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

BatchEncoder ~ Audio Conversion GUI


BatchEncoder is audio file conversion software. It supports most of popular audio file formats including both lossy and lossless compression. The program is very simple to use. BatchEncoder is basically a GUI front-end for command-line tools. All it does is create background processes and pass arguments to it with options set in the presets / format menu and additionally adds input and output file paths.

Features:

  • Open-source, fast and simple.
  • Front-end for command-line tools.
  • Supports popular audio formats.
  • File transcoding between audio formats.
  • Multi-threaded conversion.
  • Full UNICODE support.
  • Multi-language user interface.
  • Out of the box configuration for new users.
  • Advanced options for experienced users.
BatchEncoder

wieslawsoltes.github.io/BatchEncoder
github.com/wieslawsoltes/BatchEncoder
hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,50822.0

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

References:

www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9639.html#table13