Download the installer and fire it up.
Eventually you'll 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 don't have it separately installed. GD3 is only useful if you want to pay for metadata results. I assume you don't.Step 2: Start EAC
When you first start EAC, you'll see a screen like this one. Hit "Cancel". Next, put a popular CD into your drive, preferably not one that was recently released (a few months old at least). You'll see a window like the one below appear. If you have an older version of EAC or dBpoweramp installed, it's likely AccurateRip was already configured, and this may not appear.
Hit Configure. It may take a few minutes. Hit "Ok" afterward. Once again, if you have an older version of EAC or dBpoweramp installed, it's 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.
Start with EAC Options. Any tabs not pictured are completely optional settings, or are irrelevant to ripping.
If your drive is capable of reading UPC/ISRC codes and CD-Text (you can only really figure this out by trial and error), you're welcome to keep the top two options checked. Otherwise, uncheck them.
Other than that, these settings are pretty much ideal. I wouldn't recommend using more than 1 compressor thread even if you have a multicore computer. It doesn't 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 I've 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.
Make sure you set the green highlighted settings as shown. If you're 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 isn't a bad idea though.
These settings are pretty much all optional and self explanatory. I'd recommend using Alternate CD play routines and disabling autostart though.
Display times using frames: Suggested, not required. Reason: It keeps EAC Helper log --> cue generator from breaking things. More consistent and easier to work with as the TOC is shown in frames. (this makes advanced users happy)
The "Show status dialog after extraction" option setting has been problematic for some users. This displays the log after the rip is done, and offers you the option to save the log file. If you follow this guide, EAC will do this automatically. Do NOT hit "Save Log". As such I've disabled the setting here. Only turn it on if you know what you're doing.
The "Create log files always in english language" is very important for our international users. This will let you keep EAC's language as your native one, but write the log file in English.
Friends don't let friends normalize their EAC rips. Don't ever do it.
This is the preferred way to name tracks. Refer to our file naming rules if you choose to do something different, but really, I wouldn't. If you need track numbers to go into triple digits for some reason, use %tracknr3% instead.Naming Convention : %tracknr2% - %title%
Check 'Use Various Artists Naming Scheme' and use : %tracknr2% - %artist% - %title%
Don't replace spaces by underscores. It looks ridiculous.A note on directory naming schemes: Don't use a directory structure here, unless you want to go back and edit your CUE sheet later. When you add a directory to the naming scheme, it'll put that directory path into the files. Then when someone goes to burn the files in EAC using your cuesheet, they'll be unable to do so. If you do insist on using a directory structure here, you need to go back, edit the CUE in a program such as notepad, and remove the folder name from each line.
For example, a cuesheet line should look like this:
FILE "01 Last Known Surroundings.wav" WAVE
Not like this:
FILE "C:\EAC Rips\Explosions in the Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (2011) [FLAC]\01 Last Known Surroundings.wav" WAVEStep 4: Drive Options
Start by hitting "Detect Read Features...". 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 can't, don't.
Even if your drive doesn't cache audio, just do us a favour and leave that checked. Not only will it stop you from having to have each of your uploads rescored by hand, but it doesn't 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.
Hit "Autodetect read command now". It shouldn't take long. Leave everything else unchecked unless you're having problems. You can checkmark "CD-Text Read capable drive" if you want to test whether your drive can do it. If it can, great, otherwise, uncheck it. It's unlikely you'll ever use that feature anyway.
If you did the AccurateRip configuration at the start of this guide, the top half here will be greyed out. If not, you'll need to find your read offset correction. Don't use a combined read/write offset.
If you want to figure out whether your drive needs "Overread into Lead-in and Lead-Out" checked, you can check by temporarily unchecking "Use AccurateRip with this drive". Stick a CD in the drive and hit "Detect read sample offset correction...". If you're just doing this for the Overread, see below:
blowfish.be wrote:
Check "Overread Lead-In and Lead-Out" 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 "Use AccurateRip with this drive" again once you're finished. AccurateRip is always a good idea.
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 "Secure" to "Accurate" and try again.
Step 5: Metadata Options
Here's where you pick your metadata provider. If you did install GD3, it'll 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 EAC's native freedb support. I'm not really sure what the big difference is, I'm guessing it's the cover+lyrics. Anyway, change those settings above if you wish.
If you use EAC's native freedb instead, the settings should look like this. Make sure you put an email at the top, it doesn't need to be real. Hit "Get active freedb server list". Then checkmark the last option.
Step 6: Compression Options
Set up this tab exactly as shown. You'll have to browse to the path where you have flac.exe, if you installed it with EAC it's in C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\flac.exe. If you installed it separately it's 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 the WI crew recommend is this:
-8 -V -T "artist=%artist%" -T "title=%title%" -T "album=%albumtitle%" -T "date=%year%" -T "tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "genre=%genre%" %source%
It takes no extra effort on your part, just copy and paste that into the additional commandline options and you're done.
Note for Optional Tag Fields: The command line above will need to be modified to suit anything extra you want to throw in. A list of fields can be found by hovering over the command line input box in EAC > Compression Options > External Compression tab
Note: the %comment% function is broken in version 1.0b2 - it returns the track CRC if you don't specify anything.
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, '1' instead of '01'.
A note on the FLAC commandline in versions prior to 1.0b3: If you're using EAC 1.0b1, use the following commandline for FLAC:
-8 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" %s
Anything older than that, just change the version number in the tags.
Ripping to MP3 (lossy) This guide was made specifically for ripping to FLAC. However, it still works for ripping to MP3 as well; the settings are all the same, except for "Compression Options" > "External Compression" tab. You'll need to browse to LAME.exe , and set the extension to .mp3. The commandline needs to be changed. The other settings remain the same, bitrate is still irrelevant. The MP3 command lines are included below.
V0 MP3:
-V 0 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors --ta "%artist%" --tt "%title%" --tg "%genre%" --tl "%albumtitle%" --ty "%year%" --tn "%tracknr%" %source% %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% %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% %dest%
Leave everything unchecked, unless you want EAC to take care of your cover art. (personally, I prefer doing my own hi-res scans, but hey - that's 1 reason why this is optional)
Congrats! EAC is now properly set up! You may wish to save your settings in a profile by hitting "New" at the bottom of the screen. However, unless you're changing your settings frequently there's no need, EAC will remember all of this on next launch regardless.
Step 7: Tagging
So now let's look at the main window. Be sure everything is named correctly here, as these will be the tags on your ripped files. If you're ripping a classical CD, you may wish to fill in the Composer/Performer fields.
Optional: 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 you're ripping a box set, you may wish to use the options under the cover image, otherwise leave them all as "1".
Finally, if you want to add lyrics to the tracks, use the "Lyrics" button. End Optional
Note: I've also highlighted the "New" button where you can save your settings. This is not a necessary step each time you rip.
Step 8: Gap Detection and Cuesheets
The pre-rip stuff happens here. Make sure "Append Gaps to Previous Track (default)" is checked. It should be. Next, hit the options in the order shown.
First, hit "Detect Gaps". This is very important, your rip will not be perfect 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, it'd be
Sam Roberts Band - Collider (2011) [FLAC] {UMC 0252764577}
However, this isn't totally mandatory.
Anyway, make the folder, save the .cue file into it. I usually just name mine Noncompliant.cue, it doesn't really matter.
Step 9: Ripping
Finally, the rip itself! Make sure all the tracks are checkmarked in the main window unless there are some you don't 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 you're 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.
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.
Appendix A: CueTools Plugin (Optional)
This is now installed by selecting "CTDB" in the EAC 1.0b3 options. Therefore, this will only be necessary for EAC 1.0b1 and 1.0b2, or if you want to update the plugin by hand to a newer version.
Starting with version 1.0b1, EAC now supports plugins! While they've so far been few and far between, the CueTools plugin is quite handy. Not only does it give you a second opinion past the AccurateRip database and include the CueTools hash in the log, but it also gives you an option to get metadata from MusicBrainz if you prefer it to freedb.
Download page:
http://www.cuetools.net/wiki/CTDB_EAC_Plugin
Installation: Extract the files to EAC's root directory (containing EAC.exe). Usually this is located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy.
Usage: None, it works automatically. You can check whether it's installed under EAC Options->Audio Plugins. If you wish to use MusicBrainz, go to Metadata Options and select "CUETools DB Metadata Plugin" from the list.
Please share your comments and experiences on the comment area.
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