Thought this might be useful for newbies to EAC, or people who have friends that want to try EAC but are intimidated by the configuration settings. http://www.chrismyden.com/nuke/article.php?sid=111 So you've heard all about Exact Audio Copy and it's ability to make flawless digital copies of audio cds, and now you want to give it a try. Maybe you've also heard it can be tricky to configure, and who really knows what the best options are anyways? And what about MP3s, how do you configure the LAME encoder to work with EAC? Well luckily for you, some of us have been using EAC & LAME for a long time, and we've come up with what we believe are the optimal settings for extracting audio and encoding it to MP3 format. We also wanted to make it as painless as possible for you to get started, so you can simply import our registry entries for EAC and get ripping right away! No need to mess around. Rip now, learn later! chris
Very well thought-out, chris. Despite your attempt to make things as painless as possible, it's still a somewhat daunting task for newbies to follow your detailed instructions, especially on the installation end. However I *do* applaud your providing such *clear* details; your article is very well documented, and that is what is most needed. For those of us willing to do things manually (as in your article), well, many of us have our own preferred software that has served us well. EAC is a fine program, yes, but I use AudioGrabber - have for years now - and have never looked back. Now --- I'm patiently waiting for your spin on "9 Steps To Creating The Best OGGs On Earth"! -- K.A. --
Hi A_Klingon, Just wondering if you could expand on what you mean by it still being a daunting task for newbies? I want to make it as easy as possible, and quite honestly I didn't think it could get much easier. But if there's something that you think could be made simpler, or clearer, please let me know so I can update it. chris
UPDATE: I added a [I need detailed help with this step!] link beside each step. Hopefully this will help people who are unclear about certain steps. I tried to make it as clear as possible, and literally gave step by step instructions. chris
My apologies if I respond late to anything. I'm not getting my 'has been replied to' notices like I used to (I don't think), because I just put in a new hard drive, had to reinstall my ISP, and frankly, I don't think my old email address is valid anymore. [pant....pant] OK, Chris, without wading through pages and pages of instructions, I can tell you that you have created a virtual encyclopedia of instructions for using EAC and Lame. It's too much, big fella, for the average schmoe (whoever that is) to digest. You have diligently covered just about every conceivable quirk and potential pitfall one would ever likely stumble across. I note your enthusiasm though! I think your pages are well though out, written, and presented. It must be a labour of love though, chris, because honestly, if * I * were looking to make good mp3s, and was somewhat of a newbie, I would find your instructions *way* too involved, even if most (or all) of them are necessary. That's just an opinion, not a fact. WAY TOO MANY PAGES !!!! When you start talking about dlls (Nero ASPI Layer DLL for XP & Win2K), as important as those issues are, I would tend to look elsewhere (myself), if only because I just don't know that much about highly-involved software installations/setups. Too busy.....too much.....most newbie people who are using the mp3 format still use 128 kbps cbr for god's sake. If your work is more aimed at the experienced user, then that would be more appropriate. I'm not criticizing you chris, not by a long shot! You've done a good job. Perhaps *too* good! (Forgive me, but I don't have the patience to go through all of the pages seeking specific "for instance's ". Best Regards, --- Mike, a simple-minded Klingon who doesn't use mp3s anymore anyway ---
lol alright.... i guess it just blows my mind that someone finds those 8 steps, two of which are optional, 'too involved'. To test the instructions, I had my aunt in England give it a shot. She knows next-to-nothing about computers, and usually only uses it for checking her e-mail, and certainly knows nothing about creating MP3s or using ripping software. She told me it took her about 3 minutes, and this is from a woman who finds using Hotmail daunting. But thanks for the comments. My next article will be titled 'How to have Chris come over to your house and set up EAC/LAME for you'.
Hi Chris & Kling, Well, here's another guide: http://liquid2k.com/artemis3 . This guy makes things VERY simple & clarifying. Artemis also covers OGG Vorbis and CDEx. Note that Artemis is really playing it safe by disabling C2 and Accurate Stream from the ripping options. When using quality drives (Read: Plextors), these should be enabled and improve your ripping speed.
oh.....my.....god. Please promise me you will not pass his tutorial on to anyone, it would be a great dis-service to anyone trying to create proper rips. "Make sure 'Accurate stream' feature is disabled" That's the whole point of EAC ! That's the feature that EAC uses to make sure the rips are correct. Without this feature on you may as well be using MusicMatch Jukebox!! As for C2 error correction, that should actually be disabled in EAC. Yes, you will get faster rips with it turned on, but C2 error correction has not been implemented 100% correctly on ANY drive. Even drives that claim to support C2, do not perform it correctly 100% of the time. The author of EAC has said publicly that he has never seen a drive that performed C2 error correction perfectly 100% of the time. (Which makes me wonder why he keeps it in EAC). As for caching.... Some drives cache audio data, others do not. If your drive DOES cache audio data, you should place a checkmark beside 'this drive caches audio data'. If your drive does NOT cache audio data, you may remove the checkmark. Why does it matter? If your drive DOES cache audio data, and you take off the checkmark, EAC will read the same data twice from your CD both times. What does this mean? It means if there's an error, EAC will not find it. FAIL SAFE SETTINGS (100% perfect rips on any drive) - accurate stream DEFINITELY on, for ANY drive. (otherwise it's all pointless) - C2 off. - checkmark beside 'this drive caches audio data', unless you are absolutely, positively sure your drive does not cache audio data. (Even different firmware on a drive can cause your drive to go from a non-caching drive to a caching one). EAC is the best ripper in the world, but there is no point in using it if you do not configure the options correctly for your drive. I see what you mean by his clear tutorial though, I like the images he used. With my registry import however, it sets ALL the proper settings, including all of the options on every option menu in EAC, for optimum rips. And it also configures EAC to use the fail-safe mode I described above. But the most important thing is that accurate stream feature....I need to contact this guy right away, maybe there was a language barrier issue. chris
WoW! You have a *very* smart aunt in England! (I would be embarrased if I could, but I know no shame). <gg> Thanx Lasse, will check out the link to Artemis's take on ogg. -- K.A. --
Chris, Are you sure about the Accurate Stream - meaning that it would harm quality to leave it disabled? To what you say about C2 and CACHE I totally agree. Although, Plextor users can quite happily enable C2 I think. I am just experimenting with my new Samsung DVD-ROM which shows good ripping promise speed-wise, but yes the C2 is once again totally in accurate. I think I'll send my busted 4yr old Plex32TS for servicing @Plextor.be
cd-rw.org: YES! Trust me......leave this option enabled. Check any tutorial (except for that one) on EAC and you'll see that it needs to be on. As for C2, yes the Plextor SCSI's perform it better than any other drive, but even they are not 100% accurate all of the time. If you want to be absolutely, positively sure, one should leave it off. But if there was one drive I had to leave it enabled on, it would be the Plextors. Many of the new high-speed DVD-ROM drives can rip at high speeds in secure mode, and they're cheap too. Another drive I recommend is the Teac (540E) 40X. Search for it on Ebay and you will find a guy selling them brand new for $9.99 ! ($15 to 'buy it now'). It is a quality drive, and has amazing DAE speed. chris
CMyden, I asked around and it seems that enabling Accurate Stream on drives that do not feature it may harm the resulted rips. The A.S. tells EAC that the drive can rip without jitter errors. If you enable it on a drive that does NOT have accurate stream, you may end up with clicks pops. Disabling A.S. from the menu enables EAC to synchronize between sectors.
cd-rw.org: This is true, but you should also know that there are only 3 or 4 drives in existence that do not support accurate stream, and they are no longer in production. (3 are made by Aopen/Afreey, one is by Mitsumi). You can use the following as a reference: http://www.ping.be/satcp/eacoffsets01.htm#- It is a listing of practically every drive out there, and the features they support. Check the fourth column. For the 0.1% of unfortunate drive owners that do not have accurate stream they are to use the TEST & COPY function in EAC for best results. chris
Yes, so nobody seems to disagree here. Accurate Stream should be turned ON in most cases (EAC can test A.S. feature), but it is not REQUIRED to be on. Also, I beleive that many older CD-ROM drives may not have the A.S. feature and yes, there are such drives still around. So in these crappy non-A.S. drives it should not be enabled.
Finally Artemis3 responded with his opinion about the accurate stream. I agree with him. Unfortunately he posted his response to the "ghost forum" of Audiofora.com (it's no longer maintained by anyone). --- By Artemis3 at Audiofora.com --- Ah yes, the "Accurate Stream" feature, reading the pop up help, it says: "This options should be set, if your drive has an accurate stream, meaning that it won't jitter, thus no jitter-correction has to be performed anymore. If your drive supports this feature could be tested using the function at the bottom". Someone said at that forum that this single feature was the whole point of using EAC... As if not using it implied not using secure mode Well, the answer is very simple: Who do you trust more? Your hardware, or your software? The worst case scenario was the reason of picking that choice. You were right in that. I have tried EAC with many drives, some old, some new. Yes most current drives claim to support "accurate stream", but have they always worked as advertised? I know some really cheap 52x+ cdrom units that will happily make a mess In the end, attempting to perform jitter correction in software "just in case" won't do more harm, would it? Maybe they could ask EAC's author. I can't see where the harm is done if some newbie follows the guide. Someone may wonder about the simplicity of the guides. Well, i don't want to scare away potential users of the mentioned tools, and, if they really feel they want to know more about it, they will find the information. Besides, my guides aren't the ultimate truth or anything either --- end ---
