jiGGafellz' Step-by-Step Guide to Secure CD Ripping w/Exact Audio Copy

"Winamp is a player not a ripper. While it is capable of ripping, I'll just say that there is water in my toilet that could be used to brush my teeth with if I wanted to utilize it in that way." - PunkMeUp

Table of contents

The Introduction
1. Installation
2. Configuring the options
3. Verifying or setting the drive options
4. Setting the encoder options
  1. LAME mp3
  2. FLAC
  3. Monkey's Audio
  4. Ogg Vorbis
5. Saving the compression options to a profile
Using EAC
1. Ripping an audio cd

I. Introduction

This is a detailed and up-to-date guide to configure the best CD extractor on the planet, also known as Exact Audio Copy, which is made for Windows. It will guide you through the setup It consists of information I've found on various ripping and encoding sites, including Hydrogen Audio. What I've done is compile the most important and useful specifications that go into making a proper rip without giving you a lot of filler and information that isn't understood by the average user. At first glance, this guide may seem tedious or overwhelming, but the initial setup of EAC along with the setup of the four encoders is a one time deal. After that, it's smooth sailing. I might add that it isn't necessary to configure EAC for all four encoders to use. Just the ones you prefer or need.

Installation

The very first step is installing EAC. You need to download v 0.95 beta 3. You also need a working ASPI layer. If you have Nero installed you can copy wnaspi32.dll from the Nero installation folder (C:\Program Files\Ahead\Nero) to your EAC installation folder (C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy) after the installation has finished. If you don't have Nero you can download the needed file here.

After installation is complete, copy wnaspi32.dll and run EAC.
If it prompts you to run the Configuration Wizard, click cancel then restart EAC.

Configuring the options

Press F12. You can enter your own email address if you like or you can leave the uber@ubernet.org as the default email. Select a server from the dropdown menu. The default server is highlighted but as you can see there are multiple servers located all over the world. Select the one you want and click OK.

Press F9 and select the 'Extraction' tab. Check 'Fill up missing offset samples with silence' and 'Synchronize between tracks.' Also change the Error recovery quality to High.

EAC Configuration

On the next tab General check following options:

On unknown cds automatically access online freedb database: When you insert a cd in your drive EAC will automatically lookup the performer, album and track titles from the online freedb database. That saves you a lot of typing work if the cd is found in the online database. This option makes only sense if you have a permanent Internet connection like DSL or cable.
When using the Power Down feature wait for external compressors.

EAC Configuration

On the third tab Tools you also must set a few options:

Use CD-Text information in CUE sheet generation
Create '.m3u' playlist on extraction and the sub option 'Write m3u playlist with extended information.' This will make EAC add additional information to the playlist like the track play time.
Automatically write status report after extraction. This makes EAC write a status report (log file) after extraction in which you can find possible errors and the used settings.
On extraction, start external compressors queued in the background. This controls how many compressor windows will open and encode while you are ripping. It is unnecessary to select more than one.

EAC Configuration

Select the Normalize tab.
If Normalize is checked, then deselect it.

Select the Filename tab. You'll notice two input fields with text in them. Below you see %N - %A - %T in those fields. EAC generates filenames using this string which would look like Number - Artist - Title. You can experiment with the various combinations for the filename construction. In any case, please keep the filenames simple and put the track number (%n) first.

EAC Configuration

Select the Interface tab and tick 'Installed external ASPI interface.' This would be the wnaspi32.dll file you copied to your EAC folder after installation. This section is complete. Select Ok.

Verifying or setting the drive options

This is one of the most important parts of the EAC configuration.

Press F10. Select the warning dialog box away.
Select the 'Extraction Method' tab. Secure Mode *must* be enabled!
Check 'Drive has 'Accurate Stream' feature' and 'Drive caches audio data.'

EAC Drive Settings

Select the Drive tab.

Select the dropdown menu and select Autodetect read command.
Select Autodetect read command now. After a few seconds EAC returns the correct read command for your drive.

Select the Offset/Speed tab

Check 'Use read sample offset correction'
In the input field below, enter the offset correction value for your drive which can be found on this site. If you don't know what drive you have or what to look for, your drive will be listed at the top of the window below. It's likely to be easier searching for the model numbers. (e.g. DRU-720A)
Check 'Allow speed reduction during extraction' and 'CD-Text Read capable drive.'

Select the Gap Detection tab

It is recommended to use Detection Method A, and Secure here. Some drives may not use these settings, if this is the case when you are detecting gaps, try changing them.
Select secure in the detection accuracy dropdown list.

Select OK.

Setting the encoder options

The configuration of EAC and the drives is done. Next step is to configure the encoder settings. These differ from compressor to compressor, but the four steps lists below will remain the same.

Press F11
Select External Compression
Check 'Use external program for compression.
Select User Defined Encoder from the Parameter passing scheme dropdown box. Use the links below to advance to your preferred encoder.
1. LAME mp3
2. FLAC
3. Monkey's Audio
4. Ogg Vorbis

LAME mp3

The first thing you need to do is get LAME. (This version is recommended by the experts at Hydrogen Audio).

Open the downloaded zip file. Extract the lame.exe file to the EAC installation path. (default: C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\)
Back in EAC set 'Use file extension' to .mp3 (including the dot in front). Next we need to set the path to the LAME executable.
If you stored it in the recommended location, you can just copy and paste C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\lame.exe.
Further set the last four options on the tab as shown in the screenshot below.

EAC Compression Options

On the External Compression tab enter one of following command lines in the Additional command line options input field:

-V 2 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tg "%m" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d
-V 0 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tg "%m" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d
-b 320 --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tg "%m" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d

List of recommended settings

Switch	Preset	Target Kbit/s	Bitrate range kbit/s	Bitrate designation
-b 320	--preset insane	320	320 CBR	320
-V 0 --vbr-new	--preset fast extreme	245	220...260	V0
-V 2 --vbr-new	--preset fast standard	190	170...210	V2

For those who are still used to the older --alt-preset settings, here is a short overview. -V 2 --vbr-new equals to --alt-preset standard, -V 0 --vbr-new equals to --alt-preset extreme and -b 320 equals to --alt-preset insane. Just ignore the Bit rate field and the high and low quality selectors.
I've been made aware of a few people who have problems with LAME.exe not encoding the .wav files to .mp3. Apparently there is a problems with bad genre info causing lame.exe not to work properly. I've added a fix for that to the command lines above.
Check if the settings on the ID3 Tag tab page match the settings of the screenshot below.

EAC Compression Options

Select OK to save the settings. Continue reading at Saving the compression options to a profile

FLAC

The first thing you need to do is get FLAC.

Open the downloaded zip file. Extract the flac.exe file to the EAC installation path. (default: C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\)
Back in EAC set 'Use file extension' to .flac (including the dot in front). Next we need to set the path to the FLAC executable.
If you stored it in the recommended location, you can just copy and paste C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\flac.exe.
Further set the last four options on the tab as shown in the screenshot below.

EAC Compression Options

On the External Compression tab enter one of following command lines in the Additional command line options input field:

-V -5 -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s
-8 -A tukey(0.25) -A gauss(0.1875) -b 4096 -V -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s --sector-align
Just ignore the Bitrate field and the high and low quality selectors. The bitrate of the compressed files will be "Lossless" no matter the compression (5/8) level used.
Check if the settings on the ID3 Tag tab page match the settings of the screenshot below.

EAC Compression Options

Select OK to save the settings. Continue reading at Saving the compression options to a profile

Monkey's Audio

The first thing you need to do is get Monkey's Audio. You will also need wapet. The Monkey's Audio format supports the so-called APEv2 tags but the command line encoder doesn't. Therefore, we point EAC to wapet which does support APEv2 tags and, which on its turn, points to the Monkey's Audio compressor.

You'll have to download and install the full Monkey's Audio Windows suite. When that's done you'll find the command line encoder mac.exe in the Monkey's Audio installation folder (default: C:\Program Files\Monkey's Audio\). Copy and paste it to C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\
Extract the wapet.exe to C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\
Back in EAC set Use file extension to .ape (including the dot in front). Next we need to set the path to the wapet executable.
If you stored it in the recommended location, you can just copy and paste C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\wapet.exe
Further set the last four options on the tab as shown in the screenshot below.

EAC Compression Options

On the External Compression tab enter one of following command lines in the Additional command line options input field:

%d -t "Artist=%a" -t "Title=%t" -t "Album=%g" -t "Year=%y" -t "Track=%n" -t "Genre=%m" mac.exe %s %d -c2000 -v
%d -t "Artist=%a" -t "Title=%t" -t "Album=%g" -t "Year=%y" -t "Track=%n" -t "Genre=%m" mac.exe %s %d -c3000 -v (Recommended)
%d -t "Artist=%a" -t "Title=%t" -t "Album=%g" -t "Year=%y" -t "Track=%n" -t "Genre=%m" mac.exe %s %d -c4000 -v
Just ignore the Bit rate field and the high and low quality selectors.
Check if the settings on the ID3 Tag tab page match the settings of the screenshot below.

EAC Compression Options

Select OK to save the settings. Continue reading at Saving the compression options to a profile

Ogg Vorbis

The first thing you need to do is get Ogg Vorbis.

Open the downloaded zip file. Extract the oggenc2.exe file to the EAC installation path. (default: C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\)
Back in EAC set 'Use file extension' to .ogg (including the dot in front). Next we need to set the path to the OGG executable.
If you stored it in the recommended location, you can just copy and paste C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\oggenc2.exe.
Further set the last four options on the tab as shown in the screenshot below.

EAC Compression Options

On the External Compression tab enter one of following command lines in the Additional command line options input field:

-q6 -a "%a" -t "%t" -l "%g" -d "%y" -N "%n" -G "%m" %s
-q8 -a "%a" -t "%t" -l "%g" -d "%y" -N "%n" -G "%m" %s (Recommended)
-q10 -a "%a" -t "%t" -l "%g" -d "%y" -N "%n" -G "%m" %s
Just ignore the Bit rate field and the high and low quality selectors.
Check if the settings on the ID3 Tag tab page match the settings of the screenshot below.

EAC Compression Options

Select OK to save the settings. Continue reading at Saving the compression options to a profile

Saving the compression options to a profile

You've just set the options for your preferred encoder and now it's time to save that configuration to it's very own profile so you don't have to go that setup again. This is especially convenient if you want to use several different encoders because each time you change the compression options in EAC the old settings will be lost. You can use one of two ways to create your new profile(s).

1st Method

Press Shift+F2

Enter a name for the profile. I suggest naming it after whichever encoder it is configured for. That way, there will be no confusion on which is which later down the road.

Now choose a save location. There is a Profiles folder in EAC's default installation folder. (C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Profiles\)

2nd Method

In the status bar on the bottom of the EAC main window you'll notice Load, Save, New and Delete buttons. With these buttons you can manage profiles in EAC.

Select the New button. Provide a name for the profile, check All Compression options and select OK. You've created and automatically saved your profile to C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Profiles\.

Your new profile should now be added to the dropdown box on the left of the buttons. If you have several profiles in the list you can switch between those by selecting one from the list and selecting the Load button. The second method is the better of the two for it's simplicity and time saving effectiveness. You may now continue setting another compressor or another profile, or you can start using EAC.

2. Using EAC

Insert the cd you want to rip in your cd-rom and wait for EAC to request the cd information in the online freedb database. Verify the titles because the information is sent in by volunteers to freedb and often contains typos.

Ripping an audio cd

This is the most common used extraction method. Repeat this process each time you rip a disc.

Select only the wanted tracks, or none at all if you wish to rip the entire disc.
Press F4. EAC will now detect the gaps between tracks of the entire disc and shouldn't take very long.

Create a CUE Sheet by selecting Action > Create CUE Sheet > Multiple WAV Files With Gaps... (Noncompliant) from the menu bar.
Save the .cue in the same folder you plan to save the compressed files in.

Press Shift+F6. The folder that you saved the .cue in should be showing at this point.
Select Save if this is the location where you indeed want to save the compressed files.

EAC will now start the extraction process. It will test read each track for errors and then read, copy and then compress the track using the external compressor. You will see another pop up during extraction. This is the external compressor encoding the file. It looks just like the window you get by clicking Start > Run and typing cmd. Do not close this window! It will open and close as it begins and finishes the compression, respectively. During extraction you'll sometimes notice red dots lighting up in the extraction dialog window and after the extraction completed you get a log with things like Peak Level and Track Quality. When a Read Error or Sync Error occurs, there's an uncorrectable error in the read audio data. After extraction you'll get a list of the exact locations of the suspicious positions.

Ripping with EAC

EAC has now completed the extraction process.

Click OK. Do not close EAC because the external compression quite possibly be a track or two behind the extraction process. Be sure all encoding is finished before exiting EAC. Open the folder where you saved the compressed files. There will be a .log file. This file contains information such as the output format, the command line which was used, pre-gap lengths, peak levels, track quality, CRC checksums, and any errors that occurred during the extraction. You may want to compare the CRC checksums in the .log to the ones listed in EAC to make sure they actually do match. In the same folder, there should be an .m3u playlist which you can drop into the player of your choice and it will load all of the tracks for you. Congratulations! You've just made a proper rip.