These procedures have appeared in various posts and various pieces elsewhere on the forum, but as there have been some recent changes affecting them I thought it best to compile everything into one source.
The qaac encoder uses the original Apple iTunes library files to produce AAC and ALAC(Apple Lossless) files. However, many people (including myself) don't want to have to install the entire iTunes application on their PC just to have that capability. This post describes a way to use qaac64 2.71 within MusicBee WITHOUT needing iTunes actually installed on your system. Only the 64-bit versions of the relevant files are being addressed, requiring of course a 64-bit OS by the user. While MusicBee is 32-bit, it will work just fine using the instructions below.
A. Acquiring the tools
First you will need to download 3 files:
1. qaac_2.71.zip
https://sites.google.com/site/qaacpage/cabinet/qaac_2.71.zip?attredirects=0&d=1 (https://sites.google.com/site/qaacpage/cabinet/qaac_2.71.zip?attredirects=0&d=1) (see following post)
2. Makeportable2.zip
https://sites.google.com/site/qaacpage/cabinet/makeportable2.zip?attredirects=0&d=1 (https://sites.google.com/site/qaacpage/cabinet/makeportable2.zip?attredirects=0&d=1) (see following post)
3. The latest non-Microsoft Store version of the iTunes64Setup.exe file (do NOT install it!!)
https://www.apple.com/itunes/download/win64 (https://www.apple.com/itunes/download/win64)
(Note: due to changes in how Apple packages its libraries only versions of iTunes64 equal to or greater than 12.10.9.3 can be used with the latest version of qaac64 (2.71), which was modified by its developer to work with those changes. Version 12.11.0.26 dated November 12, 2020, was used by me in these instructions.)
B. Preparing the tools for use
Then:
1. From makeportable2.zip, extract "makeportable2.cmd" to the same folder as the iTunes64Setup.exe file you downloaded.
**EDIT**: makeportable2.cmd assumes that you already have 7-Zip (www.7-zip.org (http://www.7-zip.org)) installed on your PC, which it uses during the iTunes setup file's extraction process. If you would rather not install 7-zip, you can put the files 7z.exe and 7z.dll from the portable version into the same folder as makeportable2.cmd and iTunes64Setup.exe before doing the next step; they can be deleted afterwards.
2. Double-click makeportable2.cmd and let it run; a command window will open and you'll see text scroll by, stopping momentarily with the message "All is OK!"--do NOT close the window, it will pause at this for about 10 seconds, then continue to run until completion, when the window will close on its own.
3. You will then see that a folder named "QTfiles64" has been created inside the folder in which you ran step #2; this contains all the files needed by qaac64 from iTunes64 to run portablely.
4. Move the folder itself "QTfiles64" you just created into the MusicBee "Codec" folder.
5. Next, open qaac_2.71.zip from where you downloaded it, and from inside the zip's "x64" subfolder extract the files qaac64.exe, libsoxr64.dll, and libsoxconvolver64.dll directly into your MusicBee "Codec" folder. You do NOT need to extract the "refalac64.exe" file.
6. You can now delete the three files you downloaded originally.
C. Setting up MusicBee's encoding options for AAC and ALAC with qaac64
1. In MusicBee, go to Preferences->File Converters
2. Check the box "AAC enabled," and in encoder location hit the "..." button and browse to qaac64.exe in the MusicBee "Codec" folder.
3. Under "encoding parameters", delete anything already in the 4 boxes below.
4. For our AAC example, we will choose parameters that give results identical to what iTunes Plus uses, which is AAC CVBR at 256k variable birate. In the box labelled "high quality" put the following parameters:
--ignorelength --no-smart-padding -v 256 -q 2 -o [outputfile] -
5. Leave the 3 other boxes for other qualities empty for now (see end of section D below).
6. Move down the list and check "ALAC enabled," and in encoder location hit the "..." button and browse to qaac64.exe in the MusicBee "Codec" folder.
7. Un-check the box "reduce file size using lossyWAV" and delete any pre-existing content in the 2 encoding parameter boxes.
8. In both the "max" and "std." compression boxes put the following parameters:
--alac --ignorelength -o [outputfile] -
Finally, hit the "Save" button in the lower corner. We are ready to ROCK..
D. Converting files to AAC or ALAC in MusicBee with qaac64.exe
Right-click the file you wish to convert from your track list and choose "Send to->Format Converter." In the Converter window drop the "encode as" arrow and choose AAC, and in "encoding profile" choose High Quality (this was the box in the converter settings we put the options for an iTunes Plus-style encode of CVBR 256k). Select your output location, and the other options below as you want them to be. Finally, hit "Proceed;" the file will then be created.
For Apple Lossless (ALAC), change to "encode as ALAC" and choose either profile (we put the same options in both). Set your other options and Proceed.
Now you can go back to the File Converters settings in Preferences and complete the 3 other profile parameters for AAC if you want to add different encoding options for qaac64. Your choices of options is documented at the developer's site here: https://github.com/nu774/qaac/wiki/Encoder-configuration
Addendum: if you already had a 64-bit version of iTunes fully installed on your PC, and it is equal to or greater than version 12.10.9.3, you only need to do steps A-1, B-5, and of course C and D to use qaac64 2.71.
I'm glad it worked for you. The reason the files are wrapped as M4A is because there is no standard tagging format for raw AAC, whereas as M4A takes a standard range of MP4 tags that most players deal with easily. You CAN "force-fit" tags like ID3 onto raw AAC, but there is no guarantee they will play properly afterwards.
I would first check to see if your portable player is just looking for an AAC file extension vs. raw ADTS AAC. Try just changing the extension of an M4A to AAC and see if it will play.
If you really do want raw AAC, you can un-wrap the M4A's you created with this command line run in the appropriate folder; it will extract raw AAC from every M4A file inside of that folder, keeping the original M4A. The operation is lossless. Change the path to ffmpeg.exe to match yours:
FOR %F IN (*.m4a) DO C:\ffmpeg\ffmpeg.exe -i "%F" -c:a copy "%~nF.aac"
However, the converted files have the M4A extension instead of AAC.
Is there a setting that makes the encoder generate AAC files instead of M4A?
In the spirit of completeness, I have to add that this will do what you requested:
1. Go into Prefs/File Converters/encoding in the AAC section and in the parameter line choices add the option "--adts", like:
--ignorelength --no-smart-padding --adts -v 256 -q 2 -o [outputfile] -
2. In the MusicBee directory, find Configuration.xml and change the line "<Codec Code="2" Name="AAC" DefaultFileExtension=".m4a">" to "<Codec Code="2" Name="AAC" DefaultFileExtension=".aac">
3. Now ALL files you encode using the AAC profile will end up as raw ADTS AAC files with the *.aac extension. Remember that means no tags.
If you decide later you want to wrap them as .m4a so they can be tagged, this command line in the appropriate directory will do that (change path of ffmpeg.exe to match yours):
FOR %F IN (*.aac) DO C:\ffmpeg\ffmpeg.exe -i "%F" -codec copy "%~nF.m4a"
qaac64.exe --alac --ignorelength -o atom.alac Mother.flac
According to the documentation:
-i, --ignorelength Assume WAV input and ignore the data chunk length.
So you shouldn't be using that parameter if you're using a FLAC file as the input.
(This would be used when reading from a stream where the length of the input data isn't known before the encoding begins)
The online examples also have the output file last.
Try:
qaac64.exe --alac Mother.flac -o atom.alac
-- EDIT --
Replied before I saw you got it working in your most recent post.
The above would be for command-line conversions only - the parameters you need to make it work in MusicBee may be different.