27 Jan 2007

How To Make Quality Cd Rips, Detailed walkthrough

> How To Make Quality Cd Rips

EAC is an excellent proggy but it can be a little daunting to set up for a novice user. This should take care of all setup issues that are neccesary to make the best rips.

This was originally posted by Bliggy at Kerrazy-torrents.com so all the thanks goes to him...

Installing EAC:

Download Exact Audio Copy (EAC) http://www.exactaudiocopy.org/eac095pb5.zip
You'll need WinZIP or similar to extract the files. EAC does not have an installer so you may wish to extract it to the directory where you wish to keep it... For example C:\EAC or C:\Program Files\EAC

If you wish to make mp3s then you will need LAME.exe:
LAME version: 3.97 beta 2 (Win32 compile including lame_enc.dll and lameACM)
Extract it wherever u want to.

Go to your EAC directory and click on EAC.exe

The first time you run EAC the Setup Wizard will pop up.

Select which drive you wish to use. Click next.
Select "I prefer to have accurate results". Click Next
Select "I don't trust these values, detect the features for my drive". Click Next.
Insert any audio CD into your drive and click Next again to run the auto detect. Wait... click next and next again.

At this point you can choose to setup your mp3 encoder, LAME.exe. If you chose to do this then make sure the "Install and configure..." box is checked and click next. EAC will attempt to fine LAME.EXE on your HD... if it does not then point it to the directory that you unzipped it to by clicking the Browse button.

Check "Use LAME standard settings." and if you wish check "Let EAC create ID3 tags...". Click Next.

Enter an email address so EAC can connect to freedb for you ID3 tag info. Click Next.

Choose "I am an Expert...". Click Next.

Congrats! EAC is Installed!

NOW... before u get ready to rip...

Tweaking EAC to perfection!

Click EAC > EAC Options or Press F9

In the Extraction Tab:
Check "Fill up missing offset samples with silence"
Check "Synchronize between tracks"
In the "Error recovery quality" dropdown menu select "High"
Leave the rest unchecked.

In the General Tab:
Check "On unknown CDs" select "automatically access freedb database"
Other options here are set to personal preference.

In theTools Tab:
Uncheck "retrieve UPC/ISRC codes in CUE sheet generation"
Check "Use CD-Text information in CUE sheet generation"
Check "Create '.3mu' playlist on extraction" *Optional*
Check: Automatically write status report after extraction
Uncheck "Activate beginner mode, disable all advanced features"

In the Normalize tab:
Bliggy Say's... DO NOT USE NORMALIZE
Just my opinion but normalize is evil. Google if u wanna know more...

In the Filename Tab:
This is also up to you. Mine looks like this.

%A\%C\%N - %T

So, if your default directory is C:\Rips then you rip will save like this...
C:\Rips\Artist\Album\01 - SongTitle.wav/mp3

In the Directories Tab:
Set your default directory here.

In the Write Tab:
Uncheck everything.

Click OK to close the EAC Options window.

NOW....

Click EAC > Drive Options... or F10

In the Extraction Method tab:
Check "Secure mode with..."
Under that...
Check "Drive has 'Accurate Stream' feature"
Check "Drive caches audio data"
DO NOT Check "Drive is capable of retrieving C2 error information"

Do No not use Paranoid, Synchronized or Burst mode!

In the Offset/Speed tab:
(here's where it gets fun)

Select "Use read sample offset correction."
To determine which value is correct you must find what brand/type of drive you have. You can find out by doing the following...
Start > Control Panel > System > Click Hardware Tab > Click Device Manager > Click the + next to DVD/CD Rom Drive then note down your make and model.

Then go here... http://www.accuraterip.com/driveoffsets.htm
Hopefully you will find that your drive has been tested and confirmed
In my case i have a LITE-ON LTR-24102B so looking at the list I see my Read Offset is +12 so I go into EAC to the "Read Sample Offset Correction" field and enter +12. Always use the + or - when applicable.
IF your drive is not listed... I'm sorry. You can figure it out here. http://pages.cthome.net/homepage/eac/setup.htm

Uncheck "Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out"
Check: Allow speed reduction during extraction

Well Done!

Now just put in a CD, let freedb find your CD, or enter the info manually, and click the WAV button. EAC is ready to extract perfect .wav files to your hard drive! From there you can use your favorite lossless/lossy converter and screw with it as you wish

Whats that? Want EAC to make your MP3s too? Lazy ass... well heres what ya do.

Click EAC > Compression Options or F11

In the External Compression tab:
Check "Use external program for compression"
In "Parameter Passing Scheme:" Select "LAME mp3 Encoder"
In "Use File Extension" type .mp3 (should be default)
Click Browse and point EAC to you LAME.EXE file if its not already loaded.
**Additional Command Lines See Below**
Set Bitrate to 192 (won't matter later)
Check "Delete wav after compression" optional
Uncheck "Use CRC Check" optional
Uncheck "Add ID3 tag" or it will give time-indication errors (the lame encoder will still add proper tagging).
Select High Quality

**Additional Command Lines***
For the sake of keeping things simple I'll give these options.
Copy any of these lines into the Additional Command Lines field:

--alt-preset standard
(Low/standard VBR)
--alt-preset extreme
(High VBR)
--alt-preset insane
(CBR@320)

Click OK to Exit the Compression Options Window
Insert you CD then click the MP3 button and wait for your (as perfect as possible) mp3s

If you wish your compressed audio to be in any other format or bitrate either..
A: Figure it out yourself.
or
B: Just use EAC to rip to wav then use a different program to encode.

Happy Ripping!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

SEO
vry handy, thanx a lot for this articlle ....... This is xeactly what I was looikng for.