I have noticed a few people talk about embedding cover art into the mp3 files, and I was wondering what the command-line should read.

I am using EAC/Lame, and here is what I have:

-V 0 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" --tg "%m" %s %d

Sure, I can rip/compress this file, then import it into iTunes and then retrieve the cover art, but then when I open Tag & Rename I can see it's not embedded into the file.

Any assistance is greatly appreciated I have googled and searched all over the place!

Welcome to Hydrogenaudio, ameliajune!
For what it's worth, the command switch for lame to embed albumart is where <file> is the file name, including full path, between parentheses.
You can read all about the lame switches by opening the command window, browsing to the lame directory, and typing
Problem is, I don't know if EAC will be able to automatically retrieve album art from databases. Maybe someone else knows this?

Personally, I usually rip my CDs to FLAC format using EAC and then I do additional taggning and embed album art in Mp3tag, which is a highly recommended program.
Like many others I also keep an image directory of MP3 files which I synchronize from my lossless FLAC files using a handy little perl script called "flac2mp3.pl". (There is a patch (#96) for this script which ensures that embedded album art is transferred correctly.)

The problem is that iTunes doesn't add the artwork to the actual ID3 tag within each file. Thus, the artwork is visible only to iTunes.

This link may help:
http://www.onetipaday.com/2006/12/31/how-t...s-using-itunes/

I think the easiest way to embed album art while ripping is to use dBpoweramp as the ripping application.

If you want to stick with EAC, you could use REACT to help you embed the artwork as part of the ripping (with encoding) process.

Alternatively, stick with EAC as normal and use a tagging application to embed the artwork after the ripping process.

Thank you for the welcome and the replies!

I should say, I am embarking on a ripping project with well over 1100 cd's and it is for someone else that isn't interested in Lossless (FLAC) so I'm just compressing straight to MP3.

Ok, so if I understand the command line --ti, I would have to know where to direct it, you're saying it doesn't automatically find the album art like it does the genre, etc.?

Yes, in iTunes 7 you can do that within the program (one plus for iTunes doing something good) but for that many albums and artists it would take FOREVER, so that's why I was looking for something to streamline it while ripping. After much research I decided to not rip with iTunes and go with MP3 VBR instead of AAC, and that's why I landed at EAC/Lame.

After hours of reading about all this, I thought EAC/Lame was the best way to go, but I don't know anything about how dbpoweramp compares?

I googled REACT but couldn't find anything?

Am I an odd ball out with the Album Art and it isn't that important to most?

I realise that this is strictly speaking off-topic, but are you absolutely certain that -V0 is necessary? -V2 or -V3 are still transparent to the vast majority of people and would save a lot of storage space in total if you're encoding over 1100 CDs.

Cheers, Slipstreem.

No, not completely sure! After hours of tests and reading I just now decided on the EAC/Lame Mp3 version, now I can test between V0 and V2. I was just going with what I thought was "the best" as space isn't really an issue (I saw a Seagate 1TB hard drive yesterday at Fry's for $199).

But back to the Cover Art issue....

Yes. EAC can retrieve the artist, album and track names, along with the genre and year, but that's it. --ti requires the path to an image file, and EAC does nothing about album art.

I'm not sure how iTunes works (I don't really use it), but if you used REACT you would use Album Art Downloader XUI (AAD XUI) to download the album art. This would still require a little time to pick the desired image; it is not fully automated.

dbPowerAmp is an excellent ripper as well. You do need to purchase it though. I don't use it, so have no idea how the album art retrieval works.

Sorry, check the wiki article.

REACT is generally use to enable EAC users to encode to multiple formats when ripping. However, it supports album art, using AAD XUI as previously mentioned. REACT can look a little daunting, as it uses batch file commands to do the encoding, but there are many users on this board that can provide help, if that is the way you go. I suspect dbPowerAmp may be easier (as previously stated), but if you want to set album art as part of your EAC ripping process then REACT may be the only option.

I think many just do this as a separate process to ripping. I don't use it, but sometimes I wish that I had bothered.

Exactly, it is just a switch for the command line with which Lame is called. The actual finding and downloading of the cover art (or other metadata) is not done by Lame.


I'm sure many will agree that dBPowerAmp/Lame is a very good alternative. EAC and dBPowerAmp are the two "kings" when it comes to secure ripping. (BTW Lame is just the MP3 compressor. It can be used with any application.)


REACT is an application built around EAC. See http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=REACT, and http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=50273


No, I agree with you. And I also think it is wise to embed it in the file. That way it will stay with the file and never get lost.

Edit: I see that Synthetic Soul was quicker with his answer.

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it. I guess I'll have to spend some time looking at dbpoweramp now, in comparison with EAC.

Rats, I really thought I had it figured out, but the cover art is stumping me and I'm a perfectionist (ugh) and want to get "the best" one.

I don't know if it makes that much difference, but I'm all for embedding it in the file. Less chance of it getting lost. I'll take a look to see if dbpoweramp embeds it in the file or just a .jpg within the folder. Do you know the difference or is it just convenience to have it in the folder as a jpg for later?

I did find in Tag & Rename how to do it selecting each folder, but again, with 1100 CD's I was hoping for something automated!

Thanks everyone! I have found that dbpoweramp embeds the art into the actual files AND puts a folder.jpg icon in the folder with the mp3s. On top of it the interface is really user friendly and it seems to conduct rips quite quickly.

Thanks again!!

Could you give an example please?

I use foobar with that command line:



Where do I put your "ti"?

... as an example.

Remember that the format for LAME is:


.. so basically anywhere before the "- %d" bit.

Thanks for that but what do I put instead of "file"?


I'm a little bit noob... What is that?

EDIT: I would like to keep the cover embedded into the flac file when I transcode it to mp3!

The <file> token represents the path to a suitable image file, e.g.:


Sorry. That was an attempt to demonstrate the basic syntax of a LAME command line.

Generally optional aspects are represented like this: [optional]; with mandatory elements like this: <mandatory>. With LAME any options are optional, and must come first; then you have a mandatory input file (which may be stdin using "-") and then an optional output file name (which may be stdout using "-").

I was merely attempting to explain that the tagging switch --ti needed to go in the [options] part of the command, anywhere before the input (file); the order of the options switches does not matter.

That is a different matter altogether, and IIRC that you have another thread regarding this. I can't help you here, sorry.

Thank you!

Unfortunately, if i embed the albumart with lame trough the command line parameter it doesn't show on my hardware player.

Mp3tag calls it an "other" album art. If i embed an albumart with mp3tag it is called "front cover" and my player can show it.

Is there an additional parameter for lame besides --ti to call the albumart "front cover"?