ffmpeg's builtin AAC encoder has trouble sometimes with certain audio. libfdk_aac is basically always really good. Compare these two audio files. These are the same bitrate (96k). But listen to all that artifacting on the ffmpeg builtin encoder! (and fsr it thinks the song is longer? idk...). I used 96k to make it easy to hear even if you're not sensitive to this stuff, but it persists surprisingly high up the bitrate!
Not all songs artifact like this through the builtin encoder, but I've had it bite me a bunch and I'd rather just not use it. If you're transcoding for a platform that supports opus, well, just use that instead. But if you're not... here's how you get the cool encoder I used for the second one the easiest way possible.
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