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Command Line Options
Anim Mouse edited this page Aug 23, 2020
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qaac 2.69
Usage: qaac [options] infiles....
"-" as infile means stdin.
On ADTS/WAV output mode, "-" as outfile means stdout.
Main options:
--formats Show available AAC formats and exit
-a, --abr AAC ABR mode / bitrate
-V, --tvbr AAC True VBR mode / quality [0-127]
-v, --cvbr AAC Constrained VBR mode / bitrate
-c, --cbr AAC CBR mode / bitrate
For -a, -v, -c, "0" as bitrate means "highest".
Highest bitrate available is automatically chosen.
For LC, default is -V90
For HE, default is -v0
--he HE AAC mode (TVBR is not available)
-q, --quality AAC encoding Quality [0-2]
--adts ADTS output (AAC only)
--no-smart-padding Don't apply smart padding for gapless playback.
By default, beginning and ending of input is
extrapolated to achieve smooth transition between
songs. This option also works as a workaround for
bug of CoreAudio HE-AAC encoder that stops encoding
1 frame too early.
Setting this option can lead to gapless playback
issue especially on HE-AAC.
However, resulting bitstream will be identical with
iTunes only when this option is set.
-d Output directory. Default is current working dir.
--check Show library versions and exit.
-A, --alac ALAC encoding mode
-D, --decode Decode to a WAV file.
--caf Output to CAF file instead of M4A/WAV/AAC.
--play Decode to a WaveOut device (playback).
-r, --rate
keep: output sampling rate will be same as input
if possible.
auto: output sampling rate will be automatically
chosen by encoder.
n: desired output sampling rate in Hz.
--lowpass Specify lowpass filter cut-off frequency in Hz.
Use this when you want lower cut-off than
Apple default.
-b, --bits-per-sample
Bits per sample of output (for WAV/ALAC only)
--no-dither Turn off dither when quantizing to lower bit depth.
--peak Scan + print peak (don't generate output file).
Cannot be used with encoding mode or -D.
When DSP options are set, peak is computed
after all DSP filters have been applied.
--gain Adjust gain by f dB.
Use negative value to decrese gain, when you want to
avoid clipping introduced by DSP.
-N, --normalize Normalize (works in two pass. can generate HUGE
tempfile for large piped input)
--drc
Dynamic range compression.
Loud parts over threshold are attenuated by ratio.
thresh: threshold (in dBFS, < 0.0)
ratio: compression ratio (> 1.0)
knee: knee width (in dB, >= 0.0)
attack: attack time (in millis, >= 0.0)
release: release time (in millis, >= 0.0)
--limiter Apply smart limiter that softly clips portions
where peak exceeds (near) 0dBFS
--start <[[hh:]mm:]ss[.ss..]|s|f>
Specify start point of the input.
You specify either in seconds(hh:mm:ss.sss..form) or
number of samples followed by 's' or
cuesheet frames(mm:ss:ff form) followed by 'f'.
When negative value is given, instead of trimming,
specified amount of silence is prepended.
Example:
--start 4010160s : start at 4010160 samples
--start 1:30:70f : same as above, in cuepoint
--start 1:30.93333 : same as above
--end <[[hh:]mm:]ss[.ss..]|s|f>
Specify end point of the input (exclusive).
--delay <[[hh:]mm:]ss[.ss..]|s|f>
Same as --start, with the sign reversed.
Positive value will prepend silence.
(This option exists due to historical reason)
--no-delay Compensate encoder delay by prepending 960 samples
of scilence, then trimming 3 AAC frames from
the beginning (and also tweak iTunSMPB).
This option is mainly intended for resolving
A/V sync issue of video.
--num-priming (Experimental). Set arbitrary number of priming
samples in range from 0 to 2112 (default 2112).
Applicable only for AAC LC.
--num-priming=0 is the same as --no-delay.
Doesn't work with --no-smart-padding.
--gapless-mode Encoder delay signaling for gapless playback.
0: iTunSMPB (default)
1: ISO standard (elst + sbgp + sgpd)
2: Both
--matrix-preset Specify user defined preset for matrix mixer.
--matrix-file Matrix file for remix.
--no-matrix-normalize Don't automatically normalize(scale) matrix
coefficients for the matrix mixer.
--chanmap Rearrange input channels to the specified order.
Example:
--chanmap 2,1 -> swap L and R.
--chanmap 2,3,1 -> C+L+R -> L+R+C.
--chanmask Force input channel mask(bitmap).
Either decimal or hex number with 0x prefix
can be used.
When 0 is given, qaac works as if no channel mask is
present in the source and picks default layout.
--no-optimize Don't optimize MP4 container after encoding.
--tmpdir Specify temporary directory. Default is %TMP%
-s, --silent Suppress console messages.
--verbose More verbose console messages.
-i, --ignorelength Assume WAV input and ignore the data chunk length.
--threading Enable multi-threading.
-n, --nice Give lower process priority.
--sort-args Sort filenames given by command line arguments.
--text-codepage Specify text code page of cuesheet/chapter/lyrics.
Example: 1252 for Latin-1, 65001 for UTF-8.
Use this when bogus values are written into tags
due to automatic encoding detection failure.
-S, --stat Save bitrate statistics into file.
--log Output message to file.
Option for output filename generation:
--fname-from-tag Generate filename based on metadata of input.
By default, output filename will be the same as input
(only different by the file extension).
Name generation can be tweaked by --fname-format.
--fname-format Format string for output filename.
Option for single output:
-o Specify output filename
--concat Encodes whole inputs into a single file.
Requires output filename (with -o)
Option for cuesheet input only:
--cue-tracks
Limit extraction to specified tracks.
Tracks can be specified with comma separated numbers.
Hyphen can be used to denote range of numbers.
Tracks non-existent in the cue are just ignored.
Numbers must be in the range 0-99.
Example:
--cue-tracks 1-3,6-9,11
-> equivalent to --cue-tracks 1,2,3,6,7,8,9,11
--cue-tracks 2-99
-> can be used to skip first track (and HTOA)
Options for Raw PCM input only:
-R, --raw Raw PCM input.
--raw-channels Number of channels, default 2.
--raw-rate Sample rate, default 44100.
--raw-format Sample format, default S16L.
Sample format spec:
1st char: S(igned) | U(nsigned) | F(loat)
2nd part: Bitwidth
Last part: L(ittle Endian) | B(ig Endian)
Last part can be omitted, L is assumed by default.
Cases are ignored. u16b is OK.
Options for CoreAudio sample rate converter:
--native-resampler[=line|norm|bats,n]
Arguments followed by '=' are optional.
First argument before comma is complexity from
one of the following:
line: linear (worst, don't use this)
norm: normal
bats: mastering (best, default)
Second argument after comma is integer quality
between 0-127 (default 0).
Example:
--native-resampler
--native-resampler=norm,96
Tagging options:
(same value is set to all files, so use with care for multiple files)
--title
--artist
--band This means "Album Artist".
--album
--grouping
--composer
--comment
--genre
--date
--track
--disk
--compilation[=0|1]
By default, iTunes compilation flag is not set.
--compilation or --compilation=1 sets flag on.
--compilation=0 is same as default.
--lyrics
--artwork
--artwork-size Specify maximum width or height of artwork in pixels.
If specified artwork (with --artwork) is larger than
this, artwork is automatically resized.
--copy-artwork Copy front cover art(APIC:type 3) from the source.
When --artwork is also given, this option is ignored.
--chapter
Set chapter from file.
--tag :
Set iTunes pre-defined tag with fourcc key
and value.
1) When key starts with U+00A9 (copyright sign),
you can use 3 chars starting from the second char
instead.
2) Some known tags having type other than UTF-8 string
are taken care of. Others are just stored as UTF-8
string.
--tag-from-file :
Same as above, but value is read from file.
--long-tag :
Set long tag (iTunes custom metadata) with
arbitrary key/value pair. Value is always stored as
UTF8 string.