Alright, I have found a few different recommendations on EAC setting to achieve lossless ripping, many of them contradicting others and some of them I know to be flat out wrong. So I would like to see some concensous on the correct settings.

What information have you seen that contradicts other information? Perhaps someone could help clear that up.

Your post isn't very specific and if someone was to answer it completely it would mean them effectively writing a complete guide just for you, covering every lossless encoder there is, since you haven't even stated which you'd like to use.

Its the same as ripping anything and lossless is lossless so quality is out of the equation. The most important thing is making sure the rip is glitch free i.e. - use eac secure mode. Some are a bit anal over this (some internet guides etc).

EAC Options:

Extraction Tab
[ ]Fill up missing offset samples with silence (*** says check- others say NO, which one?)
[ ]No use of null samples for CRC calculations (*** says check- others say NO, which one?)
[X]Synchronize between tracks (consensus of yes)
[ ]Delete leading and trailing silent blocks (*** says check- others say NO, which one?)
[X]Skip track extraction on read or sync errors (shouldnt affect rip, but I check yes for next 3)
[X]Skip track extraction after duration longer than X times realtime
[X]After each 30 minutes of extraction, cool down the drive for 5 mins
[X]Lock drive tray during extraction
Extraction and compression priority: Normal
Error recovery quality: High (consensus of yes)

General Tab
According to some guides the "Use alternate play routine" can affect ripping and should NOT be check, REX says check it, some say it doesnt matter for ripping. Does anything else on this tab matter for ripping?

Tools Tab
[X]Retrieve UPC/ISRC codes in CUE sheet generation
[X] Use CD-Text information in CUE sheet generation
[ ]Create '.m3u' playlist on extraction
[X]Automatically write status report on extraction
[X]On extraction, start external compressors queued in the background [1].
[X]Do not open external compressor window
[X]Submit drive features after detection
[ ]Activate beginner mode, disable all advanced features

Normalization Tab
NOT CHECKED!!!

Filename Tab
Naming Scheme: %A - %C - %N - %T
Various Artists: %C - %N - %A - %T

Catalog Tab
No idea what this tab is for and I havent changed anything but the numbers are 45, 0, 5, 5

Directories Tab
Doesnt seem to work to well. I would like to use the default directory in conjuntion with the filename to automatically create Aritst/Album/ directories in a default directory, but it never works

Write Tab
Nothing to do with extraction here

Interface Tab
Im using and installed ASPI


Drive Options

Extraction Method Tab
Secure Mode (after detect read features option is used, with appropriate settings)

Drive Tab
I have choosen autodetect for drive read command
Big endian and swap channels are off
Spin up before extraction is on

Offset / Speed Tab
Offset locked by AccurateRip
[X] Overread into lead-in and lead-out data (*** says check- others say NO, which one?)
[X]Allow speed reduction during extraction
[X]Check CD-Text Read capable drive

Gap Detection Tab
Gap/Index retreval method: Method A (I have no idea how to determine which to use, but Im using A)
Detection Accuracy: Secure

Edit: a particular guide/word is apparently banned/censored on this forum and has been replaced by ***?

Below is for FLAC:

Compression Options

External Compression Tab
[X]Use external compression
User defined encoder
Use file extension: .flac
Program including path: -browse and select path for compressor-
Additional Command Line Options:
-8 -V -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" -T comment="%e" -T "comment=EAC (Secure Mode)" %s
Bit rate: shouldnt matter
[X]Delete wave after compression
[X]Use CRC check
[ ]Add ID3 tag
[X]Check for external compression return code

Offset Tab
[ ]USe offset detection for encoding and decoding Do NOT check this as it will add gaps to gapless music

Other guides found in this thread by Duble0Syx:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=26735

I'll give the input that I am pretty sure about.

If you are using the proper read offset you would want the first unchecked, since there won't be any missing offset samples.
Using null samples for CRC can be checked if you like, mainly it's to make sure you not using silence to compare CRC's, which even on a bad rip would give the same CRC. If it's that questionable and you are that concerned you'd want a new cd. So it's really a matter of how concerned you are about crc's, I use md5sums though if I am concerned.

I don't advise checking this if you after a 1:1 copy of a disc. The idea would be to keep everything from the original CD and checking this I think would compromise that.

In order to over-read into the area the area that the read-offset would require. If you had a read offset of +120 you'd need to be able to over 120 samples somwhere in order to get all of the track, although there would be no audible difference, 120 samples will be missing on the last track (or is it the first?). Note that not all drives can over read though. If you drive is unabe to do so you'll get a read or sync error at the end of a cd. I believe EAC needs to be restarted in order for the option to take affect as well. Over reading is required to get a 1:1 copy.

It depends on the drive, some can't use method A.

I'd also like to point out that disabling C2 correction is also recommended since a lot of drives report they can use it but don't do so very well. Also checking "Drive caches..." is also recommended even if a drive does not. It will not affect drives that do not cache, and it extremely god on drives that do.
Anything else your curious about?

The most important part is that your drive can overread into the offset value (which is rather rare). This is nessary for a true lossless copy.

I used this guide and two things changed in an undesirable way. Unfortunately I didn't backup my EAC settings. Anyone know which settings resulted in:

The "copy image & cuesheet - compressed" command now creates a cuesheet with multiple filenames, one for each track. Before it created only one filename, like when createn cuesheet for single wav.

Before, the "copy image & cuesheet - compressed" command wrote the log file before the compression started. Now it waits until compression is done.

Thanks. SS

Well, using my EAC guide shouldn't change things in a undesireable way. Perhaps you could explain how? Also, my guide has nothing to do with 1 file+ cue sheet rips. It helps if you understand the settings prior to changing them. IF you use cdimage+cue don't use my guide as it is in no way intended for that, although making the changes for that purpose would be easy. You'd only need to change a few things. Also the guide does not at all deal with external compression settings. Sounds like "On Extraction, start external compressors queued in the background" isn't checked, since it really has nothing to do with the rip. The setting is under "EAC>EAC Options>Tools."

I'd be interested to know what setting this is.

As it is my log file gets written once you close the EAC dialogue - a manual process. If it could be written even before my batch files (External Encoder) run that would save a little work (the need for me to press a key at the end of the process ).

Eli, have you checked out the Exact Audio Copy Tutorial? They have recommendations and explanations for each individual setting within EAC.



~esa

I think this is still the setting that I am least sure about

This is from the EAC Tutorial:

"Fill up missing offset samples with silence:
(Default: Enabled, Recommended: Enabled)
When using offset correction (see later), without the drive being able to overread into lead-in/lead-out, this flag specifies if the missing samples should be filled with silence to maintain the correct track length or just left out, resulting in a WAV file with missing some samples. Since we want to get extraction results as close to the original as possible enable this option."


Does that help?



~esa

I read that, and guess I will go with checked...

BTW, if your drive can over-read fine I believe it is best to uncheck it, just incase that is not clear.

I heard it didn't make any difference if you don't use any offset correction (which most people seem not to). Is this true?

Will EAC still make a "perfect" rip/wav without offset correction?

No.

Why not? On a drive that doesn't read into the lead-out, read offset correction won't get you a rip any more "perfect" than not using it. On most CD's, what you're not getting is silence, and EAC handles that case very well.

Although there are threads (here? On the EAC forum? Both?) which question the actual value of read offsetting. I don't do it, but others do. I do know that you can certainly get a SECURE rip with no offsets.

So IMO, "perfection" is in the eye of the beholder.

I just didn't think it would be so hard, as it apparently is, to read a bunch of 1's and 0's and write them to a HDD

EAC's aim is to make the CDA sound wave = the final WAV wave am I right?

BTW, What is offset correction anyway? How can it/does it affect the final ripping outcome?

Detailed explanation here:

http://users.pandora.be/satcp/eacoffsets00.htm#-

http://users.pandora.be/satcp/eacoffsets02.htm#-



~esa

Thanks for that. Makes things more complicated than they first appeared when ripping.

Does that mean that an "uncorrected drive" will clip bits from the first and/or last track of a particular CD?

E.g. If everything's shifted, the full data in track 2 would be read and ripped, but track 1 may be clipped by a certain number of samples

(Assuming that an "uncorrected drive" means that the read and write offset values have not been correctly entered into EAC) Yes... and it will mark the tracks in slightly different positions as compared to the source CD.

But remember, we're talking about milliseconds here. (In my case, there is a combined read/write offset correction value of +126 samples, which is equal to 0.00285 seconds, or 2.85 milliseconds.) Offset corrections are definitely in the perfectionist's realm...

maybe you find answers in my experiences. see at http://www.high-quality.ch.vu
I am now using eac, wavpack 4.1 with -h -m, but will try out soon -x(4) instead -h, as somebody reported, that -x will result to same compression than -h high mode, but decoding faster or with clearly less cpu load.
eac settings depend a little bit on your specific drive, if you want extract fast and safe !
According to my experience, test & copy with same crcs for a track are the only warranty, that eac extracted securely without need to listen to everything. So my preference for track (& cue), not image & cue extractions, as single problem tracks are faster reripped than whole images.

If the offset is constant, why can't drive makers make a 0 offset drive? Seems weird to me.

In any case I've been using the AccurateRip web site for information: http://www.accuraterip.com

There's tools available to discover a drives offset (and hence correct it within EAC)

Using their drive offsets page, I've found that my LiteOn drive has an offset of only +6, which is no much to worry about at all. I'd probably worry about it, when it's above a few hundred samples (the "worst" drive has an offset of +1292, which still isn't extremely significant for some, especially when creating lossy files. (not me, I like to be as "accurate" as possible ).

When archiving losslessly, I'd use the correction for sure