Logic Pro X ($199) is a bit rich for my pocket just for that functionality.
Why not save a wav (as an archival copy) and convert it into the desired output format? That's how I do all audio anyway.
Audacity will do it too. But you need to install lame. And you're using a strange combo, so you might need to make your own preset for export.
Another solution is Sox. It's a command line tool:
SoX - Sound eXchange | HomePage
xACT is an applescript frontend to Sox. It uses a lot of open source projects and gives them a friendly gui.
xACT is a GUI based front end for the unix applications Shorten, shntool, Monkey's Audio Compressor, flac, wavpack, TTA, Opus, and cdda2wav. It also uses SoX, LAME, AtomicParsley, TagLib and MP4v2. It executes the basic commands of these applications and adds other features to speed up productivity in creation/use of etree.org standard filesets.
http://xact.scottcbrown.org/
If xACT/Sox can't convert a file from/to what you need, you might as well give up
I did some testing between MP3 & AAC (M4A) and AAC was clearly better for me even when comparing a 320kbps MP3 against a 192kbps AAC. I know some people will say, just accept files at 192kbps but I would rather 320kb. Basically get the best quality I can from a well supported format short of going full lossless.
I don't understand that point. I've been producing AAC files but they are 192 instead of 320. That's not lossless.
wikipedia...
You're right of course, AAC isn't lossless. I get confused and confuse AAC with ALAC (Apple lossless) all the time.
I think AAC tops out at 192 kbs for stereo. 320 for mp3's is a bit useless, you might as well use uncompressed because the compression ratio is 2:1 at best.
I do have pro tools. I didn't believe there was a way to record your computer with PT but I now read that with soundflower that it can be done. I guess I could record and save as a WAV then export to a conversion tool. I would much rather be able to record and save the AAC in one software package.
Soundflower is old. The latest release can't be googled easily and it's a beta. Rogue Amoeba has produced audio hijack, which works well with the latest Macos, but it isn't free.
Other solutions exist, like jack. But again, jack isn't really stable on the latest Macos and it's a bit of a pita to set up. Besides, if you're recording Skype, most solutions will fail one day. And if you're recording Youtube, you might as well download it in stead. It's faster and very reliable, compared to recording.
It gets a bit confusing that the file is AAC but it uses a M4A extension that can be used by other file formats. All I know is I get a M4A extension.
M4A is a container. Like .avi, or .mkv. It can contain lots of different audio/video, encoded with lots of different codecs.
I don't understand that. Why can't it be increased to 320?
Like I wrote above, I think it tops out at 192 kbps for stereo. For 5.1 audio, it supports 320.
oh, BTW
AIFF = WAV (uncompressed). Only, the bit order
was reversed. Today, every application should be able to read and write AIFF out of the box.
), for personal sharing. Everyone's listening on Bluetooth earbuds these days, so what's the point of trying harder or clogging up the airwaves with bits nobody is going to even try to hear? My entire iTunes library is 320kbps, and even dialed down to 192 for my ancient iPod Mini I use at the gym (and motorcycle for a few years) - hardly critical listening going on there.