# How can I Get only the Audio track from a Mp4 720p file? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 12, 2012, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-only-the-audio-track-from-a-mp4-720p-file/621676 "2012-05-12T07:44:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-only-the-audio-track-from-a-mp4-720p-file/621676/1 "2012-05-12T07:44:00Z")
I’ve got Handbrake and Hd ConvertToX installed already. I have a 720p video with music. It’s a Mp4. I want to strip off the audio and make a wav or mp3 for my mp3 player. I’d really prefer a wav so I can edit out a 1 min interview before the song starts. Already looked in handbrake and I’m not seeing a Profile or any options to only get the audio. But, I could have overlooked it. Next I’m looking in Hd ConvetToX but don’t really expect to find it there either. I normally use this to make xvids from my DVD’s. Is there something I can use to strip & copy a audio track from a mp4 video? ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-only-the-audio-track-from-a-mp4-720p-file/621676/2 "2012-05-12T07:57:12Z")
AoA audio extractor works well, for editing I recommend Audacity, open source and pretty friendly to use. I have a clip I put together from “Alone in the Wilderness” that is bits from the narrator making him say “Enough wood for that tight beaver” ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-only-the-audio-track-from-a-mp4-720p-file/621676/3 "2012-05-12T08:11:35Z")
Separating the audio and video into separate streams is called [Demuxing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demultiplexer_%28media_file%29). There are quite a few apps that do that. They tend to keep them in the same formats they already are; if it was compressed in MP3 or AC3 or whatever, that’s what it’ll be in when separated. But from there you should be able to recompress. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-only-the-audio-track-from-a-mp4-720p-file/621676/4 "2012-05-12T08:26:46Z")
Hd ConvertToX surprised me. It had an option under compression to do Audio Only. Then under Audio, there was a Copy Audio. that gave me a 5Mb aac file which plays well in VLC. The original 720p video was 105mb. So, that’s very good progress. Now I just have to convert aac to a format Audacity will edit. Hd ConvertToX also had under Audio, make a WMA file. Which is lossless. Sadly, that didn’t work. I still got a aac file. ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-only-the-audio-track-from-a-mp4-720p-file/621676/5 "2012-05-12T08:34:14Z")
You can use iTunes to convert the aac to wav - set your import settings to wav, import the file in iTunes, right-click and choose “Create wav file”. WMA is not lossless (well, almost always) , it’s the Windows Media Audio format, vastly inferior to MP3 and AAC. Are you sure Audacity will not accept the aac file? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-only-the-audio-track-from-a-mp4-720p-file/621676/6 "2012-05-12T08:34:28Z")
:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: 😛 😛 😃 Just for the hell of it, I tried DbPowerAmp’s music convertor. I didn’t dream it could handle video. That sucker did!!! That’s the coolest thing ever. It took 20 seconds to make me an audio file. I had my choice of mp3, Flac, Wav etc. I choose Wav because I need to edit lossless. Once again, I discover DbPowerAmp is the best thing I ever bought. It does so, so, so more than just rip cd’s. I’m stunned a CD ripper can handle a video file. Especially a mkv or mp4. But it did and did it really well. 😃 I hadn’t got that far yet. I didn’t think Audacity handled anything but Wav. But, it might do aac. I just didn’t try it yet. Anyhow, looks like I got what I needed. I have a Wav audio file that I can easily edit lossless. Then use DbPowerAmp to convert the Wav to Flac or Mp3. All this work to get a mp3 from youtube. 😃 But, this performance was never released on CD. It was only performed on TV. > [@Pitchmeister](#): > > You can use iTunes to convert the aac to wav - set your import settings to wav, import the file in iTunes, right-click and choose “Create wav file”. > > WMA is not lossless (well, almost always) , it’s the Windows Media Audio format, vastly inferior to MP3 and AAC. > > Are you sure Audacity will not accept the aac file? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-only-the-audio-track-from-a-mp4-720p-file/621676/7 "2012-05-12T09:09:02Z")
Geez, I’ve forgotten a lot about Audacity. It’s been several years since I edited with it. I couldn’t mark my left and right boundaries. I would have sworn it was “[” and “]” But, it wouldn’t stay. If I clicked anywhere in the timeline my boundary mark disappeared. Anyway. I just selected the region I wanted with my mouse. ctrl-c to copy the selection and then New, Paste. Dirty way of doing it, but it worked. Thanks for everyones help. I’m loving this audio clip. I’m copying it to my mp3 player right now. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-only-the-audio-track-from-a-mp4-720p-file/621676/8 "2012-05-12T10:20:12Z")
Any format Audacity can output it can take as input. And AAC is one of those it can, as long as you [install](http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/manual/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#ffdown) the right plugin (ffmpeg). Once you do this, you can just open the video file directly. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-only-the-audio-track-from-a-mp4-720p-file/621676/9 "2012-05-12T10:31:47Z")
Thanks BigT. I’ll install that plug in and see if I can open the video, mp4 directly in Audacity. You say it’ll demux it for me? That’ll make the whole process a lot easier. btw, I figured out what I was doing wrong editing before. “[” is the key for selecting Left Boundary and “]” selects the right boundary on the timeline. It was just late and I was making a silly error. Once the selection is highlighted, ctrl-c to copy and then click New and ctrl-v to paste. I used to do this frequently when I was capturing audio with my pc a few years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2012, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-only-the-audio-track-from-a-mp4-720p-file/621676/10 "2012-05-13T12:28:22Z")
Mac users may benefit from a program I had used for years. (And, no, I have no financial interest in the company) It can records any audio that comes through your computer - from You Tube videos to Skype conversations to iTunes to DVD player. As they say, if you can hear it, you can record it. Records in MP3, AAC, AIFF, WAV [Audio Hijack Pro](http://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro/) Cost is a whopping $32. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2012, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-only-the-audio-track-from-a-mp4-720p-file/621676/11 "2012-05-13T13:09:19Z")
QuickTime Player, at least for Mac, saves videos as audio-only files. Go to File, then Export. It can’t be more bare-bones, though. ---
**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2012, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-only-the-audio-track-from-a-mp4-720p-file/621676/12 "2012-05-13T14:41:28Z")
I use Format Factory: [http://www.formatoz.com/](http://www.formatoz.com/) It is free and it can convert anything to anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Blakeyrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blakeyrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blakeyrat)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-only-the-audio-track-from-a-mp4-720p-file/621676/13 "2012-05-14T21:45:51Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > that gave me a 5Mb aac file which plays well in VLC. The original 720p video was 105mb. So, that’s very good progress. Now I just have to convert aac to a format Audacity will edit. It sounds like you got this solved, but for future reference VLC itself is also capable of this, if you dive into the “Stream/Convert” dialog. ---
**Author:** ![Kim\_o\_the\_Concrete\_Jungle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ee7513/32.png) [@Kim\_o\_the\_Concrete\_Jungle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kim_o_the_Concrete_Jungle)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2012, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-only-the-audio-track-from-a-mp4-720p-file/621676/14 "2012-05-15T04:52:16Z")
I use [Any Video Converter](http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/) myself. It’s good for converting all sorts of things, not just ripping the sound from videos, and there’s a free version. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2012, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-only-the-audio-track-from-a-mp4-720p-file/621676/15 "2012-05-16T03:35:00Z")
VLC itself should be able to do that. Click on “Media” in the menu bar, then click on “convert/save”. ---
**Author:** ![Astral\_Rejection](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/258eb7/32.png) [@Astral\_Rejection](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astral_Rejection)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2012, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-get-only-the-audio-track-from-a-mp4-720p-file/621676/16 "2012-05-16T04:12:45Z")
Sounds like you’ve got a lot of great options, but I’ll toss in a recommendation anyway. MPEG Streamclip is built to transcode video, but it can demux very easily. And it’s free!