xACT ~ Mac / WIndows Audio GUI


A Mac OSX GUI frontend for open source audio codecs. There is an older Windows version available as well.

xact_main

http://xact.scottcbrown.org

TooLAME ~ MP2 Audio Encoder


TooLAME is a free software MPEG-1 Layer II (MP2) audio encoder written primarily by Mike Cheng. While there are many MP2 encoders, TooLAME is well-known and widely used for its particularly high audio quality. It has been unmaintained since 2003, but is directly succeeded by the TwoLAME code fork (the latest version, TwoLAME 0.3.13, was released January 21, 2011). The name TooLAME is a play on LAME and Layer II.

www.twolame.org
sourceforge.net/projects/toolame
github.com/njh/twolame
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TooLAME
www.rarewares.org/mp3-others.php#twolame

FAAC ~ Freeware AAC Encoder


FAAC is an Advanced Audio Coder (MPEG2-AAC, MPEG4-AAC). The goal of FAAC is to explore the possibilities of AAC and exceed the quality of the currently best MP3 encoders.

Features:

  • High quality audio
  • High-speed encoding
  • Portable
  • LC, Main, LTP support
  • DRM support through DreaM

FAAC

faac.sourceforge.net
sourceforge.net/projects/faac
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAAC

WavPack ~ Hybrid Lossless Audio Compression


WavPack is a completely open audio compression format providing lossless, high-quality lossy, and a unique hybrid compression mode. For version 5.0.0, several new file formats and lossless DSD audio compression were added, making WavPack a universal audio archiving solution.

In the default lossless mode WavPack acts just like a WinZip compressor for audio files. However, unlike MP3 or WMA encoding which can affect the sound quality, not a single bit of the original information is lost, so there’s no chance of degradation. This makes lossless mode ideal for archiving audio material or any other situation where quality is paramount. The compression ratio depends on the source material, but generally is between 30% and 70%.

The hybrid mode provides all the advantages of lossless compression with an additional bonus. Instead of creating a single file, this mode creates both a relatively small, high-quality lossy file that can be used all by itself, and a “correction” file that (when combined with the lossy file) provides full lossless restoration. For some users this means never having to choose between lossless and lossy compression!

WavPack employs only well known, public domain techniques (i.e., linear prediction with LMS adaptation, Elias and Golomb codes) in its implementation. Methods and algorithms that have ever been patented (e.g., arithmetic coding, LZW compression) are specifically avoided. This ensures that WavPack encoders and decoders will remain open and royalty-free.

www.wavpack.com
github.com/dbry/WavPack
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WavPack

Opus ~ Interactive Audio Codec


Opus is a lossy audio coding format developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation and standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force, designed to efficiently code speech and general audio in a single format, while remaining low-latency enough for real-time interactive communication and low-complexity enough for low-end embedded processors. Opus replaces both Vorbis and Speex for new applications, and several blind listening tests have ranked it higher-quality than any other standard audio format at any given bitrate until transparency is reached, including MP3, AAC and HE-AAC.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_(audio_format)

opus-codec.org
opus-codec.org/downloads
github.com/xiph/opus/releases

Opus Tools ~ hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,124025
Opus Gapless ~ hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=116605.msg984924#msg984924

Opusrug ~ Based on opus 1.3.1-64 Good Opus encoder for Windows.(command line, you can use it with a GUI like Foobar2000 copying it in the encoders folder). You can also compile it for Linux, with the modified celtencoder.c.

github.com/fabiorug/Opusrug

ALAC ~ Apple Lossless Audio Codec


The Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) is an audio codec developed by Apple and supported on iPhone, iPad, most iPods, Mac and iTunes. ALAC is a data compression method which reduces the size of audio files with no loss of information. A decoded ALAC stream is bit-for-bit identical to the original uncompressed audio file.

The Apple Lossless Audio Codec project contains the sources for the ALAC encoder and decoder. Also included is an example command line utility, called alacconvert, to read and write audio data to/from Core Audio Format (CAF) and WAVE files. A description of a ‘magic cookie’ for use with files based on the ISO base media file format (e.g. MP4 and M4A) is included as well.

macosforge.github.io/alac
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lossless

This package contains ALAC code used in foobar2000 / foobar2000 Mobile; derived from Apple’s public ALAC code release.

perkele.cc/software/ALAC

Ogg Vorbis ~ Free & Open Audio CODEC


Vorbis is a free and open-source software project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The project produces an audio coding format and software reference encoder/decoder (codec) for lossy audio compression. Vorbis is most commonly used in conjunction with the Ogg container format and it is therefore often referred to as Ogg Vorbis. ~ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorbis

Ogg Vorbis is a completely open, patent-free, professional audio encoding and streaming technology with all the benefits of Open Source.

www.vorbis.com
www.xiph.org/downloads
github.com/enzo1982/vorbis-aotuv-lancer
www.rarewares.org/ogg
www.rarewares.org/ogg-tools
nouturn.com/oggdrop
Ogg Forums At Hydrogen Audio

VorbisGain is a utility that uses a psychoacoustic method to correct the volume of an Ogg Vorbis file to a predefined standardized loudness.

www.sjeng.org/vorbisgain.html

RareWares ~ Freeware Audio Archive


Providing hard-to-find pieces of software since 2001

Repository of open audio CODECs, compiled LAME binaries and freeware utilities.

http://rarewares.org

LAME ~ Free & Open mp3 Encoder


LAME is used to encode / compress audio data into the lossy MP3 file format. It’s a high quality MPEG Audio Layer III (MP3) encoder, licensed under the LGPL.

LAME Downloads ~ Rarewares
LAME Recommended Settings – HA Wiki
LAME Libraries – RareWares
LAME Source Code ~ Sourceforge
lame3995o ~ A fork of LAME (alternative version)
LameVST ~ LAME compression as a VST effect
Wikipedia ~ LAME info
WinLAME ~ Windows front-end (GUI)
wxlame ~ Windows front-end (GUI)
lame-ios ~ LAME For IOS

www.esm.rochester.edu/ears/docs/lame/switchs
svn.code.sf.net/p/lame/svn/trunk/lame/USAGE

FLAC ~ Free Lossless Audio CODEC


FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec, an audio format similar to MP3, but lossless, meaning that audio is compressed in FLAC without any loss in quality. This is similar to how Zip works, except with FLAC you will get much better compression because it is designed specifically for audio, and you can play back compressed FLAC files in your favorite player (or your car or home stereo) just like you would a MP3 file.

FLAC stands out as the fastest and most widely supported lossless audio codec, and the only one that at once is non-proprietary, is unencumbered by patents, has an open-source reference implementation, has a well documented format and API and has several other independent implementations.

xiph.org/flac
xiph.org/flac/comparison
xiph.org/flac/documentation
xiph.org/flac/download
xiph.org/flac/faq
sourceforge.net/projects/flac
github.com/xiph/flac
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLAC

Additional resources:

sourceforge.net/projects/flacfrontend
FLAC Development Forum @ Hydrogen Audio

FLAC Test Bench:

wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=FLAC_decoder_testbench

Encoders:

FLACCL ~ cue.tools/wiki/FLACCL