Print
There was a time when ripping a CD was a time-intensive, error-prone process. But these days, with programs like iTunes turning the task into a one-click affair, CD ripping has become fast, easy, and reliable enough that backing up your music library is more simple than programming a VCR. However, using a program called Exact Audio Copy, you can achieve even better-quality rips than you can with generic music library managers.
EAC is an “audio grabber,” or ripping program, that’s beloved by the digital music world. It has earned this adoration by providing the tools needed to make the most accurate rips possible, with the fewest errors, and giving you complete control over how your MP3s are tagged and organized. And although getting EAC set up is a little more complicated than, say, iTunes, we’ll walk you through the process, and show you that it’s not that hard to make top-quality audio rips.
Before we install EAC, we have to install LAME. LAME, short for Lame Ain’t an MP3 Encoder, is in fact an MP3 encoder. It allows EAC to take the raw .wav files ripped from the CD and compress them into more useful high-bitrate MP3s.
The LAME homepage provides information about the encoder and offers its source code, but you can download pre-compiled executables of the LAME code at RareWares. If you download the zipped binaries from RareWares, there’s no installation to speak of—you just unzip the files, including LAME.exe, into a folder and you’re good to go. We recommend putting them in a subdirectory of Program Files.
Next, you’ll need to visit the EAC website and download the latest version of the software. Run the executable, and install it wherever you like. Pay attention during the installation, as EAC will try and slip an eBay button onto your system, unless you uncheck the box when it asks which features you want installed.
Once the installer is finished with its work, EAC will launch and the configuration wizard will start. Here, it will attempt to locate the drive you’ll be using to rip CDs; confirm that it has found the correct drive, or select the one you wish to use. When the wizard asks if you want to focus on speed or ripping accuracy, select ripping accuracy.
Now, EAC will run diagnostics on your CD drive. You’ll be asked to insert a clean music CD, so pick an unscratched disc from your collection, pop it in, and press Next.
Assuming there were no problems with your CD drive, you’ll be able to click through a few more install screens, until it asks you what sort of compression you want to use. Select the MP3 option. It will then inform you that you need an MP3 encoder, which you’ve already downloaded, so browse to the folder holding the LAME.exe file when EAC starts searching for it.
Now, you’ll be asked to enter an email address, which is required for you to access the freeDB online ID3 tags database. Finish off the configuration wizard by selecting a file naming scheme for your rips from the huge selection in the dropdown. When prompted, choose to run EAC in expert mode.
Now that the configuration wizard is done, there are still a few more options to change to get the most out of EAC. First, go to EAC > Drive Options, and dismiss the warning box that pops up. Now, insert a scratched CD into your drive, and click the Examine C2 Feature button. If EAC tells you that your drive is capable of finding C2 error information, check the box next to “Drive is capable of retrieving C2 error information.” This will noticeably increase the speed of your rips.
Comments are closed on this article
vintagegold
March 04, 2010 at 10:42am
As I understand it, the point of this article is to help users create archival quality MP3s. With that in mind, the command line switch used can be simplified.
Here's what's suggested:
%l-V 5%l%h-V 0%h --vbr-new %s %d
Here's all you need:
-V0 %s %d
The %l-V 5%l and %h-V 0%h portion isn't needed because they indicate to use low quality or high quality, respctively, according to what radio button you select on the Compression Options -> External Compressoin tab. If High quality is selected, and all the user should be using, the other portions can be exluded.
Also, according to Hyrdorgen Audio's Wiki on LAME, as of LAME 3.98, --vbr-new is no longer needed.
"Note: The switch --vbr-new, which enabled a superior VBR mode in LAME 3.97 and some previous versions, is no longer needed with LAME 3.98 as it is now the default VBR mode. However, if you're still using LAME 3.97 or older, you have to add --vbr-new to your commandline to use that mode."
-V0 %s %d will do everything you need.
bryan587
March 10, 2012 at 9:06pm
In EAC 1.0 beta 2 and onward, the replacement strings have changed:
-V0 %source% %dest%
AtomicKitten
February 26, 2010 at 8:22pm
I always save CD music in WAV format, becuase the audio quality is preseved and the file format is compatible with any system, even a Windows 3.1 system, lol.
I will only use MP3 for portability, but not for main listening use. MP3 is LAME!
livinia
August 11, 2010 at 2:14am
Thanks for the info
I use [audio CD Ripper] as its easy & simple , fast while ripping , supports many extensions & it has a sweet interface ]
U can try it here :- http://www.softwareclub.ws
aftono
January 15, 2010 at 9:33am
Rip CDs to FLAC format to archive and mp3 for portable players, it's normal for me.
WolfieLee
January 20, 2010 at 8:46am
Here's my 2...er, 3.5 cents worth:
1.) IF you want ARCHIVAL back-ups, then go with a lossless format (or a straight, FULL WAV)...EAC CAN do that, so I don't feel it is all THAT misleading...it is all a matter of configuring it to do so. You can even SAVE the WAV files instead of deleteing them after the MP3 encoding (one simple config. option); THAT way, you get BOTH a purely digital reproduction, AND a High Quality MP3 for your car, ipod, and such.
2.) If you want SPEED(TheSimulatorGuy), you can just run it without error correction (Un-Secure mode), and it'll give you a ONE pass rip, scratches, skips, and pops, and ALL(or, just continue to use CDex)....un-secure mode is GREAT for BRAND NEW CD's. But if you have old, scratched - up CD's that are long overdue for replacement, have no FEAR, secure mode continues to re-read the same segment over and over until it gets so many MATCHING samples of the DIGITAL information, EXCLUDING any distortions caused by the scratches, fingerprints and What-Not. That is the WHOLE idea behind the project (EXACT Audio Copy, EAC), and trashing this FREELY AVAILABLE piece of code is simply a waste of your breath (or keyboarding). CDex does not offer this error correction, I checked the specs.
3.)Years ago (April, 2004, to be exact...I STILL have a copy of the article I made), when MaxPC put out a similar article, and I followed all the instructions for all of my CD's, most of my collection went very smoothly in secure mode, (3 to 7 minutes, depending on the MINOR CD flaws)...but I had ONE CD where the last song was COMPLETELY trashed...IF an audio player or CD player even gave you any sound AT ALL, it was just a bunch of garbled NOISE...and that ONE song happened to be one of my absolute favorites, so it was worth it, to me, to let EAC do it's thing....and 24+ hours later, I had a NEARLY pristine copy....it DID have two loud POPS in it, but, as bad off as it was to begin with, EAC totally proved itself to me.
.5)Also, once it is configured properly, it is TRULY as simple as 1,2,3...1.)Fire up EAC;2.) insert disc;3.) click and go...It pulls Artist, Title, and Song info from FreeDB and TAGS everything Automatically.
PEACE
Olmec
December 19, 2009 at 9:45pm
Then your point is to use mp3 as a format to use in a car stereo or portable player and not for archival purposes...
Rymech99
December 17, 2009 at 9:34am
I have ripped all my music CDs to "lossy" high-bitrate MP3's for use in my car stereo (I can load up a CD full of MP3's or even use up to a 32GB thumb drive), but I also took the time to make "archival copies" of all 650 of my CDs with CloneCD on a massive RAID array drive, and then threw the actual CDs in storage.
What car stereo plays FLAC or AAC? For that matter, what car stereo could do FLAC justice vs a mid-bitrate MP3?
I guess if I cared more about high-end (ie, irrationally expensive) home stereo equipment than high-end (yes, perhaps irrationally expensive, but I lot it) gaming computer/video equipment then I'd worry about FLAC.
Building PC's is a sweet hobby, but it takes a lot of cash to keep up...
torrid
December 13, 2009 at 7:54pm
Nice to see another article on EAC. I'll leave the MP3 vs FLAC arguments to others. (But I'm a FLAC person myself.) What I want to know and see is an Exact Audio Copy installation on Windows 7. While I have yet to try it myself, a simple search will show that there are a number of problems with EAC in Windows 7. Many can be worked around, but I want it to work as well as it did on XP!
Help me Maximum PC. Will Smith says it's his goal to re-rip all his old CDs using EAC...does he plan to do it using 64-bit Windows 7? Please tell us how to do it right.
Torrid
wishbar
December 25, 2009 at 3:09pm
Just loaded it on Win 7 Home Premium x64, works like a charm, as per the instructions in the article.
Sherm
Danthrax66
December 03, 2009 at 6:36pm
Watch out one of the download links for EAC takes you to a German website and the file contains a trojan according to MSE. DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE FILE FROM HERE:http://www.digital-world.de/artikel/_Downloads/1253374/exact_audio_copy_099_prebeta_5/1 It has a trojan WATCH OUT.
Olmec
November 26, 2009 at 12:38pm
Check this out
http://www.stereophile.com/features/308mp3cd/index.html
Olmec
November 26, 2009 at 11:55am
Well You can argue that for most people there is no diference between an mp3 at high bit rates and a file on a lossless format. You may be right. Nevertheless mp3 being a loosy format it could not be considered as a format for archival purpouses. Then, what are the advantages of a mp3 file over a loosless codec like flac or ape? First I think is the software support. For mp3 there are plenty of software that support the format, you can not make the same argument for Flac or ape. Hardware support? I mean, you can play an mp3 almost on any device, including portable playes or car stereos, you have a few choices of portable players that support loseless files, and I am not aware of any car stereo that can handle them.
Having say all the above I can make a few remarks
a) You can use mp3 for your portable player or car stereo, not for archival purpouses
b) If you are in to digital archiving your music collection, I think the way to go is to use a secure ripper like EAC or DBpoweramp and a loseless codec. With the price of hardrives today, that is totally feasible.
c) I will not recomend using either wmp or I tunes ripping functions since they are not secure. EAC as cumbersome as it can be for some, is the way to go.
o1d_dude
November 25, 2009 at 6:20pm
I spent half an hour struggling to get the additional command line parameters to parse from EAC into LAME.
It wasn't until I realized there were spaces omitted between two of the parameters that it all came together.
Here's the string that worked for me:
%1-V 5(space)%1%h-V 0(space)%h --vbr-new %s %d
The codeword (space) shows the two locations where I added a single space to the command string.
My 60 year old sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll ruined ears can hear the difference between high quality EAC rips and what iTunes produces in any of its lossy formats. EAC just sounds better to me. YMMV.
To0nces
January 13, 2010 at 4:56am
Well doesn't iTunes bitrate cap out at 128 or 192 kbps? That's pretty low. I rip my mp3's at 320 bit rate. Not saying you still wouldn't notice a difference but iTunes sucks for quality.
madmort01
November 24, 2009 at 4:28pm
I appreciated this article. The MP3s I've made are noticeably better than tracks converted with iTunes. ...Now i just have to drag out all my CDs again...
"Do you feel the force!?!?!...What about now?"
Quakindude
November 24, 2009 at 9:56am
I can see why this would be attractive. Some folks, like myself, have cars that only play MP3's on their radios. Not only that, but not everyone is really into the whole digital music ripping thing themselves, they just know MP3 and that's it. They don't bother with FLAC and other lossless audio formats because of a couple of reason I can think of off the top of my head. 1. They aren't techie enough to know about other formats, much less how to go about using them and 2. most people simply cannot tell the difference between a high bit-rate MP3 and a FLAC ripped track.
The article appeals to many people for a variety of reasons. For me, I like using FLAC for archiving, but would prefer a high quality MP3 rip for my cars. After all, just about everyone can tell the difference between a low quality MP3 rip, like one done by iTunes, and a high quality MP3 rip.
MaximumPC Moderator
***The views I express are my own and do not represent the views of MaximumPC Magazine or Future US.***
LatiosXT
November 24, 2009 at 9:49am
While I agree the whole article title is misleading, to be honest with you, if you really want to archive the CD, rip it once and store it in some place and never use it again.
Oh and rip it in MP3, because many tests will tell you that a majority of folks can't tell the difference between high bitrate MP3s and FLAC.
To0nces
November 23, 2009 at 10:36pm
I'm just curious why anybody would bother going to this length just to rip a CD to mp3 format?
If you want to archive your music, rip it to FLAC or just make a backup of the disc itself.
To0nces
January 13, 2010 at 4:58am
I hate iTunes. Low bitrate and DRM (yeah I know you can get rid of your DRM for a fee or whatever it is they did). I just buy CD's cheap on amazon.com and then rip them to 320 kbps MP3.
themohawkadmin
November 24, 2009 at 8:24am
You would do this if you cared about the audio quality. iTunes is known for having a relatively poor MP3 encoder. The LAME encoder can create a file with better sound quality in the same size file.
But I agree with simplymortified, the best way to archive a CD is to rip it to a lossless codec, such as FLAC, WAV, or even ALAC for you apple lovers.
gothliciouz
February 02, 2010 at 9:58pm
not if you use the aac encoder, heck it is even proven to be better than mp3 at a certain bitrate, also if i want lossless audio, i use the apple lossless encoder whis is much better than wav encoder and if you want true backup, make an iso image of your disc, simple as that.
simplymortified
November 23, 2009 at 4:04pm
Actually the only true archival 'copy' (and in the archiving sense I define a copy as something that is in no way qualitativly different from the original) of a CD is uncompressed Audio. Anything else (no matter how close) is a degraded or changed copy. Even an uncompressed copy should only be called an access or reference copy. A true archive copy of a CD would nessicitate buying a second copy of the CD and boxing it. Sorry if that is a bit pedantic, but I am a practicing archivist and peoples use of 'archive' in the IT field annoyes me. In this case Backup would be more appropriate.
Cheers,
Richard.
JohnnyCNote
November 23, 2009 at 3:41pm
Whenever I try to download EAC from the link provided in the article on this site I get a virus warning. There are too many red flags associated with this whole deal to lead me to give it a try . . .
bear
November 24, 2009 at 8:27am
The virus is a false alarm. Check out http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/0ceb774733da31290a7eeca996e58f5dc0f3e8cc6cac79b01cfaeedb904c26aa-1258802758
===============================================
then (adverb) \'then\: denotes time
than (conjunction) \'than\: denotes comparison
ex., 1 is first, THEN 2; but, 2 is more THAN 1.
Sina
November 23, 2009 at 2:33pm
max pc, this article is crap, read this:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=28124
phanboy4
November 23, 2009 at 2:06pm
If you're going to jack up the MP3 bitrate that high you might as well use FLAC, which actually *is* archival quality. MP3 is lossy, which makes it a poor choice for archiving, and it isn't very efficient to create huge high-bitrate MP3s that are still lossy.
chris.peplin
November 23, 2009 at 2:21pm
Seconded - I screamed out loud when I saw "archival" and "MP3" on the same page of the magazine.
TheSimulatorGuy
December 22, 2009 at 3:22am
Fuck EAC. CDex will rip cd's that EAC will choke on. I let EAC work on a cd overnight and it did nothing. Same cd, same drive and CDex ripped it in ten minutes. At 320
