Hi everyone, I'm kinda new to all this so please forgive if I'm missing the obvious.

Here's the story so far: Downloaded itunes as I'm purchasing ipod soon. Began importing my cd collection. I noticed many skips and glitches even on new cds after importing - very annoying! Found EAC software and LAME, downloaded and configured to teqnilogik's tutorial.

When I rip in secure mode, rips take a looooooooooong time as the drive speed runs at less than 1X, often even as slow as .1X. I have an 2005 compaq presario laptop with pioneer cd/dvd drive. Any ideas on what could be wrong? Or is this just the speed I'm going to get out of my drive in secure mode?

Other thoughts: Teqnilogik also shows how to configure for test & copy mode. I set up this profile as well when configuring EAC. If I can't figure out faster speeds for secure mode, I was thinking of going through test & copy mode first, then secure mode on any tracks that showed errors. Finally, I did also try dBpowerAMP ripper, but also did not catch all the skips like EAC....

It's the speed you'll get out of your drive ... that's it.

You have two possibilities ... 1) get yourself an external USB/Firewire drive with good ripping like an external LG DVD writer (roughly 60€) or 2) live with the low ripping speed and switch from secure mode to burst mode with T&C ... I guess ripping would turn out at 4-6x in burst mode.

Hi agorena,

I can definitely sympathize with you as I went through the same problems with bad rips from iTunes

I haven't heard of teqnilogik's tutorial, but this is the one I used when getting started with EAC, and it's recommended by a lot of members here at HA. I believe the author is a regular here.

http://users.fulladsl.be/spb2267/

This HA Wiki articles about EAC and configuring EAC for lame is also very helpful:

http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=EAC
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=EAC_and_Lame

Getting speeds at less than 1x is unusual, even for secure mode. Might be something with you drive configuration. I think you have a little confusion about "secure mode" and "test and copy". People typically use EAC in either secure mode or burst mode, and you can choose to test and copy in both cases. There's a recent discussion on burst mode here, I'd elaborate but unfortunately I need to go now!

RM - you're right about burst and secure, I meant t&c in burst mode. I'll definitely check out the other tutorial.

JeanLuc - you may be right about the drive speed.....kinda sucks.....

On a happier note, since this post, I downloaded and tried foobar with success! Don't know why, but all the problem skips and glitches from everyother rip did not appear with the foobar rip. Now I just need to figure out how to configure the software since I can't figure out how to get the artist, album and track titles on the rips....