[SOLVED] 192kHz 24-bit FLAC to AAC - hangs

[RobNC]

I have some 192kHz 24-bit FLAC files, trying to convert to AAC but after 3 seconds the tool says something like it stopped responding.
Doing some research, it seems others have said that the AacEnc doesn't convert from 192kHz to 48kHz or 24-bit to 16-bit either. I've heard not many of the tools can do the down-conversion without consequences. Ideally, I would want to do a single conversion from FLAC to AAC to minimize loss.
I've installed the NeroAAC as it seems to be most efficient, and I've also done the iTunes QAAC4.exe too. Neither work.
Any suggestions? Thanks!

[admin]

AAC doesn't support 192Khz/24bit files. If you'd like to convert them by reducing the sample rate, please set the Output Sample rate for the AAC like this - https://imgur.com/8zAIuHg. Program will then automatically reduce the sample rate.

[RobNC]

Hello admin, thanks for your response. I have tried your exact settings but it still hangs on the files. Obfuscating the filename:

5/9/2025 12:27:34 PM: ERROR: D:\Music\BLA.flac / C:\Users\roblo\Music\BLA.m4a : TExtStdInEncoder: Internal error. [1] Waited 30000 for process to close "C:\Users\roblo\Music\BLA.m4a, Error=2".

I noticed that your pic showed 44.1k sample so it's not a perfectly clean resample (not divisible by 2). However, I had some files that were 96kHz sample, 24-bit and they converted to 44.1k AAC just fine.

I tried Max Sample Rate - unused (as yours) as well as 44100 but both attempts have same error message.

[RobNC]

As a followup, I tried turning some things off... I had normalization turned on. Once I turned that off, it worked as you said!

My settings for normalization is:
Use ReplayGain 96.0dB and "Save in Tags" selected.
That seems to be where the issue is?

[admin]

OK, I see. ReplayGain only supports sample rates up to 96Khz, EBUR128 does not have such limit.

[RobNC]

Thank you! I learned something... looking this up:
https://hydrogenaudio.org/index.php/topic,120918.0.html
It appears the EBUR128 is superior in all ways. Switching to that, and dumping ReplayGain (old version).