     --track <number/total>
	    Set track number

     --disc <number/total>
	    Set disc number

     --year <number>
	    Set year

     --cover-art <filename>
	    Read cover art from file X Supported image formats	are  GIF,  JPEG,
	    and PNG.

     --comment <string>
	    Set comment

ADVANCED OPTIONS, ONLY FOR TESTING PURPOSES
     --tns  Enable coding of TNS, temporal noise shaping.

     --no-tns
	    Disable coding of TNS, temporal noise shaping.

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

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

AUTHORS
     FAAC was written by M. Bakker.

     Developed and maintained by Krzysztof Nikiel <knik@users.sourceforge.net>.

     This manpage was written by Fabian Greffrath <fabian@debian-unofficial.org>
     for the Debian Unofficial project (but may be used by others, of course).

1.50.0				   2026-06-25				 FAAC(1)