How to decode AAC (.m4a) audio files into WAV?

Question

How would you convert (decode) AAC files into WAV format? (Or, if you prefer, how to decode & re-encode them into MP3 or Ogg Vorbis? But WAV is sufficient as I already have good tools for WAV ➔ MP3/Ogg conversion.)

I'm mostly interested in Mac or Linux solutions, but feel free to mention Windows ones too.

(Use case: I have some voice memos ("Apple lossless audio file"), recorded with iPhone, that I'd like to share in a format that's more common than AAC.)

score 79 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 19 '17 at 23:32

On Ubuntu, I use avconv on the command line:

avconv -i input.m4a output.wav

You can also use FFmpeg with the same syntax, simply replacing avconv with ffmpeg.

This can do every M4A in a directory, combined with a for loop:

Linux:

for f in *.m4a; do avconv -i "$f" "${f/%m4a/wav}"; done

Windows (directly in the command prompt):

FOR %G IN (*.m4a) DO avconv -i "%G" "%~nG.wav"

Windows (in a batch file):

FOR %%G IN (*.m4a) DO avconv -i "%%G" "%%~nG.wav"

If you want a GUI, you may consider WinFF, which is a GUI for FFmpeg.

icyerasor · Answer 2 · 2020-04-03T14:51:14.640

30

ffmpeg -i inputFilename.m4a OutputFilename.wav

check out further ffmpeg commands to convert directly to a desired format (mp3 / ogg / aac, ..)

edited Apr 03 '20 at 14:51

answered Jul 27 '19 at 00:00

icyerasor

688

score 20 · Answer 3 · answered May 16 '13 at 14:26

20

To decode from AAC to WAV, you can use FAAD2, which is a command-line utility.

faad -o output.wav input.aac

answered May 16 '13 at 14:26

Strom

301

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 18 '09 at 00:20

The easiest way to do this is probably with iTunes. In your preferences, go to Import Settings and choose "Import Using" to WAV encoder. Then you can right-click on any AAC song and choose "Create WAV version." You should be able to select a bunch of files at once and do this to them in bulk.

Nota bene: Don't forget to switch your import settings back to AAC when you're done, presuming you still want to be using it.

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered May 25 '11 at 08:29

2

In Ubuntu, I used SoundConverter (just search for it in Ubuntu Software Center).

answered May 25 '11 at 08:29

SinkovecJ

21
1

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 18 '09 at 00:22

1

MediaMonkey should get the job done of converting the audio formats. ACC to WAV, OGG or MP3.

answered Aug 18 '09 at 00:22

Electrons_Ahoy

2,611

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 07 '21 at 07:10

They seemed to have removed the option in Music (previously iTunes; Mac OS X Big Sur) to right-click and convert an AAC file to WAV.

I remembered I had VLC installed, however, and was able to convert a M4A to WAV (or MP3) in VLC as follows:

File -> Convert / Stream
Drop your AAC (M4A) media file (or click Open media... to browse)
Select from the Choose Profile dropdown list.
- In my case, I didn't see one for WAV, but you can specify Custom and if you click the Customize button, you'll see options for WAV under the Encapsulation and Audio codec tabs, where you can also set bitrate, samplerate, etc. if you want.
Once finished, click Apply and, click Save as File to specify the output destination, and then finally Save to export.

score 0 · Answer 8 · edited Nov 02 '14 at 19:47

0

If you are running Windows, try WinFF.

It can convert from/to MP3, MP3 (mono), MP4 (FS/WS), OGG, WAV, AAC, and many others.

edited Nov 02 '14 at 19:47

slhck

235,242

answered Nov 02 '14 at 04:10

zulc22

115

How to decode AAC (.m4a) audio files into WAV?

8 Answers8