MPEG-4 Audio lossless format (MPEG-4 ALS) available now

[Kurtnoise]

Here we go...

MPEG-4 ALS defines efficient and fast lossless audio compression techniques for both professional and consumer applications. It offers many features not included in other lossless compression schemes.

* General support for virtually any uncompressed digital audio format (including wav, aiff, au, bwf, raw).
* Support for PCM resolutions of up to 32-bit at arbitrary sampling rate (including 16/44.1, 16/48, 24/48, 24/96, 24/192).
* Multi-channel / multi-track support for up to 65536 channels (including 5.1 surround).
* Support for 32-bit IEEE floating point audio data.
* Fast random access to any part of the encoded data.
* Optional storage in MP4 file format (allows multiplex with video).
* High flexibility of codec parameters for various applications.

Besides these outstanding features, a global MPEG standard for lossless audio coding will facilitate interoperability between different hardware and software platforms, and will thus promote long-lasting multivendor support.

cmdl tool :: ALS reference software (http://www.nue.tu-berlin.de/forschung/projekte/lossless/mpeg4als.zip)

http://www.nue.tu-berlin.de/forschung/projekte/lossless/mp4als.html

[guada 2]

Merry christams, :)

Kurtnoise13,
Lossless coding seems to have a beautiful future. Great...

But i have a question:
Could you tell me the difference between these lossless coding?
SSC, DST, ALS and SLS?

Bye.

[Kurtnoise]

Could you tell me the difference between these lossless coding?
SSC, DST, ALS and SLS?
Sorry, I don't know...

[dimzon]

will be added to BeHappy very soon :)

[ariga]

What do you use to playback the als file ? :confused:

[LoRd_MuldeR]

This CMD Tool seems to be REALLY slow. Is there a faster implementation aviable?

[Kurtnoise]

Not for the moment...As noticed in the ReadMe :
The ALS reference software is not optimized, particularly not in terms of encoder speed.
So, if you want to improve the speed encoding, just code it. ;) Keep in mind also that this is a reference encoder.

[bond]

am i right that this is not the aac based lossless codec in mpeg-4?

mooo, .mp4 support! ;)

[SeeMoreDigital]

Anyone generated any samples!

And as ariga mentioned.... How do you play them?

EDIT: If this lossless implementation has nothing in common with Apples Lossless format in MP4, I can probably get it implemented to play in hardware using the Zensonic Z500


Cheers

[Kurtnoise]

am i right that this is not the aac based lossless codec in mpeg-4?
right it's based on lpac lossless format.

mooo, .mp4 support! ;)
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1393027&group_id=84101&atid=571741
;)

And as ariga mentioned.... How do you play them?
There are no players for the moment. Only encoding/decoding tasks.

[tedgo]

Great news!
I'd long awaited the MPEG4-ALS-Encoder.
A very good compression ratio is attested for the new encoder in first tests on hydrogenaudio. And it is just based on the reference code...
So there will be many improvements in the near future, especially for speed.
Now i have to wait for a directshow-filter and/or a foobar-plugin.

@guada2
I've never heard about MPEG4-SSC and MPEG4-DST, but ALS is the lossless coding based on LPAC (maybe a rumour?), SLS will be a "semi-lossless-coding" like wavpack's hybrid mode or optimfrog's dualstream (DS) and its said that it will be rest upon aac.

[dimzon]

and/or a foobar-plugin.
Unfortunally current implementation has buggy stdin support - it work's fine from command line but wont work from Foobar2000 and BeHappy...

[tedgo]

@dimzon
Guruboolez posted on hydrogenaudio:

with foobar2000 (encoding only at the moment):
• extension: als
• parameters: -v %s %d

Have you tried it?

[dimzon]

@dimzon
Guruboolez posted on hydrogenaudio:

with foobar2000 (encoding only at the moment):
• extension: als
• parameters: -v %s %d

Have you tried it?

this is not optimal solution. %s means foobar will decode source audio to plain WAV and save it to HDD and will run encoder with this wav file...

[tedgo]

Yes, you're right. But its the first take of the encoder.
Be patient ;)

[guada 2]

" I've never heard about MPEG4-SSC and MPEG4-DST, but ALS is the lossless coding based on LPAC (maybe a rumour?), SLS will be a "semi-lossless-coding" like wavpack's hybrid mode or optimfrog's dualstream (DS) and its said that it will be rest upon aac." (tedgo)


@tedgo
I never spoke about MPEG4-SSC and MPEG4-DST, but only difference between these lossless coding?
SSC, DST, ALS and SLS?


Look at this page a little and, say to me what you think:
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:FtWtWlkdrmgJ:www.itscj.ipsj.or.jp/sc29/open/29view/29n6928t.doc+Information+technology+%E2%80%94+Coding+of+audio-visual+objects+%E2%80%94+Part+5:+Reference+Software,+AMENDMENT+10:+SSC,+DST,+ALS,+and+SLS+reference+software&hl=fr

[tedgo]

@guada2
Sorry, i misunderstood.
But i don't know the differences in coding between ALS ("audio lossless coding"), DST ("direct stream transfer") and SSC (whatever it means).
Would be a good question for the specialists on hydrogenaudio.

[guada 2]

Additional information: (Very interesting.) :)


Recent standards and on going work in MPEG4 audio.

To keep up the pace with new technologies, MPEG4 has added amendments (AMD) to existing
standards. It should be observed that MPEG4 is currently the last standard planned in the core
audio coding area. Future standards (e.g. MPEG7 and MPEG21) will continue to use the audio
codecs standardized in MPEG4 but address advanced systems layer requirements such as audio
representation, layering etc. Figure 7 summarizes on-going work in the MPEG audio committee.

Recent and future standards

Stages for standardization
1) CFP: Call for proposals
2) PDAM: Proposed draft AMD
3) FPDAM: Final draft of PDAM
4) FDAM: Final draft of AMD.
5) IS: International Standard

MPEG4 Amd 1 Bandwidt h extension (SBR), HE-AAC (v1)
2003
MPEG4 Amd 2 HQ Parametric Audio
2004
MPEG4 Amd 3 MPEG1/2 audio in MPEG4
Current status: FDAM
2005
MPEG4 Amd 4 Audio loss-less coding (ALS), HE-AAC (v2)
Current status: PDAM
2005
MPEG4 Amd 5 Scalable loss-less coding (SLS)
Current status: PDAM
2005
MPEG4 Amd 6 Direct Stream Transfer (DST)
Current status: FPDAM
2005
MPEG4 Amd 7 Spatial Audio Coding (SAC)(Surround sound)
Current status: CFP
2005 ??


The first amendment (AMD1) defines the High Efficiency profile (HE-AAC) version 1 by combining SBR technique with AAC. The same combination is also known as AACplus, which
is a trademark of Coding Technologies. In the MPEG world, the codec is referred to as HEAAC.
HE-AAC is getting widespread acceptance in many standardization bodies (e.g. 3GPP,DRM, DVD forum & ISMA). A few commercial CD rippers (e.g. Nero) support audio CD ripping in the HE-AAC format
The second amendment (AMD2) improves the performance of parametric audio coding (HILN) with better noise coding and parametric stereo. This high quality (HQ) parametric audio coding results in reasonable quality audio between 6 - 21 kbps.
The third amendment (AMD3) defines usage of MPEG1 and MPEG2 audio in the MPEG4 system layer. This amendment is expected to become an international standard (IS) in 2005.
AMD4 and AMD5 deal with lossless audio coding.
Audio Lossless Coding (ALS) (AMD 4) is based on linear predictive coding (LPC) followed by noiseless coding. ALS is based on models proposed by NTT, Real Networks, and Berlin University. This amendment is expected to become an international standard by 2005. The other
part of the AMD4 defines the use of parametric stereo toolset with HE-AAC. The resulting algorithm is known as HE-AAC v2 (also called AAC++ or Enhanced AACplus) and gives good quality stereo below 48 kbps. Enhanced AACplus was adopted by 3GPP release 6 as an optional audio codec for MMS and streaming applications.
AMD5 defines Scalable loss-less coding (SLS) based on proposals by FhG, Microsoft and I2R.
It uses AAC technology to encode the base layer at 128 kbps. The base layer is lossy but perceptually transparent. This is backward compatible with standard AAC. The enhancement layer uses IntMDCT to achieve lossless compression at 600-700 kbps for two channel audio.
AMD5 is expected to become international standard by 2005.
AMD6 supports lossless coding of output/input of sigma delta modulated (SDM) based A/D & D/A converters. SDM technology uses over-sampling of signal to provide linearity over large dynamic range of audio signals (e.g. 24 bits).
The AMD6 supports handling of over-sampled signals without unnecessary conversion to PCM and vice a versa. This is known as Direct Stream Transfer (DST). It is based on a proposal submitted by Philips. AMD5 is expected to become an international standard in 2005.
In addition to the above amendments, the MPEG4 committee has issued a call for proposals for Spatial Audio Coding (SAC). This will be an extension to AAC for multi-channels on similar lines to SBR. FhG/Agere, Coding technologies/Philips, Dolby and Panasonic have submitted proposals in response to the call. The proposals are based on Binaural Cue Coding (BCC). The final model will be a combination of proposals from FhG/Agere and CT/Philips. The reference software model for this standard will be available in near future.

Bye.

[Kurtnoise]

MP4 support will be available in the next release (around September the 22nd )...

http://www.nue.tu-berlin.de/forschung/projekte/lossless/mp4als.htm

[Hyper Shinchan]

MP4 support will be available in the next release (around September the 22nd )...

http://www.nue.tu-berlin.de/forschung/projekte/lossless/mp4als.htm
Exactly, I've noticed it two days ago, but I wasn't able to found this old topic to say it (and I thought that it was a bad idea to open a new one)... finally we can start to use ALS in an mp4 container, I'm bored with these raw files....

[SeeMoreDigital]

MP4 support will be available in the next release (around September the 22nd )...

http://www.nue.tu-berlin.de/forschung/projekte/lossless/mp4als.htmIs it just me or is the above link dead?


EDIT: Is this it?

http://www.nue.tu-berlin.de/research/projects/lossless/mp4als.html

Lossless audio with lossless MPEG-4 AVC video within MP4... what a prospect LOL

[Mug Funky]

from guada 2's post:
MPEG4 Amd 7 Spatial Audio Coding (SAC)(Surround sound)
Current status: CFP [call for proposals]
2005 ??

not quite on topic, but looks promising. i wonder if something like b-format will be utilised (this would be great for multichannel - only 4 channels needed at most, and any number of channels can be generated from that...)

[bkman]

Tried the reference program on a lossless CD rip of mine with parameter "-7". Compression was a little worse compared to Monkey's Audio High mode (and much slower, obviously).

[ac-chan123]

@SMD: Yes that is the english version of the same page. They have change the directoys name from german to english(with no redirction) that is awful but it seams that it is also state of the art at the internet. :mad:

[Hyper Shinchan]

@SMD: Yes that is the english version of the same page. They have change the directoys name from german to english(with no redirction) that is awful but it seams that it is also state of the art at the internet. :mad:
??? State of the art???^^''
Anyway does anyone know if it has been published somewhere the way that they will use to store ALS in MP4? I think that they will use the mp4a entry with a new object descriptor, but there's any clue until now, right?

[Coderjoe]

Anyway does anyone know if it has been published somewhere the way that they will use to store ALS in MP4? I think that they will use the mp4a entry with a new object descriptor, but there's any clue until now, right?

Offhand, I have no idea. I'm sure it is published in the relevant portions of ISO/IEC 14496 (parts 1 and 3, and their ammendments). Unfortunately, I do not (yet) have copies of anything from 14496.

[Zero1]

http://uclc.info/lossless_audio_compression_test.htm

A decent test of various command line compressors. In my opinion, the ALS reference did pretty damn well when you consider that reference software is usually unoptimised.

Lossless H.264 and ALS would be really nice for archives of my NLE work (when I actually get round to doing it :p).

I emailed Mr. Liebchen months ago, basically telling him how standardised lossless audio appeals to a lot of people, but the lack of MP4 support stumps it's growth somewhat (and in turn, sales of the spec). Also if any of you browse HA, you may have seen an old ALS thread there.
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=43975&view=findpost&p=387008

I made a point of telling Mr Liebchen that people were losing interest before the format had even had a chance, and that people feared that the spreading of raw ALS files would end up in people doing non spec things with them.

Now it has been months since I sent that, maybe he got it and it's been in the process all this time, or maybe he didn't read it/ignored it and MP4 support was already on the cards at a later date; either way I was very happy that a little progress had been made.

I notice that Haali's splitter is capable of parsing AC3 in mp4a (much to my surprise, I was expecting it to be stored as a private stream, but I won't speak of how such evil was created; I was just testing stuff out of pure curiosity as to how it works or would something break :p); seeing as we will soon have ALS in MP4; providing Haali's splitter will do the same magic for ALS as AC3, we really only need a directshow ALS decoder and we're up and running!

Based on how MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 audio is stored as mp4a, and that ALS is an MPEG-4 standard, together with the fact that ALS is available in ISO/IEC 14496-3:2005/Amd 2:2006; I would think it's almost a given that it will be stored in mp4a. Of course let's wait and see before we do anything drastic :p

[Hyper Shinchan]

Based on how MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 audio is stored as mp4a, and that ALS is an MPEG-4 standard, together with the fact that ALS is available in ISO/IEC 14496-3:2005/Amd 2:2006; I would think it's almost a given that it will be stored in mp4a. Of course let's wait and see before we do anything drastic :p
No doubt about it, it's just an other profile of the MPEG-4 audio.
But what the hell happened? Today is 25 september and in the ALS page there isn't the Release 18 yet.

[Kurtnoise]

It's available now...

[Sharktooth]

Any w32 builds available?

[quake74]

If you download the file from the page there's a win32 bin inside bin/win/Release. Funny thing, I had to make it executable with cygwin to make it run. Testing as we speak...

[Sharktooth]

sorry, i missed one word on my previous question: "optimized"...
So, any w32 optimized builds available?

[Hyper Shinchan]

Oh in the end they released it :) Now I'm going to test it (but anyway their Winamp plugin doesn't seem updated, so there's no way to play the mp4 with als content in Winamp, I think).
Anyway I've tried to use the settings that the website linked by zero1 used for their tests. I've added in my command-line the checking of the file but the output file failed the checksum. And it was a not valid als for ALS plugin. I've tried to rencode the same file using just the -7 -c -v that I've used until now and it was alright (of course it doesn't seek very well).

[shon3i]

Oh in the end they released it :) Now I'm going to test it (but anyway their Winamp plugin doesn't seem updated, so there's no way to play the mp4 with als content in Winamp, I think).
Anyway I've tried to use the settings that the website linked by zero1 used for their tests. I've added in my command-line the checking of the file but the output file failed the checksum. And it was a not valid als for ALS plugin. I've tried to rencode the same file using just the -7 -c -v that I've used until now and it was alright (of course it doesn't seek very well).
Maybe foobar can play, any w32 build

[Kurtnoise]

1/ None players are able to play those kind of files for the moment.
2/ No optimized builds available.

[Zero1]

Indeed, it's possible to encode ALS stored in MP4 now, but there is no way of playing them. The Winamp ALS plugin that they released was crippled and didn't support the decoding of all of the features; also it does not read ALS in MP4.

However some semi good news. Haali's splitter seems relatively happy to parse the file already (the explorer extensions and tooltips etc. report the correct duration and samplerate), and seems to think it is an AAC file. Obviously the only thing missing is a directshow decoder, but I reckon that if we had a directshow decoder, these files would work fine with the combination of that decoder and Haali's MP4 splitter.

So if any devs out there are reading; there is some reference software available (which obviously has decoder components). Perhaps some kind soul cares to whip up a basic directshow decoder or library? Something that could be usable and a part of FFDShow would be awesome, but really just _something_ so that we can listen to the files in our favourite players would be nice ;p

Ah well, can only ask ;)

[SeeMoreDigital]

Hi Zero1,

Are you able to provide a short sample encode please?


Cheers

[Zero1]

No sooner said than done; here are some test files :)

First, a bit about the music in the test track itself. It's track 13 from the After War Gundam X OST; Side 1. It was released around 1996, and is an orchestral track used in the series (as opposed to a bonus track which you quite often get on soundtracks). It was chosen for no reason other than I wanted something short and appreciable. Not my choice of music; but you have to admit it's a good powerful sample.

Anyway, on to the more interesting part. I have encoded 4 test files in total; an ALS and MP4 for each set of switches. The first set is something I came up with; I'm sure it's nothing like optimal (and some switches like the wordlength and sample rate redundant), but there you go.

The other set I had to disable the "-z3" switch to get the ALS files to play in Winamp. Off the top of my head, I believe that to be the option pertaining to RLSLMS (reverse predictive coding?). So for whatever reason, that feature seems to be missing in the Winamp plugin (I didn't test, but I think it's safe to assume -z1 and -z2 won't work either). Providing an ALS and MP4 for each set of options means that using the Winamp decoder, you at least have something to play :p
Fortunately dropping -z3 didn't have a huge impact on the filesize (but I guess it could accumulate to a decent saving over a whole album), so in it's place I put -7. I also put in -r5 and -u1 as per Mr. Liebchen's suggestion (on the page regarding the Winamp plugin).

As you might expect, I also included the original wave file; you might want to play around and try compressing it for yourself with different switches. If you happen to find a more optimal set of switches, do share :)

Also have CRC32'ed the files _just_in_case (if you are paranoid, I can provide MD5 or something too :p)

I think that's everything of relevance, so here are the files followed by the switches I used.

You can get the ALS test files here (http://aflux.deltaanime.net/Zero1/MP4/ALS)

[source]make_it_sure_by_yourself[d8871b23].wav (http://aflux.deltaanime.net/Zero1/MP4/ALS/[source]make_it_sure_by_yourself[d8871b23].wav)

[winamp]make_it_sure_by_yourself[34dfa439].als (http://aflux.deltaanime.net/Zero1/MP4/ALS/[winamp]make_it_sure_by_yourself[34dfa439].als)
mp4alsRM18.exe -v -g5 -t2 -a -b -e -p -7 -R -W16 -F44100 -r5 -u1 "Track 13.wav"

[winamp]make_it_sure_by_yourself[a0366a99].mp4 (http://aflux.deltaanime.net/Zero1/MP4/ALS/[winamp]make_it_sure_by_yourself[a0366a99].mp4)
mp4alsRM18.exe -v -g5 -t2 -a -b -e -p -7 -MP4 -R -W16 -F44100 -r5 -u1 "Track 13.wav"

[zero1]make_it_sure_by_yourself[05237556].als (http://aflux.deltaanime.net/Zero1/MP4/ALS/[zero1]make_it_sure_by_yourself[05237556].als)
mp4alsRM18.exe -v -g5 -t2 -a -b -e -p -z3 -R -W16 -F44100 "Track 13.wav"

[zero1]make_it_sure_by_yourself[94a9971d].mp4 (http://aflux.deltaanime.net/Zero1/MP4/ALS/[zero1]make_it_sure_by_yourself[94a9971d].mp4)
mp4alsRM18.exe -v -g5 -t2 -a -b -e -p -z3 -MP4 -R -W16 -F44100 "Track 13.wav"


If you decide to dive straight into the directory rather than taking the direct links, you can also find a copy of RM18 and the Winamp plugin.

[Hyper Shinchan]

This is in someway unrelated but:
http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/amm/projects/losslessaudio/index.html
This encoding solution has been dropped or not? In the ALS webpage says that initially it was tried a similar usage of AAC scalable, but it seems that it won't be standardized. Am I wrong?

[Kurtnoise]

Just for your information - the last MP4Box from cvs entry is able to read/write als embedded in mp4 files now, (although there are some bugs for channels detection.)

So, any volonteer to patch FFDshow to be able to decode als streams correctly ? If it's too hard for you, we can create a new plugin with the BASS (http://www.maresweb.de/projects/bass/) library...:)

[Zero1]

Haha sweet.

Kostya said he was intending to work on an ALS decoder, but he's also working on some other things, so it's just a matter of time.

Also the ALS reference software should provide a starting point since they have a command line encoder and decoder

[guada2]

Interesting..

[Inventive Software]

I may be shot for the massive gravedig of a bump, but I've been looking at ALS as a viable decoder project for ffmpeg/libavcodec. What progress, if any, is there on an open-source decoder?

[Kurtnoise]

no progress from lavc afaik...

[jruggle]

no progress from lavc afaik...
I wrote a basic als encoder for lavc, but haven't had time to clean it up. I am planning on writing a decoder at some point.

http://gitorious.org/projects/ffmpeg/repos/alsenc

[Zero1]

Well, it's a bit of an old thread to bump but I thought it would be better than making a new one. I've been out of encoding and such for a few years, but I started wondering about ALS the other day. I've been looking around and it seems to be making a little bit of progress.

http://www.nue.tu-berlin.de/menue/forschung/projekte/beendete_projekte/mpeg-4_audio_lossless_coding_als/parameter/en/#253204

The official site has been updated recently and is now much more useful.

They have updated their Winamp plugin to 1.1 (but still only supports .als files, not muxed to mp4)

ALS has gained FFMPEG support. Recent builds of VLC can decode it (check the official site for a H.264/ALS sample to try), and so can FFMPEG, mplayer etc. Obviously not all features are currently implemented, so so indication as to what features are supported would be great.

There is also talk of adding an encoder to FFMPEG, which is awesome.

Finally it seems like this format is starting to move forward a little bit. I suspect with how big FLAC is that it may remain a niche format, but I'm interested in it. I think it has good potential.

There is a complile of the CLI encoder on the site too.

It seems like the -z option causes the encoder to crash when used together with -7 at the end and not give any output. I looked into it and from what I gather, you aren't meant to use these together anyway. They are two different modes.
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t40124-100.html

On the offical ALS site, they also link to a general purpose CLI front end with some encoding profiles.


If anyone figures out some hardcore settings, please let me know. So far the best settings I have found that work with the current ALS decoder in FFMPEG/VLC is mp4alsRM22rev2 -v -o60 -a -r-1 -e -p -g5 -MP4.

Using the -z mode, I got good results with mp4alsRM22rev2 -v -z3 -b -e -MP4 (although -z does not seem to be supported in the FFMPEG decoder yet).


Since this decoder is now available, is there anyway to get a version of it in FFDShow? It would be cool to start using it and experimenting.

[Zero1]

RM23 of the reference encoder is available, if anyone is kind enough to compile it (would be much appreciated). It says it's a preview but I'm not sure what they mean. Are there more fixes/features to be added by the time RM23 is properly released?

http://www.mb-1.jpn.org/paaf/release/mp4alsRM23_20100305.zip

Looks like they are trying to get support going at last. The page was only just updated a few days ago stating that the RC for VLC 1.1 supports ALS.

[SeeMoreDigital]

If anyone has some sample encodes, please let me know?

[Kurtnoise]

RM23 of the reference encoder is available, if anyone is kind enough to compile it (would be much appreciated). It says it's a preview but I'm not sure what they mean. Are there more fixes/features to be added by the time RM23 is properly released?

http://kurtnoise.free.fr/misc/mp4alsRM23_20100305.zip (both win32 & win64 builds)

Not tested though...


RM23 Notes (Changes from RM22)
-------------------------------
- decoder: check the bit-stream and report the profile levels it conforms to
- decoder: report the profile levels indicated in MP4 files
- decoder: fix a rounding error when channel sorting is enabled
- decoder: fixed a limitation when joint stereo coding is used together
with block length switching
- encoder: can enforce ALS Simple Profile Level 1 ("-sp1")
- encoder: automatically set the profile level indicator in MP4 files unless
given the "-npi" option
- encoder: force sample resolution = 32 for floating-point RAW files
- encoder: support for samples rates higher than or equal to 288kHz
- encoder: do not use the const block coding tool if the constant value
cannot be represented on IntRes bits
- encoder: fixed vulnerability in Rice parameter estimation
- encoder: correctly set the bs_info flags when joint stereo coding and
block length switching is used together
- encoder: do not allow shorter block length than the fixed prediction order
- use IntRes consistently in the integer coder
- fixed memory leak in ImfBox.cpp, CBox::ReadString()
- fixed memory leak in Mp4aFile.cpp, CMp4aReader::Open()
- aligned the order of shift_amp[c] and partA_flag[c] flags with the
specification for floating-point audio
- aligned the bit endianness of MLZ codewords with the specification (MSB
first instead of LSB first)
- aligned NeedTdBit calculation with the ALS specification
- fixed progressive coding of the residual for short frames
- added workaround for MP4 files that contain multiple zero string
terminators in the 'hdlr' box
- added freebsd, freebsd_i386 and freebsd_x86_64 targets to the Makefile (not
well tested)

[jruggle]

There is also talk of adding an encoder to FFMPEG, which is awesome.

It is a work-in-progress.
http://github.com/justinruggles/FFmpeg-alsenc/tree/alsenc