Audio FFmpeg Formats

Audio formats and codecs take much less resources and space than video ones, so they are often used without compression for maximum quality. However these are compressed formats and codecs widely used in streaming and sharing.

High Quality

FLAC: Open; used for storing music. It has lossless compression.
preset: flac
PCM: Raw format that encodes the signal with modified pulse modulation (pcm). FFmpeg does not support pcm audio if you use mp4 as a container.
Presets: s8, s16, s24, s32
WAV: Raw format created by Microsoft. 32-bit addressing leading to the 4 GB recording limit. It is a widely used standard.
Presets: s24le, s32le
W64: Wave format created by Sony to override the 4GB recording limit. Poorly supported.
Presets: s16le, s24le, s32le
MKA: Open, highly configurable and documented. It belongs to the Matroska family. Uncompressed pcm type.
Presets: s16le, s24le, s32le
ALAC: Apple's codec, free to use but not open source. It is lossless and of high quality but is slower than other similar codecs.
Presets: m4a, mkv, qt

General Purpose

MP3: Belongs to the MPEG family. The most widely used in streaming and sharing.
preset: mp3
OGG: Open, highly configurable and documented. It belongs to the Matroska family. Flac has lossless compression; opus is compressed but modern and of good quality, superior to mp3. Vorbis is compressed and dated, but lightweight and compatible.
Presets: flac, opus, vorbis
PRO: Created by Apple; compressed audio codec, competing with mp3.
Presets: aac256k

The CINELERRA-GG Community, 2021
https://www.cinelerra-gg.org