<p>If you aren't adverse to using a terminal to extract it, <a href="https://www.ffmpeg.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">FFmpeg</a> is a very good tool that you can use. The command that you'd want to run in <code>ffmpeg -i [input file name here] -c:a copy -vn -sn [output file name here]</code>.</p>

<p><code>-c:a copy</code>: This argument copies the audio stream of the file.<br>
<code>-vn</code>: This argument informs FFmpeg to not account for any video streams.<br>
<code>-sn</code>: This argument informs FFmpeg to not account for any subtitle streams.</p>

<p>Altogether, this results in a lossless extraction of the audio stream from the video file. If you have some knowledge in making scripts, you could create a script that will perform this action for a set of files so that you don't need to do it manually.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-22T23:56:21.263Z
Thanks, yes I saw that solution (after posting the question). Since I am not going to use it myself I was looking for a more userfriendly way. But maybe this is the best. It is not clear to me yet how to do the encapsulation. This is not included in this script.
Leo
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-23T00:07:25.850Z
@Leo The most userfriendly way to do this is to get [FFmpeg Batch AV Converter](https://sourceforge.net/projects/ffmpeg-batch/). It takes a bit of setting up, but it's mostly self-explanatory for the purpose since all you need to do is just plug in the parameters, specify your output, and you're good to go.
Juhmer_Tena
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-23T02:27:29.503Z
Thanks, I have never heard of that. I will take a look!
Leo
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-22T23:43:43.360Z
2019-11-22T23:43:43.360Z
Juhmer_Tena
<p>When using sound for speech-to-text, the quality is actually not very important. You can extract audio using ffmpeg, After Effects, Premiere, Nuke, Resolve or any editing software you like. Load in the clip, export again but as a .wav. Boom, you have only the sound.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-21T12:38:49.850Z
Thanks for trying to help. But Google says they want very good quality on the sound for best result. And I did some tests before posting this question. Using VLC to extract audio and then uploading the sound file to Google speech-to-text I got much worse result than the auto-generated captions on YouTube for the same video.
Leo
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-21T18:50:49.013Z
Did the sound you extracted using VLC sound audibly worse than the original?
stib
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-23T02:28:06.500Z
I did not notice any difference.
Leo
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-21T08:06:03.763Z
2019-11-21T08:06:03.763Z
Florian Claaßen
<p>MPEG Streamclip can save audio track (or batch) without recompression.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-22T00:04:36.320Z
2019-11-22T00:04:36.320Z
Logoanimation
<p>I need to extract sound from videos. There must be know loss of quality (since the sound files will be used in speech-to-text services).</p>

<p>So I want to extract the audio from the video exactly as it is and then place it in a new container to create an audio file.</p>

<p>What tools are available for this? Can VLC do it? Some online service?</p>

<hr>

<p>EDIT: Please notice that I want to extract the sound exactly as it is from the video (so I do not loss quality). </p>

<p>And I tested this with the GUI version of VLC, but I did not see any way to do what I want there. However I just found this page that says you can do it from the command line with VLC:</p>

<p><a href="https://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_HowTo/Extract_audio/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">VLC HowTo/Extract audio</a></p>

<p>Since I am not going to do this myself, but tell my users how to do it I am looking for an easy way for them. (They are not programmers. But I am. So I can perhaps write a version myself with ffmpeg, but I want to avoid that if I can.)</p>

<p>Is this perhaps not the right group to ask this question in?</p>

<video><audio><conversion><audio-quality>
Extract audio from video preserving audio quality
Leo
# Extract audio from video preserving audio quality

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-11-21)

I need to extract sound from videos. There must be know loss of quality (since the sound files will be used in speech-to-text services).

So I want to extract the audio from the video exactly as it is and then place it in a new container to create an audio file.

What tools are available for this? Can VLC do it? Some online service?

---

EDIT: Please notice that I want to extract the sound exactly as it is from the video (so I do not loss quality).

And I tested this with the GUI version of VLC, but I did not see any way to do what I want there. However I just found this page that says you can do it from the command line with VLC:

[VLC HowTo/Extract audio](https://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_HowTo/Extract_audio/)

Since I am not going to do this myself, but tell my users how to do it I am looking for an easy way for them. (They are not programmers. But I am. So I can perhaps write a version myself with ffmpeg, but I want to avoid that if I can.)

Is this perhaps not the right group to ask this question in?

**Tags:** video, audio, conversion, audio-quality


---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2019-11-22. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

If you aren't adverse to using a terminal to extract it, [FFmpeg](https://www.ffmpeg.org/) is a very good tool that you can use. The command that you'd want to run in `ffmpeg -i [input file name here] -c:a copy -vn -sn [output file name here]`.

`-c:a copy`: This argument copies the audio stream of the file.  
`-vn`: This argument informs FFmpeg to not account for any video streams.  
`-sn`: This argument informs FFmpeg to not account for any subtitle streams.

Altogether, this results in a lossless extraction of the audio stream from the video file. If you have some knowledge in making scripts, you could create a script that will perform this action for a set of files so that you don't need to do it manually.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks, yes I saw that solution (after posting the question). Since I am not going to use it myself I was looking for a more userfriendly way. But maybe this is the best. It is not clear to me yet how to do the encapsulation. This is not included in this script.  
> **username_1**: @username_0 The most userfriendly way to do this is to get [FFmpeg Batch AV Converter](https://sourceforge.net/projects/ffmpeg-batch/). It takes a bit of setting up, but it's mostly self-explanatory for the purpose since all you need to do is just plug in the parameters, specify your output, and you're good to go.  
> **username_0**: Thanks, I have never heard of that. I will take a look!  

---

### Answer by username_2 on 2019-11-21. Score: 1

When using sound for speech-to-text, the quality is actually not very important. You can extract audio using ffmpeg, After Effects, Premiere, Nuke, Resolve or any editing software you like. Load in the clip, export again but as a .wav. Boom, you have only the sound.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks for trying to help. But Google says they want very good quality on the sound for best result. And I did some tests before posting this question. Using VLC to extract audio and then uploading the sound file to Google speech-to-text I got much worse result than the auto-generated captions on YouTube for the same video.  
> **username_3**: Did the sound you extracted using VLC sound audibly worse than the original?  
> **username_0**: I did not notice any difference.  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2019-11-22. Score: -1

MPEG Streamclip can save audio track (or batch) without recompression.


---

