3. Configuration - EAC Options
First of all, you need to make sure that you have access to all the options needed for configuring EAC for exact copying.
- Hit F9 or click the EAC menu and choose "EAC options". Click the "Tools" tab and make sure that "Activate beginner mode, disable all advanced features" is not checked. If you had to uncheck it, click "OK" in order to make the advanced settings take effect, then open "EAC Options" again.
Then it's time to start configuring the EAC options:
- Click the "Extraction" tab:
3a. Extraction
Important settings:
- Fill up missing offset samples with silence: Checked.
When using offset correction (see 5c. Offset/Speed), without the drive being able to overread into lead-in/lead-out, this setting fills missing samples with silence in order to maintain the correct track length. If it were left unchecked, the ripped file would be missing some samples, and thus not be that close to an exact copy as we want it to be.
- No use of null samples for CRC calculations: Unchecked.
This setting does not affect the files as such, it "just" affects how the CRC values are calculated, and thus written to the log. Unchecking the box is recommended for tradition and for easy comparison of CRC values between different EAC rips.
One of the ways in which to verify that a FLAC file is un-altered from the original rip is to compare that file's CRC value with the one reported in the log. The two should match up. They will not match, though, if one value is calculated with null samples an the other is calculated without null samples.
The easiest way to compare the files' CRC values to the CRC values shown in the log is to load the files in CueTools and choose to "Verify" the files. CueTools will calculate CRC values for the files both with and without null samples, and will also compare those values to the log.
You can also use EAC: Decompress the FLAC files to .wav, then use the "Process WAV" tool to inspect the CRC values. You need to have "No use of null samples for CRC calculations" unchecked in order to see a CRC value calculated with null samples. Check it if you need to see a CRC value calculated without null samples, but do not forget to uncheck it again when you are done!
- Synchronize between tracks: Checked.
EAC will synchronize a track with a preceding track if there is no silence at the track junction, so track transitions will be free from jitter artefacts (pops and clicks, e.g. on live recordings)
- Delete leading and trailing silent blocks: Unchecked.
Checking this would mean changing the CD structure, which means that the copy would not be "exact".
Change to Medium for the current disc only if EAC really gets stuck while ripping tracks and performing error correction. Do not change to Medium if EAC rips tracks very slowly while performing error correction - that's normal, it is what EAC should do when there is a lot of error correction to be done. To be sure, there is a trade-off between the Medium and High settings. Consistent errors are less likely to slip trough with Medium error correction than with High, but correction of detected errors is more efficient using the High setting.
The rest of the settings:
- Skip track extraction on read or sync errors: Your decision.
I would say that it is a good idea to check this if you aim for perfect rips. The rip will not be perfect anyway if there are read or sync errors for one or more tracks, so you will save time by just getting the error reported without having EAC spend time trying to slowly rip the track anyway. If there are errors, clean and/or repair the CD and try again, see (for example) advice here and here about how to repair scratched CDs.
- Skip track extraction after duration longer than: Your decision.
Setting this to some appropriate value (you will have to experiment to find out what is "appropriate" for you!) will make EAC skip the track if error correction takes so long that you might suspect it will not be successful anyway. I have this set to 4x realtime for the Plextor drive used for most of the screenshots in the guide. That still allows the drive to go quite slow during error correction, but makes EAC skip tracks that I know (from experimenting) it will not manage to rip with matching test-and-copy CRC values even when allowed to spend ages trying to do so.
- After each: XX mins of extraction, cool down the drive for YY mins: Use only if necessary.
- Lock drive tray during extraction: Your decision. Check it if you are prone to accidentally open drives in use.
- Extraction and compression priority: Normal for most situations; Idle for old and slow computers; High for computers with multi-core processors or multiple CPUs.
3b. General
None of these settings have any influence on ripping quality, so they are completely up to you. I recommend this one, though:
- On unknown CDs: automatically access online freedb database. Checked.
If the CD you are about to rip is in the database, the information will be automatically added in EAC.
- Checking "Show status dialog after extraction" will make the pop-up status report mentioned in EAC Ripping Guide, step 7 show up. If you leave this unchecked, you will not get that pop-up.
- If you do not uncheck "Beep after extraction finished", you will have EAC beeping (using the computer's internal speaker) after each track is competed.
- Also, note that this is where you choose the language for the EAC interface.
3c. Tools
Important settings:
- Automatically write status report after extraction: Checked. This will automatically create and save a log file.
- Do not open external compressor window: Unchecked - it is useful to see if the external compressor is still running after EAC has finished ripping to .wav.
- Activate beginner mode, disable all advanced features: Unchecked (as mentioned before).
The rest of the settings:
- Retrieve UPC/ISRC codes in CUE sheet generation: Your decision - appreciated by some, but does not influence ripping quality in any way. Note, however, that the presence of these codes in a cue sheet can cause problems as you try to use the cue sheet for burning a CD-R, see EAC CD Burning Guide.
UPC = Universal Product Code, printed as a barcode on the CD artwork. ISRC = International Standard Recording Code, read about it here.
- Use CD-Text information in CUE sheet generation: Your decision.
- Create '.m3u' playlist on extraction: Your decision. If you use it, you may want to also check the sub-option "Write .m3u playlist with extended information".
- On extraction, start external compressors queued in the background: Checked unless it causes problems.
Use only one compressor thread unless your computer has a multi-core processor or multiple CPUs. You can use as many compressor threads as your computer has processors; two threads for a dual core processor, etc.
- Submit drive features after detection: Your decision.
3d. Normalization
Important: nothing checked here! If you normalize the tracks, they are changed, and your rip will not be a truly exact copy of the CD.
3e. Filename
File (and folder) naming will be a matter of personal choice, so I merely provide a couple of examples in order to illustrate how it works.
- Naming scheme example 1: %D - %Y - %C\%N - %T
This naming scheme will make EAC create a directory (the part before the backslash) and file names (the part after the backslash) looking like this:
If you like, you can also add the file format to the folder name. Remember to change the naming scheme if you create different profiles for ripping and compressing to different formats, such as FLAC and mp3 V0.
- Naming scheme example 2: %D - %Y - %C [FLAC]\%N - %T
- results in this folder being called "Queen - 1975 - A Night At The Opera [FLAC]"
- Naming scheme example 3: %D - %Y - %C (V0)\%N - %T
- results in this folder being called "Queen - 1975 - A Night At The Opera (V0)"
- Naming scheme example 4: %N - %T
This naming scheme results in file names (track number - title) only, no directory will be created. You need to manually put the tracks into a properly named folder after you have finished ripping. The advantage is that you will not have to edit the cue sheet after ripping, since the path to the files will not be included in the cue sheet if you do not make EAC create a directory for the files.
The various artists naming scheme is only used if you check "Various Artists" in the main EAC window before ripping a CD, see EAC Ripping Guide - 2. CD Information (scroll down a little).
- Various Artists example 1: %C (%Y)\%N - %A - %T
This naming scheme will make EAC create a directory and file names looking like this:
- Various Artists example 2: %D - %Y - %C\%N - %A - %T
This naming scheme will make EAC create a directory and file names looking like this:
If you prefer "Various artists" to "Various", use "Various artists" instead of "%D" in the naming scheme, like this:
- Various Artists example 3: Various Artists - %Y - %C\%N - %A - %T
The resulting folder name would be "Various Artists - 1995 - The Very Best Of Irish Folk".
You can of course choose to just name the files in this step, and manually put them into a properly named folder after you have finished ripping. That way you will not have to edit the cue sheet after ripping, since the path to the files will not be included in the cue sheet if you do not make EAC create a directory for the files.
The naming scmeme would then be:
- Various Artists example 4: %N - %A - %T
- Oh, and please do not check "Replace spaces by underscores". It_looks_so_very_ugly.
3f. Catalog
Irrelevant for ripping quality.
3g. Directories
Irrelevant for ripping quality, but for privacy reasons, I recommend that you do not use a save path that contains your computer user account name. The log will contain the path of the directory where you saved your rip. That means that you should not, for example, save your rips in "My documents".
If you have only one un-partitioned hard drive, you can (for example) create a directory for your EAC rips right under root (C: ), and make it your default directory. That has the added advantage of keeping the path to the files short. As is all too well known, Windows has problems with files if their names, including the path, exceed 255 characters.
Note: If you set a default directory, this is where the cue sheet for your rip will automatically be saved. If you check "Ask every time" instead, a dialogue box for choosing where to save it will pop up as you create the cue sheet.
3h. Write
Irrelevant for ripping quality.
3i. Interface
- Try with the native interface first (if you have one):
However, if your drive(s) will not show up in the main EAC window, like this:
...or if EAC has problems detecting features when you get to the drive configuration, you need to add an ASPI layer to the EAC folder (as mentioned in EAC Installation Guide).
You can try the one from Nero (just copy it from Nero if you have it installed, or get it from here).
- After downloading it, right-click the file wnaspi32.dll and copy it, then browse to the EAC directory and paste it in that very folder.
Another option is to use ForceASPI (download from here: http://radified.com/ASPI/forceaspi.htm).
- If you use an external ASPI layer (that you paste in the EAC folder as detailed above), choose "Installed external ASPI interface" instead:
