This guide is a copy. I didnât write it but after seeing some posts about ripping music collections here I wanted to share it in the hopes that everyoneâs music rips will be of a higher quality than they would be otherwise.
When the guide makes reference to ârequiredâ settings itâs talking about for submission to the tracker where this guide comes from - not that itâs required to actually work. But I highly suspect theyâre required on the site for a good reason.
Thanks to those diligent archivists who wrote the original.
The guide:
EAC Setup Process
This guide was made for EAC version 1.0 beta 3 and above and will not completely work with earlier versions.
Anything with a green outline around it is a required setting. Anything orange is required but depends on your drive. Anything unmarked is optional.
This is meant to be a no-frills guide with little extra info.
Step 1: Download and install EAC
Download the installer and fire it up.
https://i.imgur.com/N16chOM.png
Eventually youâll get to a screen like this. Make sure you install AccurateRip, CDRDAO, CTDB, and freedb as a bare minimum. FLAC will be useful as well if you donât have it separately installed. GD3 is only useful if you want to pay for metadata results. I assume you donât.
Step 2: Start EAC
https://i.imgur.com/JvvhuGo.png
When you first start EAC, youâll see a screen like this one. Hit âCancelâ. Next, put a popular CD into your drive, preferably not one that was recently released (a few months old at least). Youâll see a window like the one below appear. If you have an older version of EAC or dBpoweramp installed, itâs likely AccurateRip was already configured, and this may not appear.
https://i.imgur.com/s6Rbs5A.png
Hit Configure. It may take a few minutes. Hit âOkâ afterward. Once again, if you have an older version of EAC or dBpoweramp installed, itâs likely AccurateRip was already configured, and this may not appear.
Step 3: EAC Options
All of the options dialogs can be found from the EAC menu at the top of the screen.
https://i.imgur.com/k8DAbdV.png
Start with EAC Options. Any tabs not pictured are completely optional settings, or are irrelevant to ripping.
https://i.imgur.com/SqQVeYk.png
Make sure you set the green highlighted settings as shown. If youâre using an older version of EAC, make sure "No use of null samples for CRC calculations is UNCHECKED. The rest is optional, choose as you will. Locking the drive tray during extraction isnât a bad idea though.
https://i.imgur.com/T8PABG6.png
These settings are pretty much all optional and self explanatory. Iâd recommend using Alternate CD play routines and disabling autostart though.
The âCreate log files always in english languageâ is very important for our international users. This will let you keep EACâs language as your native one, but write the log file in English
https://i.imgur.com/T9zXp3U.png
If your drive is capable of reading UPC/ISRC codes and CD-Text (you can only really figure this out by trial and error), youâre welcome to keep the top two options checked. Otherwise, uncheck them.
Other than that, these settings are pretty much ideal. I wouldnât recommend using more than 1 compressor thread even if you have a multicore computer. It doesnât take very long compared to the track extraction anyway. Note that in tests run by punkmeup, disabling the queue of external compressors in the background fixed an issue where EAC was generating WAV files instead of FLAC, so Iâve made that a required option. It should have no bearing on the rip quality. If rip queueing works for you (it does for me), feel free to leave it enabled.
https://i.imgur.com/RVPFE9J.png
Friends donât let friends normalize their EAC rips. Donât ever do it.
https://i.imgur.com/A64Bgne.png
This is the proper way to name tracks. The only difference acceptable here would be perhaps %tracknr2%. %title% if you prefer periods instead of dashes in the filenames. If you need track numbers to go into triple digits for some reason, use %tracknr3% instead.
Naming Convention : %tracknr2% - %title%
Check âUse Various Artists Naming Schemeâ and use : %tracknr2% - %artist% - %title%
Donât replace spaces by underscores. It looks ridiculous.
Step 4: Drive Options
https://i.imgur.com/5BGuq4w.png
Start by hitting âDetect Read FeaturesâŠâ. This will actually take a few minutes. The only feature detection that actually matters is Accurate Stream. If your drive can use it, checkmark the setting (most modern drives have Accurate Stream). If it canât, donât.
Even if your drive doesnât cache audio, just do us a favor and leave that checked. Not only will it stop you from having to have each of your uploads rescored by hand, but it doesnât affect the audio quality at all. Yes, the rips take a bit longer with that setting enabled. Go watch TV or something while you wait.
Do not use C2, even if EAC thinks you can. Most drives have terrible C2 error implementation.
https://i.imgur.com/ZAwJdyK.png
Hit âAutodetect read command nowâ. It shouldnât take long. Leave everything else unchecked unless youâre having problems. You can checkmark âCD-Text Read capable driveâ if you want to test whether your drive can do it. If it can, great, otherwise, uncheck it. Itâs unlikely youâll ever use that feature anyway.
https://i.imgur.com/Iq9Oc11.png
If you did the AccurateRip configuration at the start of this guide, the top half here will be greyed out. If not, youâll need to find your read offset correction from this list. Donât use a combined read/write offset.
If you want to figure out whether your drive needs âOverread into Lead-in and Lead-Outâ checked, you can check by temporarily unchecking âUse AccurateRip with this driveâ. Stick a CD in the drive and hit âDetect read sample offset correctionâŠâ. If youâre just doing this for the Overread, see below:
Originally Posted by blowfish.be
Check âOverread Lead-In and Lead-Outâ only if the test result says that your drive can overread from both the Lead-In and Lead-Out, or if it says Lead-Out and your offset correction is positive ,or if it says Lead-In and your offset correction is negative. Otherwise disable (uncheck) it.
Remember to check âUse AccurateRip with this driveâ again once youâre finished. AccurateRip is always a good idea.
https://i.imgur.com/ahrVeIO.png
Pretty much every drive should work with the settings shown. If yours stalls on detecting gaps or detects gaps that are obviously wrong (like 30 second gaps on a non-live album), try Detection method B or C. If A, B, and C all fail, you can switch âSecureâ to âAccurateâ and try again.
Step 5: Metadata Options
https://i.imgur.com/jtpaKbL.png
Hereâs where you pick your metadata provider. If you did install GD3, itâll be in the list. You can only rip 10 discs before you have to pay for a subscription though. Otherwise, you have a choice between the MusicBrainz plugin (CTDB), freedb plugin and EACâs native freedb support. Iâm not really sure what the big difference is, Iâm guessing itâs the cover+lyrics. Anyway, change those settings above if you wish.
https://i.imgur.com/cL3fxyt.png
If you use EACâs native freedb instead, the settings should look like this. Make sure you put an email at the top, it doesnât need to be real. Hit âGet active freedb server listâ. Then checkmark the last option.
Step 6: Compression Options
https://i.imgur.com/GOWfbPH.png
Set up this tab exactly as shown. Youâll have to browse to the path where you have flac.exe, if you installed it with EAC itâs in C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\flac.exe. If you installed it separately itâs wherever you installed it. The bitrate and high/low quality have no effect on the rip.
The commandline parameters have changed in this version, so this will look new to most of you. The commandline recommended for optimal completeness is this:
-8 -e -p -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%--tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source% -o %dest%
It takes no extra effort on your part, just copy and paste that into the additional commandline options and youâre done.
Note: the comment% function is broken in version 1.0b2 (it returns the track CRC). Use something like -T "COMMENT=EAC V1.0 beta 2, Secure Mode, Test & Copy, AccurateRip, FLAC -8 instead.
Also, as of Beta 3 you may use the %tracknr1% variable instead of tracknr% if you would like to have no leading zeroes in the track number field (like XLD does). tracknr1 will use, for example, â1â instead of â01â.
A note on ripping to lossy formats like MP3: So first off, this is a complete waste of time. In most cases, EAC is overkill for lossy files, and takes far too long to rip the CD to be practical. Your best bet is to rip once to FLAC and then use a program like dBpoweramp to convert that rip to the other formats. Even if you donât need a FLAC itâll still be much faster to rip using any other program, and wonât produce an audibly different result unless your CD has skips and bad scratches.
However, the MP3 and Ogg command lines are included below. Youâll need to browse to LAME.exe or oggenc2.exe, and set the extension to .mp3 or .ogg, respectively. The other settings remain the same, bitrate is still irrelevant.
V0 MP3:
-V 0 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors --ta "%artist%" --tt "%title%" --tg "%genre%" --tl "%albumtitle%" --ty "%year%" --tn "%tracknr%" %source% -o %dest%
V2 MP3:
-V 2 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors --ta "%artist%" --tt "%title%" --tg "%genre%" --tl "%albumtitle%" --ty "%year%" --tn "%tracknr%" %source% -o %dest%
320 kbps MP3:
-b 320 -h --add-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors --ta "%artist%" --tt "%title%" --tg "%genre%" --tl "%albumtitle%" --ty "%year%" --tn "%tracknr%" %source% -o %dest%
q8 Ogg:
-q 8 -a "%artist%" -t "%title%" -l "%albumtitle%" -d "%year%" -N "%tracknr%" -G "%genre%" %source% -o %dest%
https://i.imgur.com/4KJfgSf.png
Leave everything unchecked except the last option.
Congrats! EAC is now properly set up! You may wish to save your settings in a profile by hitting âNewâ at the bottom of the screen. However, unless youâre changing your settings frequently thereâs no need, EAC will remember all of this on next launch regardless.
EAC Ripping Process
Step 7: Tagging
https://i.imgur.com/SZc7Trg.png
So now letâs look at the main window. Be sure everything is named correctly here, as these will be the tags on your ripped files. If youâre ripping a classical CD, you may wish to fill in the Composer/Performer fields.
Drag a cover image into the EAC window. I think ~500x500 is a decent size in most cases. Google images is your friend here.
If youâre ripping a box set, you may wish to use the options under the cover image, otherwise leave them all as â1â.
Finally, if you want to add lyrics to the tracks, use the âLyricsâ button.
Note: Iâve also highlighted the âNewâ button where you can save your settings. This is not a necessary step each time you rip.
Step 8: Gap Detection and Cuesheets
https://i.imgur.com/CJL8XFi.png
The pre-rip stuff happens here. Make sure âAppend Gaps to Previous Track (default)â is checked. It should be. Next, hit the options in the order shown.
First, hit âDetect Gapsâ. This is very important, your rip will fail the logchecker if you do not complete this step. If the first track is highlighted in red, you have a hidden track.
Next, go to Create CUE Sheet -> Multiple WAV Files With Gaps⊠(Noncompliant). This is usually where I create the folder for ripping as well. Do NOT rip your tracks to any directory containing your name. You should NEVER edit a log for any reason, especially now that we have checksums. A simple C:\EAC Rips is fine.
I name my directories as follows:
Artist - Album (Year) [Format] {Extra}
So for example, with the album in the screenshots, itâd be
Sam Roberts Band - Collider (2011) [FLAC] {UMC 0252764577}
However, as long as it contains the album name and no nested folders (donât do \Artist\Album), youâre fine by the rules here.
Anyway, make the folder, save the .cue file into it. I usually just name mine Noncompliant.cue, it doesnât really matter.
Step 9: Ripping
https://i.imgur.com/eVHpnsB.png
Finally, the rip itself! Make sure all the tracks are checkmarked in the main window unless there are some you donât want to rip.
Test & Copy -> Compressed.
Depending on your drive and whether or not the CD is scratched, this could take anywhere from ten minutes to four hours. Be patient.
Step 10: Post-Rip
So youâre done! You may wish to use a logchecker to check and make sure your rip is proper, but if you followed this guide, the only possible errors would be with the CD itself. It does happen⊠some CDs are too badly damaged, even for EAC. Your best bet is to clean the CD and try again.
Note: if any of the tracks do not get ripped accurately (or if you get read errors / sync errors), you can try to clean/repair the disc and re-rip those failed tracks again. In this case, EAC will append the existing log file, so you do not have to re-do the entire album every time!
Other than that, it never hurts to make sure your files are tagged and named properly (though they should be). Any extra stuff you want to include should be added now as well⊠Additional artwork, an md5 fingerprint, an info.txt file, that sort of thing.