HydrogenAudio

Lossless Audio Compression => FLAC => Topic started by: Eli on 2005-01-26 06:19:09

Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Eli on 2005-01-26 06:19:09
This guide is now becoming out of date, but should still give a very good start. I have not personally used EAC since some time mid-07. I now strongly suggest using dBpoweramp Reference (http://www.dbpoweramp.com/cd-ripper.htm). Note, EAC is free, dBpoweramp is not, plus to get the real benefits you need the better (ie more expensive package - Reference, not powerpack). However, dBpoweramp outperforms EAC in secure ripping on drives with C2 handling (basically most modern drives), being both faster and more reliable. In my experience dBpoweramp is also more stable than EAC. dBpoweramp is also being actively developed and updated. Spoon, its developer, is an active member here at HA. dBpoweramp is much easier to set up and configure,  and features the best meta-data system available - PerfectMeta! A guide is available dBpoweramp FLAC guide (http://www.dbpoweramp.com/cd-ripper-setup-guide.htm)


First, install EAC V0.95 (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/resources/download/),  Accurate Rip (http://www.accuraterip.com/software.htm) and configure with a key disk, and FLAC (http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html)

EAC Options:

Extraction Tab
[X] Fill up missing offset samples with silence  *Optional. For drives that overread lead in/out  this is not needed.*
[ ] No use of null samples for CRC calculations  *Doesnt change audio*
[X] Synchronize between tracks
[ ] Delete leading and trailing silent blocks
[X] Skip track extraction on read or sync errors (wont 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: Medium **this is a change from my previous recommendation. This will decrease the number of error bars from 5 to 3. I have never had a rip go past 3 bars (really usually only 2 at most) and have an error free rip. Save the time. Plus its easier on your drive.

General Tab
doesnt 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 - **user option
[X] Automatically write status report on extraction
[X] On extraction, start external compressors queued in the background [1] - **user option.
[X] Do not open external compressor window - **user option
[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 (or as you prefer, check EAC's FAQ.txt)
Various Artists: %C - %N - %A - %T (see above)

Catalog Tab
Not important

Directories Tab
**user option.

Write Tab
Nothing to do with extraction here

Interface Tab
Not so important, you can use the Native one



Drive Options


Extraction Method Tab
Secure Mode (after "detect read features" option is used, with appropriate settings)
**It is also reasonable to use Burst Mode if you always use Shift-F6 (Test & Copy). It has been argued that this is more secure then secure mode and its tends to be faster. Burst mode alone (without Test & Copy) is not secure!
[X] Drive caches audio data (clears the drive cache)
[ ] Drive is capable of C2

Drive Tab
Autodetect for drive read command
[ ] Big endian
[ ] Swap channels
[X] Spin up before extraction

Offset / Speed Tab
Offset locked by AccurateRip
Overread into lead-in and lead-out data (You will need to test this one on a disc, if you get a read sync error on the first or last track of a new CD your drive cant overread and the option should be unchecked - this will mean that you loose the number of samples equal to your drive offeset on either the first or last song, the only solution is a different drive)
[X] Allow speed reduction during extraction
[X] CD-Text Read capable drive

Gap Detection Tab
Gap/Index retreval method: per drive setting (start with method A or B)
Detection Accuracy: Secure (some prefer to use accurate)


Compression Options

External Compression Tab
[X] Use external compression
User defined encoder
Use file extension: .flac
Program including path: -browse and select flac.exe-
Additional Command Line Options:
-6 -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
Bitrate: Doesn't matter
[X] Delete WAV after compression
[ ] 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

When ripping the tracks, I suggest using Shift-F6 (test & copy) to decrease the chance of having a bad rip go undetected. The CRCs should match for the T&C, if they don't there is a problem.

You may want to look for a drive that can overread into the lead in and lead out. You will need to get this feature to get 100% perfect copies of CDs, though you probably wont notice if you dont have it. A list of drive features can be found here:
DAE Drive Feature Database (http://www.daefeatures.co.uk/search.php?DAEDriveFeatures=f3aeb1b1f277ff54f146e959f49cdfdd) - look for green in the overread column. The smaller the read offset the better too.

Plextors are almost a universally good choice. I strongly suggest investing in a Plextor since you will be archiving your CD collection. Do it once and do it right. In addition, there is a switch available that works for most Plextor drives that disables the drives cache. This gives burst mode speeds (often >30x) in secure mode. Search the forum for the -USEFUA switch if you have a plextor drive.

Edit: Removed broken links.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Tomcat on 2005-01-28 10:24:42
About used commandline options:

Why -8? If we'll read comparison at http://flac.sourceforge.net/comparison.html (http://flac.sourceforge.net/comparison.html), we can see that -8 gives 55min to compression VS 12min at -5, and win 2.5MB from 413MB total. Is here a sense?

Why -V? Isn't it paranoya?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: westgroveg on 2005-01-28 10:52:03
Quote
Filename Tab
Naming Scheme: %N - %T
Various Artists: %C - %N - %A - %T

Why do you suggest to include the CD title with various artists albums & not with single artist albums?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: PachmanP on 2005-01-28 18:32:52
Quote
About used commandline options:

Why -8? If we'll read comparison at http://flac.sourceforge.net/comparison.html (http://flac.sourceforge.net/comparison.html), we can see that -8 gives 55min to compression VS 12min at -5, and win 2.5MB from 413MB total. Is here a sense?


I didn't see anywere on the flac page what speed cpu they were using to encode but on my 1.4 Ghz xp  it take usually only slightly more time to compress at -8 than to rip so seems like -8 makes sense.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Eli on 2005-01-28 19:23:27
encoding to -5 vs -8, on most modern computers will see little difference in encoding time. Plus encoding is a 1 time thing, so its my opinion that a little space savings is worth it. That being said, -5 is perfectly acceptable
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: darky on 2005-01-28 20:13:22
Quote
First, install EAC V0.95 (http://www.exactaudiocopy.org/), 
Directories Tab
%A/%C  - **user option. This will give you Aritist/Album file directories
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=268152"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Aritist
Thank you for this guide.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Tomcat on 2005-01-31 04:51:40
Because I'm working at time the flac is compressing. And i have not give any cpu_time for flac if isn't sense for this. About sense I've said: 55min vs 12min, when 411MB vs 413 MB differense.

2_PachmanP
http://flac.sourceforge.net/comparison.html (http://flac.sourceforge.net/comparison.html), that's here. I don'n know how to refer into middle of page, so find himself:
In the table with upper words "Here are the summary results for all codecs and all modes:", where column headers are "codec", "encode time", ''Decode time", "Compressed size", etc.
Here see two rows:
flac 1.1.1 (-8)   55:02.38   7:07.59   411.88 MB ...
flac 1.1.1 (-5, default)   12:54.19   7:08.80   413.46 MB ...
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: westgroveg on 2005-01-31 05:23:45
Quote
Quote
Quote
Filename Tab
Naming Scheme: %N - %T
Various Artists: %C - %N - %A - %T

Why do you suggest to include the CD title with various artists albums & not with single artist albums?
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=268842"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Since I also suggested Artist/Album file directories, which dont apply with various artist disks[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=268961"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

This would result in files named

TrackNumber-Title (for same artist albums)
CDTitle-TrackNumber-TrackTitle  (for various artists)

& are you suggesting various artist albums not have folders at all?

Still doesn’t make sense to me
Quote
First, install EAC V0.95, 
Directories Tab
%A/%C  - **user option. This will give you Aritist/Album file directories


The directories tab is obviously not meant for this, it’s meant for creating a standard extraction directory such as “EAC Rips”. Folder & file name constructions should be defined in the Filename tab.


Quote
Extraction Method Tab
[X] Drive has ''Accurate Stream' feature
[X] Drive caches audio data
[_] Drive is capable of retrieving C2 error infomation


If unsure, these are the drive features I would suggest, they are the most generic & safest.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Eli on 2005-01-31 06:18:55
oops, your right. Fixed
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: user on 2005-01-31 12:25:53
and drives, which don't have accurate stream ?


I have collected guides at www.high-quality.ch.vu = users' high quality Audio guides & tutorials for EAC exactaudiocopy, Musepack mpc & various Lossless formats like Flac, Wavepack, Monkey's Audio Ape (http://www.high-quality.ch.vu).

I go there through the whole procedure of configuring drives.
and useful flac setting are there, too, though I need some time for a general update of the guides, but they offer high value of information, even now.

Meanwhile personally I switched from flac -V (default) -5 to flac -V -8 , just to have those bit extra compression.
I encode most of my music still at P3-800 MHz, flac -8 is "speedy" for encoding (about 3x realtime of the music playtime iirc).

I used some time wavpack 4.1 -h -m ,
then wavpack 4.1 -x -m ,
the wavpack -x mode (x = extra , h = high mode) sqeezes space whilst offering nearly same decoding speed like flac.
But unfortunately, wavpack 4.1 -x -m encodes only in 1x speed, realtime of the playtime music, on my system, the reason, why I went back to flac -8 for the moment.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: westgroveg on 2005-01-31 12:36:50
(user)
Quote
and drives, which don't have accurate stream ?


Every modern drive supports accurate stream just have a look at one of the drive settings databases. Anyway if your drive jitters & you have accurate stream enabled you will receive an error from EAC.

(Eli)
Quote
Filename Tab
Naming Scheme: %A - %C - %N - %T
Various Artists: %C - %N - %A - %T


File names should be as short as possible & because there is no need for them I think you should remove the the spaces.

To be consistent with your scheme you should add “Various Artists“ or “VA“ as the artist name for various artist albums.


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


would result in

Folder name = Artist-Album
File Name = TrackNumber-TrackTitle & TrackNumber-Artist-TrackTitle for various artists

the ideal naming scheme 
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Eli on 2005-07-31 14:49:32
Quote
Folder name = Artist-Album
File Name = TrackNumber-TrackTitle & TrackNumber-Artist-TrackTitle for various artists

the ideal naming scheme 
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=269668"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Well there are many different naming schemes, and I would argue that this is NOT the ideal, but its up to personal choice really.

I personally am divided between:

Artist/Album/# - Title

and

Artist/Album/Artist - Album - # - Title

The first option relies on the folder directory for part of the info (though all of it is stored in tags). The second option uses folders for easy navigation, but has all of the song info in the name so it can stand alone.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Calufraxis on 2005-07-31 18:03:44
Quote
I personally am divided between:

Artist/Album/# - Title

and

Artist/Album/Artist - Album - # - Title

The first option relies on the folder directory for part of the info (though all of it is stored in tags). The second option uses folders for easy navigation, but has all of the song info in the name so it can stand alone.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=316987"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


The only thing I've ever found with the second choice is if the title, artist, and album names are really long (mostly with Classical music with symphony names in the artist) is that the tracks cannot be recorded easily to DVDs because of filename length limitations. This is even with UDF style formatting, but is seldom a problem unless you are running checksum or parity applications.

-Cal
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Martin H on 2005-08-01 03:32:33
My ideal naming scheme :

Artist/(Year) Album/nn. Title.flac

-Martin.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: clintb on 2005-08-01 15:25:11
Quote
Quote

I personally am divided between:

Artist/Album/# - Title

and

Artist/Album/Artist - Album - # - Title

The first option relies on the folder directory for part of the info (though all of it is stored in tags). The second option uses folders for easy navigation, but has all of the song info in the name so it can stand alone.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=316987"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


The only thing I've ever found with the second choice is if the title, artist, and album names are really long (mostly with Classical music with symphony names in the artist) is that the tracks cannot be recorded easily to DVDs because of filename length limitations. This is even with UDF style formatting, but is seldom a problem unless you are running checksum or parity applications.

-Cal
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=317007"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Easily solved with a single FLAC image and cuesheet.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Martin H on 2005-08-02 02:07:54
Quote
Easily solved with a single FLAC image and cuesheet.

A couple of reasons as to why i prefer multiple tracks(without Cue Sheet) over images :

When ripping to multiple tracks, then the gaps are also perfectly copied(exept the part after the first 2 seconds - if present, of the pregap before track one), they are just not marked, which only means that i will not see a negative countdown between the tracks on the CD players display if burned to disc...

Many often say that they prefer images over multiple tracks because that they only have 'one file'(or two - if the Cue Sheet isn't embedded). When i rip an album to multiple tracks, then i have 'one directory' which holds the album + the tracks inside...

When ripping an album in EAC and one track has a read/sync error, then i go back and re-rip that single track until it's error free(if possible). If i ripped to image + Cue Sheet, then i would have to re-rip the entire CD again untill error free...

-Martin.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: user on 2005-08-04 13:26:22
Hi Martin,

very good summary, why I prefer ripping to single tracks, too, no huge image file.

May I copy your text, and implement(&reference to your nickname) it one day to www.High-Quality.ch.vu , if I find time for an update ?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: TCM on 2005-08-04 17:37:04
Quote
[ ]Fill up missing offset samples with silence
shouldn't this be on? one could argue that samples that are zero don't matter anyway but i see it this way: the length of a track is information, too. by cutting some samples off you are modifying information that could otherwise easily be preserved.

edit: that is also the sentiment why i rip full images + cue as opposed to single tracks. track gaps are information. by throwing them away you throw away information.

thoughts?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Mechannibal on 2005-08-04 18:43:01
Quote
[ ]Fill up missing offset samples with silence

I agree with TCM, I think this box should be CHECKED as well for the reasons listed.

In response to TCM's gap comment:

Rip full images + cue doesn't work with Test & Copy.

Track gap info can be retained by ripping with "gaps apppended to previous track" and creating a cue sheet with noncompliant mode. Append to previous track makes sense when thinking about how cd player and PC audio player would play the tracks.

The only downside with append to previous track is if the CD contained audio in the pregap before track 1, then it had no track to append to and the track is lost. Music hidden in track 1 pregap would have to be found on a CD player by starting track 1 and rewinding to hear it. To rip it I would use rip by Index for track 1 only and delete track 1 and save track 1 pregap (which i rename to track 0)

A good track 1 pregap solution for EAC was suggested here:
http://www.digital-inn.de/showthread.php?t=28892 (http://www.digital-inn.de/showthread.php?t=28892)
6th post down

Maybe Andre will implement the suggestion if enough people desire it?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: TCM on 2005-08-04 19:13:51
Quote
In response to TCM's gap comment:

Rip full images + cue doesn't work with Test & Copy.
i can and do easily overcome this by just doing the whole process twice. after all, you get a checksum displayed at the end for full images, too.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: lmpine on 2005-08-04 21:03:04
Quote
Quote
[ ]Fill up missing offset samples with silence
shouldn't this be on? one could argue that samples that are zero don't matter anyway but i see it this way: the length of a track is information, too. by cutting some samples off you are modifying information that could otherwise easily be preserved.

edit: that is also the sentiment why i rip full images + cue as opposed to single tracks. track gaps are information. by throwing them away you throw away information.

thoughts?
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=317873"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


I have a related question regarding “Fill up missing offset samples with silence” in EAC.  I too am ripping to FLAC using EAC ( I am ripping individual tracks, not images with cue sheets).  I have a Plextor Premium (external USB model) with the offset configured using AccurateRip.  I have ripped about 40 CD’s so far and I think everything is going fine.  The EAC report always shows “No Errors Occurred.”  The AccurateRip results vary against the database…it most cases I get all tracks accurately ripped although in some cases I get a message indicating that my CD is most likely a different pressing than the one stored in the database.

I have alternated using “Fill up missing offset samples with silence” and I don’t see a difference in either the EAC or the AccurateRip results.  Given that I am using the Plextor Premium (which supports over-ride into lead-in and lead-out…which I do have selected in EAC), is it safe to assume that I am getting rips with no missing samples; thus making the missing offset samples with silence selection irrelevant.  Is there any way for me to verify (beyond what I am already doing) that I am getting a bit for bit perfect copy?  Thanks in advance for your help.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: MarkK on 2005-08-04 21:12:35
Quote
Quote
Quote
[ ]Fill up missing offset samples with silence
shouldn't this be on? one could argue that samples that are zero don't matter anyway but i see it this way: the length of a track is information, too. by cutting some samples off you are modifying information that could otherwise easily be preserved.

edit: that is also the sentiment why i rip full images + cue as opposed to single tracks. track gaps are information. by throwing them away you throw away information.

thoughts?
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=317873"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


I have a related question regarding “Fill up missing offset samples with silence” in EAC.  I too am ripping to FLAC using EAC ( I am ripping individual tracks, not images with cue sheets).  I have a Plextor Premium (external USB model) with the offset configured using AccurateRip.  I have ripped about 40 CD’s so far and I think everything is going fine.  The EAC report always shows “No Errors Occurred.”  The AccurateRip results vary against the database…it most cases I get all tracks accurately ripped although in some cases I get a message indicating that my CD is most likely a different pressing than the one stored in the database.

I have alternated using “Fill up missing offset samples with silence” and I don’t see a difference in either the EAC or the AccurateRip results.  Given that I am using the Plextor Premium (which supports over-ride into lead-in and lead-out…which I do have selected in EAC), is it safe to assume that I am getting rips with no missing samples; thus making the missing offset samples with silence selection irrelevant.  Is there any way for me to verify (beyond what I am already doing) that I am getting a bit for bit perfect copy?  Thanks in advance for your help.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=317907"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Correct. If you have a drive that over reads, you don't have any missing samples to fill up with silence. The option doesn't have any effect in that case.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: lmpine on 2005-08-04 21:21:50
Quote
Quote
Quote
Quote
[ ]Fill up missing offset samples with silence
shouldn't this be on? one could argue that samples that are zero don't matter anyway but i see it this way: the length of a track is information, too. by cutting some samples off you are modifying information that could otherwise easily be preserved.

edit: that is also the sentiment why i rip full images + cue as opposed to single tracks. track gaps are information. by throwing them away you throw away information.

thoughts?
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=317873"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


I have a related question regarding “Fill up missing offset samples with silence” in EAC.  I too am ripping to FLAC using EAC ( I am ripping individual tracks, not images with cue sheets).  I have a Plextor Premium (external USB model) with the offset configured using AccurateRip.  I have ripped about 40 CD’s so far and I think everything is going fine.  The EAC report always shows “No Errors Occurred.”  The AccurateRip results vary against the database…it most cases I get all tracks accurately ripped although in some cases I get a message indicating that my CD is most likely a different pressing than the one stored in the database.

I have alternated using “Fill up missing offset samples with silence” and I don’t see a difference in either the EAC or the AccurateRip results.  Given that I am using the Plextor Premium (which supports over-ride into lead-in and lead-out…which I do have selected in EAC), is it safe to assume that I am getting rips with no missing samples; thus making the missing offset samples with silence selection irrelevant.  Is there any way for me to verify (beyond what I am already doing) that I am getting a bit for bit perfect copy?  Thanks in advance for your help.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=317907"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Correct. If you have a drive that over reads, you don't have any missing samples to fill up with silence. The option doesn't have any effect in that case.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=317910"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Thanks for the response.  Should I be doing something else to verify my rips to make sure that they are perfect bit for bit copies?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: MarkK on 2005-08-04 21:37:22
Quote from: lmpine,Aug 4 2005, 03:21 PM


Thanks for the response.  Should I be doing something else to verify my rips to make sure that they are perfect bit for bit copies?
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=317911"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
[/quote]

Matching CRCs with EAC's Test & Copy function in Burst or Secure is about as good as you will get at this point. Even better if that matches with AccurateRip results which says you got the same thing as someone else. You aren't really going to get bit for bit copies unless you address a whole lot of other issues like whether or not the beginning of the CD are null samples, whether you can overwrite in those cases, whether you have detected and handled CD-TEXT, ISRC codes, etc., etc. Be glad you get identical audio data and leave it at that 
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Mechannibal on 2005-08-04 21:55:54
Quote
Should I be doing something else to verify my rips to make sure that they are perfect bit for bit copies?
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=317911"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Test & Copy? The fact that accurate stream can result in different CRC's kind of worries me. Doing Test & Copy makes it a little bit more secure, but there is a chance that T&C passes and its still not a 100% bit for bit copy.

One time I had a problematic track on a scratched cd. I reripped it numerous times w/T&C, and I had matching T&C CRC's occur twice out of about 6 to 10 tries. The two sets of matching T&C CRC's were different.... I didn't truly trust EAC had ripped it ok.

For example:

Track 6:
Test CRC: Blah123
Copy CRC: Blah123

and ripping again until they both match...

Track 6:
Test CRC: Doh!456
Copy CRC: Doh!456

Uh oh, they match each other, but not if I rip multiple times!

Test & Copy seems to be useful because it can give you a heads up that the track might be suspicious.

Problably the best way would be to rip (which you are doing already, lmpine) with an offset corrected drive with EAC in secure mode (accurate rip enabled) and compare your hashes to the database of ripped cd's. Keep in mind the 1st and last track may have different hashes because of a drive's inability to overread into lead in/lead out.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: TCM on 2005-08-04 22:04:21
from what i understand, the "more sophisticated" settings of eac (accurate stream, c2, cache) only serve to speed the process up if the drive supports it. turning accurate stream and c2 off and turning "drive caches audio" on will increase the safety of the rip while making the process slower. what were your other settings when you got different checksum each time while not changing any settings? from personal experience i can tell that c2 error checking with lite-on drives is to be avoided.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Mechannibal on 2005-08-04 22:47:47
Quote
from what i understand, the "more sophisticated" settings of eac (accurate stream, c2, cache) only serve to speed the process up if the drive supports it. turning accurate stream and c2 off and turning "drive caches audio" on will increase the safety of the rip while making the process slower. what were your other settings when you got different checksum each time while not changing any settings? from personal experience i can tell that c2 error checking with lite-on drives is to be avoided.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=317922"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I was using a Lite On drive , but I was using the safest (slowest) settings:
Secure Mode with Accurate Stream,  Drive Caches Audio checked, C2 not checked.

I was sometimes getting matching CRC's with T&C, sometimes not matching. I did notice the CRC's it came up with would occur again, so it wasnt totally random. Mind you, the drive would slow down considerably at the rough spots of that track.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Martin H on 2005-08-04 23:54:18
Quote
Hi Martin,

very good summary, why I prefer ripping to single tracks, too, no huge image file.

Thank's user.   
Quote
May I copy your text, and implement(&reference to your nickname) it one day to www.High-Quality.ch.vu , if I find time for an update ?

Yes, and thank you very much. 
Quote
Keep in mind the 1st and last track may have different hashes because of a drive's inability to overread into lead in/lead out.

AccurateRip cuts 4 sectors of the start of the first track and 4 sectors of the end of the last track when calculating CRC's to avoid overreading issues...

-Martin.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: lmpine on 2005-09-23 03:29:16
Quote
Quote
Hi Martin,

very good summary, why I prefer ripping to single tracks, too, no huge image file.

Thank's user.   
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May I copy your text, and implement(&reference to your nickname) it one day to www.High-Quality.ch.vu , if I find time for an update ?

Yes, and thank you very much. 
Quote
Keep in mind the 1st and last track may have different hashes because of a drive's inability to overread into lead in/lead out.

AccurateRip cuts 4 sectors of the start of the first track and 4 sectors of the end of the last track when calculating CRC's to avoid overreading issues...

-Martin.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=317936"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]



OK...I am back and need some more help.  As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I am getting good results with EAC to FLAC using AccurateRip.  I am, however, getting some wierd AccurateRip results at times.  According to AccurateRip, the vast majority of CD's that I am ripping are either accurately Ripped, not in the database, or a different pressing.  There are several, however, that are giving me accurate rips on individual tracks and then non-accurate rips on other tracks.  In some cases the non-accurate rips are the first and/or the last tracks on the CD.  In other cases, the non-accurate track is a random track on the middle of the CD and all other tracks are stating that they are accurately ripped.

I assumed that the non-accurate rips on the first and the last track were related to the fact that my drive over-reads into lead-in and lead-out and that this might throw off the results (I get no errors occurred from EAC).  But, what about tracks in the middle of a CD?  There is one more wierd thing...when I take one of the tracks that gets a non-accurate rip from AccurateRip and rip it individually as opposed to ripping it with the whole CD, Accurate now tells me it is accurately ripped.  What is going on?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Martin H on 2005-09-23 03:48:02
Quote
I assumed that the non-accurate rips on the first and the last track were related to the fact that my drive over-reads into lead-in and lead-out and that this might throw off the results (I get no errors occurred from EAC).

AccurateRip cuts 4 sectors from the beginning of the first track, and 4 sectors from the end of the last track when calculating CRC's, to avoid overreading issues...
Quote
There is one more wierd thing...when I take one of the tracks that gets a non-accurate rip from AccurateRip and rip it individually as opposed to ripping it with the whole CD, Accurate now tells me it is accurately ripped.  What is going on?

Re-ripping corrected the error...

-Martin.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: lmpine on 2005-09-23 04:00:17
Quote
Quote
I assumed that the non-accurate rips on the first and the last track were related to the fact that my drive over-reads into lead-in and lead-out and that this might throw off the results (I get no errors occurred from EAC).

AccurateRip cuts 4 sectors from the beginning of the first track, and 4 sectors from the end of the last track when calculating CRC's, to avoid overreading issues...

Quote
There is one more wierd thing...when I take one of the tracks that gets a non-accurate rip from AccurateRip and rip it individually as opposed to ripping it with the whole CD, Accurate now tells me it is accurately ripped.  What is going on?

Re-ripping corrected the error...

-Martin.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=328968"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Thanks for the reply.  Sorry for being dense, but I am not following.  Re-ripping only corrects the error when I rip the track individually.  If I rip all the tracks on the CD at once, I get the same error.  Why would I get different results?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: user on 2005-09-23 09:07:36
Thanks for the reply.  Sorry for being dense, but I am not following.  Re-ripping only corrects the error when I rip the track individually.  If I rip all the tracks on the CD at once, I get the same error.  Why would I get different results?
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=328969"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
[/quote]

Have you carried out reripping cd at once 10 times, and the suspicious tarck ripping individually, too, 10 times ?
Only then you could claim, that only ripping track individually leads to accurate rip.
I assume, ther eis  alight scartch/damage on the CD, which would lead in EAC to crc mismatches/accurate rip to inaccurate rip, but which can be corrected, read out correctly by chance, ie. by rerip in EAC (you will notice by comparing crcs in eac logs, that 1 of the crcs happened already in the 1st mismatch rip), or by rerip in accurate rip.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Eli on 2005-09-24 13:14:57
Only a matching CRC in EAC or a match in AccurateRip will actually tell you if you have ZERO errors in the read. EAC may report no errors but still not have a perfect rip.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: JWolf on 2006-08-10 14:43:41
encoding to -5 vs -8, on most modern computers will see little difference in encoding time. Plus encoding is a 1 time thing, so its my opinion that a little space savings is worth it. That being said, -5 is perfectly acceptable


That said, -5 is totally unacceptable. if you are too lazy to wait the almost unnoticable time to have smaller files that will take less disk space on your hard drive and/or DAP then don't even bother in the first place.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: wylistener on 2006-08-10 16:39:59

encoding to -5 vs -8, on most modern computers will see little difference in encoding time. Plus encoding is a 1 time thing, so its my opinion that a little space savings is worth it. That being said, -5 is perfectly acceptable


That said, -5 is totally unacceptable. if you are too lazy to wait the almost unnoticable time to have smaller files that will take less disk space on your hard drive and/or DAP then don't even bother in the first place.


I've observed different benchmaks.  The difference between -5 and -8 speed is tremendous.

Are you guys using special optimized compiled builds of FLAC?  Specific CPUs?

On a IBM ThinkPad laptop, I see the following throughputs for FLAC (converting 465 gigabytes worth of WAVs -- about 850 CDs):



I get slightly faster results on Intel D865PERL 3.2GHz and Intel D975XBX D940 3.2GHz  --- but the performance ratio between -5 and -8 stay the same.  I don't have AMD processors to compare to.  I also don't think the new Core 2 Duo procs will change the ratio of performance between -5 and -8 either.

So the difference between -5 (less than a day to encode 850 CDs) vs -8 (more than 3 days to encode) is more than 2 days!  Waiting 49 extra hours for number crunching seems pretty significant to me.  But I guess it's all relative.

So what's your threshold for "almost unnoticable" ? 
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Eli on 2006-08-10 17:25:15
My experience is not based on such large scale encodings and certainly the time differnce adds up to be significant. However, when ripping and encoding, my encoding is typically able to keep pace with the ripping as the ripping tends to be the limiting factor.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: wylistener on 2006-08-10 17:37:45
My experience is not based on such large scale encodings and certainly the time differnce adds up to be significant. However, when ripping and encoding, my encoding is typically able to keep pace with the ripping as the ripping tends to be the limiting factor.


Ah yes... that's the key point I overlooked.  I never encode as I rip.

I also had to encode to FLAC twice:  once as single file FLAC images and once again as FLAC individual tracks so I was hyper-aware of how fast FLAC actually works.  I also have large-scale benchmarks for LAME and NeroAAC ... they're slow too but not quite as slow as flac -8.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Bourne on 2006-08-19 03:39:46
Let me see if I understood this thread:

To get a bit-by-bit perfect CD copy:
(Considering EAC/AccurateRip/keydisc/Offset number are all configured and OK)

#1 - You MUST rip in ANY MODE but it has to be with Test & Copy, and it MUST match the CRCs.
#2 - You MUST have an AccurateRip log saying tracks are Accurately Ripped with, preferably, a very high confidence number (let's say over 30).
#3 - Your MUST have the "Over-read lead in / lead out" feature supported by your drive, and if it doesn't support it, nothing that you've done to this point guaranteed you a actual perfect rip. (Eg. If I have a LEAD-OUT only drive, I am fooling myself to think that my rips are perfect.)

About the Lead-In/Lead-Out feature that is required to achieve 100% perfect CD copies (a feature that only Plextors have got):

I am trying to understand here... You mean "100% PERFECT RIPS" as a PERFECT CD layer copy. Or do you mean PERFECT AUDIO DATA copy?

Does this lead-in/lead-out uncapacity TOUCHES the result of actual AUDIO DATA? if my drive has only the LEAD OUT or LEAD IN can it still extract perfect audio data, but not perfect cd layer copy?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: greynol on 2006-08-19 18:04:24
#1 - You MUST rip in ANY MODE but it has to be with Test & Copy, and it MUST match the CRCs.
-Test & Copy does not guarantee you an error-free copy, regardless of the mode used.
-It is possible to get an error-free copy without having ever generated a test CRC.

#2 - You MUST have an AccurateRip log saying tracks are Accurately Ripped with, preferably, a very high confidence number (let's say over 30).
-This is about all you need, though I'd say a confidence of 1 is adequate if you know that you aren't comparing to your own submission.  If you are comparing to your own submission then this is the same as getting matching CRCs from a Test & Copy.

#3 - Your MUST have the "Over-read lead in / lead out" feature supported by your drive, and if it doesn't support it, nothing that you've done to this point guaranteed you a actual perfect rip. (Eg. If I have a LEAD-OUT only drive, I am fooling myself to think that my rips are perfect.)
-Per your example of the lead-out, this only affects the very end of the last track on the disc.  If the samples that require overreading are silent, this setting makes no difference.

About the Lead-In/Lead-Out feature that is required to achieve 100% perfect CD copies (a feature that only Plextors have got):
-The part of your quote that I put in bold print is false.

I am trying to understand here... You mean "100% PERFECT RIPS" as a PERFECT CD layer copy. Or do you mean PERFECT AUDIO DATA copy?
So far, with the points that you have raised, only perfect audio data.

Does this lead-in/lead-out uncapacity TOUCHES the result of actual AUDIO DATA? if my drive has only the LEAD OUT or LEAD IN can it still extract perfect audio data, but not perfect cd layer copy?
Audio data and hence not a perfect copy, but again only for discs that have non-silent data in the area requiring overreading.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Eli on 2006-08-19 19:51:18
There is a difference between getting a perfect rip and knowing you have a perfect rip. Much of the guide is dedicated toward KNOWing you have a perfect rip. There are a few ways to judge your rip:

-quality of rip in secure mode
-matching crcs in T&C
-matching AR results 1 is ok, anything >2 (not your submissions) is great and probably as good as anything greater

You can get perfect rips with just about any ripper, but the thing is there is almost know way to judge the quality of your rip with most rippers.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Bourne on 2006-08-19 22:05:01
let me see if I understood this...

Not even Secure Mode (with or without drive features enabled), not even burst mode, not even CRC checks, not even re-ripping and getting that same CRCs, not even testing & copying instead of just copying, etc, NONE of this will ACTUALLY TELL YOU you KNOW you have a perfect rip... this according to what greynol said? 

And the only saviour in this story is AccurateRip if you get like 20 confidences per track (like all my tracks say) will actually tell you you KNOW you have a perfect copy... and apart from that, "PERFECT" as in a PERFECT CD LAYER copy, sector by sector, a 100% physical replication, and if all before is not PERFECT, if you get a sample filled with silence, etc, the ACTUAL AUDIO DATA might be absolutely perfect !!??
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: greynol on 2006-08-19 23:20:22
I use Test & Copy in burst mode or in secure mode w/C2 and -usefua using my PX-716A and normally rely on matching CRCs to give me some confidence that there wasn't an error if AccurateRip can't give me a conclusive result.

What Eli is failing to tell you is that errors can be consistent, in which case you'll get matching CRCs, yet the result is that you have an error.  IOW, a pair of matching CRCs is NO GUARANTEE that a rip is without error.

I have seen consistent errors while using secure mode though I have never personally identified a consistent error while using burst mode, though this is certainly still possible.

With AccurateRip, I see no reason why it would take a confidence of greater than one to guarantee yourself a perfect rip if you aren't comparing to a result that you provided previously.  What are the chances that someone else is going to rip a track in error in exactly the same way?

Also, with AccurateRip, be aware that the first 5 audio frames of the first track and last 5 audio frames of the last track are not compared in order to compensate for the lack of overreading between different drives.  In addition to HTOA and perhaps very short tracks (like filler tracks), it is clear that AccurateRip is not set up to compare all the audio data from a CD.

As far as "PERFECT CD LAYER" vs. "PERFECT AUDIO DATA" one is a subset of the other.  My focus here is on the latter.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Eli on 2006-08-20 00:09:21
What Eli is failing to tell you is that errors can be consistent, in which case you'll get matching CRCs, yet the result is that you have an error.  IOW, a pair of matching CRCs is NO GUARANTEE that a rip is without error.


This is correct, but very very rare and also why I use so many other methods to detect an accurate rip. I have had a few rips that EAC reports as 99.8 or 9 (never 100)% quality, that AR has been able to show as inaccurate. I have been able to idenify maybe 1 or 2 tracks in about 30k+ track rips that have had matching CRCs with T&C (I personally use secure mode with -usefua in T&C).
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: greynol on 2006-08-20 00:57:01
This is correct, but very very rare and also why I use so many other methods to detect an accurate rip. I have had a few rips that EAC reports as 99.8 or 9 (never 100)% quality, that AR has been able to show as inaccurate. I have been able to idenify maybe 1 or 2 tracks in about 30k+ track rips that have had matching CRCs with T&C (I personally use secure mode with -usefua in T&C).

I've seen plenty of 100% rips that AR says is inaccurate.  Some have been consistent errors, some haven't been.  When AccurateRip says something isn't accurate it isn't always correct.  You may have a different pressing or the results may be skewed through questionable submissions (the database is not free from CD-R entries or piracy).  When it says a rip isn't accurate, the confidence of the inaccuracy isn't as meaningful as the confidences for the tracks from the disc that it says were accurate.

I've also ripped many thousands of tracks in addition to seeing over a thousand log files for rips I did not make.  It isn't about how many tracks you've ripped, it's about the types of defects your discs have.

Sorry for taking this thread this far off-topic.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Eli on 2006-08-20 03:00:17
greynol, I think we are saying the same thing. I basically use T&C for when AR does not have the disc in the database. While T&C is not perfect, it is very reliable. Same goes for EAC in secure mode - not perfect but very reliable. My recs basically set up a number of ways to verify: AR - this is the best; T&C - reliable; Secure Mode - reliable
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: R.A.F. on 2006-08-20 05:21:59
About used commandline options:
Why -8? If we'll read comparison at http://flac.sourceforge.net/comparison.html (http://flac.sourceforge.net/comparison.html), we can see that -8 gives 55min to compression VS 12min at -5, and win 2.5MB from 413MB total. Is here a sense?

Even -5 is too much compared what you win with it. Best ratio between encoding-speed and resulting size brings -4.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Bourne on 2006-08-20 05:44:55
well, I read your explanations.... but the funny thing is that they are telling me exactly what I said...

I came to the conclusion that if AccurateRip does not show a confidence of at least, let's say, 10... you have no way to claim the show EAC performed was accurate, (well I know over 3 is probably a good number of confidence, but let's not give margin to errors...) of course it might look reliable, and you might take a guess that it was reliable. Sorry but that's what I conclude!
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: unmake on 2006-08-20 06:45:37
Quick question: does the "Spin Up Drive Before Ripping" option always have to be checked, or is it drive dependent? How could one test whether or not it's causing a problem? (disabling it almost halves the time my Pioneer A05 takes to rip an album..)
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Eli on 2006-08-20 14:28:47
Quick question: does the "Spin Up Drive Before Ripping" option always have to be checked, or is it drive dependent? How could one test whether or not it's causing a problem? (disabling it almost halves the time my Pioneer A05 takes to rip an album..)


no, unchecking it will usually make the ripps faster. In fact I dont use it unless I am having a problem with a rip and have had a number of problem rips that spin up fixed. I made it the default to make the guide easier for new users to follow.

Quote
I came to the conclusion that if AccurateRip does not show a confidence of at least, let's say, 10... you have no way to claim the show EAC performed was accurate, (well I know over 3 is probably a good number of confidence, but let's not give margin to errors...) of course it might look reliable, and you might take a guess that it was reliable. Sorry but that's what I conclude!


You are correct. You cannot say with with 100% confidence that the rip is !00% accurate. But if you have a rip quality of >99.8% and matching T&C you cannot do any better. If you are really uncertain and have multiple drives you can do a Test in one drive and the Copy in a second drive which is basically the same as AR.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: greynol on 2006-08-20 19:00:48
@Eli, yes we agree.  I am more confident with matching CRCs in burst over secure from personal experience.  Of course burst can't do anything for a disc with errors.  If you're paranoid, secure rips with less than 100% quality where rereads don't occur at the end of the track deserve a test CRC, IMO.

@Bourne, how much margin for error is one really giving for an accurate rip confidence of 1 when it was a submission from a different disc?  A consistent error from the same disc is one thing, but from two different discs???
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Bourne on 2006-08-20 20:30:21
-
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: hellokeith on 2006-08-24 03:38:30
Two questions:

1.  Only half of my tracks are reporting as AccurateRipped, yet the confidence  number is very high, like 35+.  What does this mean?

2.  Is there a way to automatically fallback on a less secure ripping method, if secure mode + test & copy fails? Would it do any good? I have several tracks that play in my car cd player, with a few skips, and I'd rather go ahead and get the choppy track ripped, than no rip at all.

Thanx a bunch for this guide!
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Bourne on 2006-08-26 23:36:39
I am seriously MISSING the LP and Cassette days... days in which I used to completely IGNORE alllll of this...
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: hellokeith on 2006-08-29 05:31:56
Well I've immensely improved AccurateRip results on my Sony CRX320E.

EAC Options - Extraction
- Fill Up missing offset samples
- Synchronize between tracks
- Skip track extraction after 3x realtime
- After each 24 mins, cooldown for 3 mins
- Normal extraction
- High error recovery

Drive Options - Extraction method
- Secure mode w/ accurate stream & caches audio data
- Autodetect read command
- Spin up drive
Offset/speed
- Overread
- Actual speed selection
- allow speed reduction
- CD-Text Read capable
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: heavyblow on 2006-09-06 17:09:52
I have a problem...

The result of my ripping is that out of say 12 tracks of an album, I would get maybe 3 tracks in FLAC formats, the others would be in WAV format.  I also get some duplicate tracks with mumbo jumbo names.

Where did I go wrong you think?

Thanks.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: MusX on 2006-09-07 09:37:34
Quote
Drive Options...
Offset / Speed Tab...
Offset locked by AccurateRip

i have v0.95b4
i haven't seen in this tab any message about accuraterip. i have there two options: use read sample or use combinated read/write.
i have accuraterip.dll in EAC folder.
so all is ok for me or not?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Eli on 2006-09-11 23:08:16
Quote
Drive Options...
Offset / Speed Tab...
Offset locked by AccurateRip

i have v0.95b4
i haven't seen in this tab any message about accuraterip. i have there two options: use read sample or use combinated read/write.
i have accuraterip.dll in EAC folder.
so all is ok for me or not?


Have you set up accuraterip yet using key discs? After AR is setup it will lock the read offset. If your read offset is not yet locked, AR is not yet set up. Get all your other setting correct, then load a few CDs until you find one that AR recognizes and follow the prompts to configure AR.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Jipcy on 2006-09-20 06:25:44
What's the best method for appending gaps?  Append to Previous (default) or Append to Next?

When you're using -T to add a tag, the first part, before the equals is the field name, correct?  One of the field names defined here (http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/doc/v-comment.html)?

Why isn't comment= quoted along with "%e"?


What's the consensus on using --replay-gain as a command line option, adding it the the list of others?
EDIT: Yeah, I figured out that when you have that on the command line in EAC, it can only apply ReplayGain to a single file, and can't calculate album gain for all of them.  So I can just do that in FooBar2000.

EDIT: Found the list of flags here: http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/eac11.html#Compression (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/eac11.html#Compression)
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: user on 2006-09-27 14:42:35
What's the best method for appending gaps?  Append to Previous (default) or Append to Next?


I use: Append to Previous (default) together with noncompliant cue sheet , single tracks ripping of course,
according to http://www.High-Quality.ch.vu (http://www.High-Quality.ch.vu)
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Bobjua on 2006-10-27 01:26:29
what about under the waveform tab in compression options.

and also, will this setup be good enough for all around ripping?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: greynol on 2006-10-27 01:39:16
You'll notice that everthing in the Waveform tab is grayed-out when an external compressor is selected.  These settings have no bearing on the creation of flac files.

This setup was created to get the highest quality rips from EAC for the greatest number of circumstances.  I might do a couple things slightly differently, but as a whole, the guideline is very very good (EDIT: IMO, of course ).
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Bobjua on 2006-10-27 02:57:48
damn. i just ripped 2 cds, but for some reason the flac ones are alot quieter. (nevermind i had replaygain on ewwwww)

and my waveform tab isnt grayed out because im using the native thing, ill try to get external to work.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: nilsHaus on 2006-10-28 01:16:38
This is a pretty long thread, so can anyone tell me how I would keep Track, Artist, Album names in the .flac files or .cue sheet when I import the .flac file back into foobar?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: JWolf on 2006-12-01 00:44:03
This is a pretty long thread, so can anyone tell me how I would keep Track, Artist, Album names in the .flac files or .cue sheet when I import the .flac file back into foobar?


-8 -A tukey(0.25) -A gauss(0.1875) -b 4096 -V -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s

That is the FLAC compression string I use with EAC and FLAC 1.1.3.

-T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s

That's the bit that adds the tags to the FLAC files.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: dewey1973 on 2006-12-13 22:20:52
I have a problem...

The result of my ripping is that out of say 12 tracks of an album, I would get maybe 3 tracks in FLAC formats, the others would be in WAV format.  I also get some duplicate tracks with mumbo jumbo names.

Where did I go wrong you think?

Thanks.


EAC queues up the files to be passed to the encoder one at a time.  It rips faster than flac encodes so you have to let the encoder do its thing.  If you uncheck:

Tools Tab
[X] Do not open external compressor window - **user option

You will see the encoder do its thing.  You can also hit ctrl+q to see which files have not been sent to the encoder yet.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Mekatype on 2007-01-03 13:07:16
I plan to create backups of all my rother's collections, starting by some slightly rare compilations they have. I decided on using a kind of hybrid between Myden's recommendations and the ones posted in the OP, which can be seen in this .CFG file:

http://rapidshare.com/files/10025686/Myden...0_Id0_.CFG.html (http://rapidshare.com/files/10025686/Myden-based_FLAC_settings__Ad0_Id0_.CFG.html)

There is a slight problem though: none of my two drives (a Sony DVD recorder and a LiteOn CD recorder) seem to support overread lead-in and lead-out as  accuraterip's test extraction shows a sync error in the last track. What exactly will I be losing (you loose the number of samples equal to your drive offset doesn't say much to me) if I disable that option and enable "Fill up missing offset samples with silence" instead?

Also, I understand FLAC supports tagging but the only tagging option I see in EAC is ID3. How can I set EAC to write FLAC tags? Will those flags be carried over when I convert them to Ogg Vorbis?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: hellokeith on 2007-01-05 02:01:18
As I understand it, in all likelihood the missing samples are silent data.  The track has begun playing, but there it is just a silent section.  So by filling up the missing samples with silent data, you are fairly safe that you'll get an accuraterip.

Here are all the passable parameters that EAC supports:
http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/eac11.html#Compression (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/eac11.html#Compression)
And you can pass custom tags to FLAC as well, using -T "fieldname=value" format.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: greynol on 2007-01-05 02:56:30
As I understand it, in all likelihood the missing samples are silent data.  The track has begun playing, but there it is just a silent section.  So by filling up the missing samples with silent data, you are fairly safe that you'll get an accuraterip.
(bolding added to original quote)

Are you suggesting that missing samples get replaced by silence between tracks?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: hellokeith on 2007-01-05 03:13:52
No.  The Read-Offset only affects the reading of the Lead-In (data at the beginning of the first track) or the Lead-Out (data at the end of the last track).  Now I have no tangible evidence that the missing samples will always be silent data, but that is my experience, and I have around 20 accuraterip's with good confidence numbers while using the Read-Offset + Fill up missing offset samples with silence options.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: greynol on 2007-01-05 06:52:03
No.  The Read-Offset only affects the reading of the Lead-In (data at the beginning of the first track) or the Lead-Out (data at the end of the last track).  Now I have no tangible evidence that the missing samples will always be silent data, but that is my experience, and I have around 20 accuraterip's with good confidence numbers while using the Read-Offset + Fill up missing offset samples with silence options.

AccurateRip was designed to work around the possibility that your drive can't overread.

It threw me that you were concerned about the beginning of the first track since the vast majority of drives have a positive offset correction.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Mekatype on 2007-01-08 04:19:52
So I shouldn't worry too much then. Thanks for the explanations .
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: ricecake on 2007-02-18 08:14:48
Additional Command Line Options:
-6 -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
Now that FLAC 1.1.4 is out (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=52691) with the much faster encoding time for -8, should the command line be changed to use -8 again?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Eli on 2007-03-04 16:23:47
Additional Command Line Options:
-6 -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
Now that FLAC 1.1.4 is out (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=52691) with the much faster encoding time for -8, should the command line be changed to use -8 again?


I have not seen actual comparison times. Also, decoding time is an issue as well. As I argued before, the reported encoding times for -8 are for very slow computers (<1ghz cpu) that cannot be very well compared to today's computers that are much more powerful. There are no hard and fast RULES, just suggestions, so if you like -8, then by all means use it. I have switched to dBpowerAMP R12 Reference, for which the FLAC 1.1.4 is in testing right now, so I have not switched over to it yet.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Desides on 2007-03-22 22:07:34
Excellent guide. Thank you, Eli, for writing it! I've got two questions:

1: How do I configure EAC to output filenames with the track number in the name? For example, "01 To Victory.flac," instead of "To Victory.flac?"

2: Is there a way to embed album art via EAC? If not, how can I go about doing that?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Eli on 2007-03-25 16:21:39
Excellent guide. Thank you, Eli, for writing it! I've got two questions:

1: How do I configure EAC to output filenames with the track number in the name? For example, "01 To Victory.flac," instead of "To Victory.flac?"

2: Is there a way to embed album art via EAC? If not, how can I go about doing that?



1) %N  %T

2)No, eac cannot do album art. You could try the new dBpoweramp ripper, which gets album art from AMG and can embed it directly into FLAC files, or you can try software like mp3tag after you have created the flacs with EAC.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: JJZolx on 2007-03-26 03:58:26
Additional Command Line Options:
-6 -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

What does %e expand to? And why is this tag quoted differently than the rest?

-T comment="%e"

instead of

-T "comment=%e"
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: isamu on 2007-04-21 07:52:41
Guys, I'm currently ripping my CDs to flac via EAC and I'm getting a lot of timing problems from EAC's status reports. Anyone know what's going on?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: user on 2007-04-21 19:47:40
timing problems ?
sounds, you rip in EACs burst mode.
For this reason, that in burst you have no safety, whether the timing problems were corrected or affect the music,
select EACs secure mode and go test & Copy ripping. Follow simply http://www.high-quality.ch.vu (http://www.high-quality.ch.vu) und you'll be happy.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: greynol on 2007-04-21 21:14:29
[...] in burst you have no safety, whether the timing problems were corrected or affect the music, [...]
What is in bold is misleading.  Timing problems aren't something that can get corrected, nor are they any definitive indication that there were errors.  A timing problem just indicates that the drive took longer to return data than expected.

There's really nothing wrong with Burst mode other than its inability to detect errors and attempt to correct them.  For those with drives that cache audio data and discs in good condition, burst mode is a very attractive option.  If you're worried about errors going undetected, follow Eli's advice in the guide to improve your chances:
Quote
When ripping the tracks, I suggest using Shift-F6 (test & copy) to decrease the chance of having a bad rip go undetected. The CRCs should match for the T&C, if they don't there is a problem.

FWIW, T&C in burst mode is how Andre Wiethoff normally uses EAC with drives that cache audio data.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Petlydecker on 2007-07-24 17:39:49
Hello,

      I am using Exact Audio Copy 0.99 Beta 1. I have read the previous threads and can't seem to see or figure out how to disable accurate rip. It starts and tries to connect to the internet when I insert one of my cd's to rip. I checked the options within eac and cannot find the option to disable it. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you!
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Eli on 2007-07-24 18:48:33
Hello,

      I am using Exact Audio Copy 0.99 Beta 1. I have read the previous threads and can't seem to see or figure out how to disable accurate rip. It starts and tries to connect to the internet when I insert one of my cd's to rip. I checked the options within eac and cannot find the option to disable it. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you!



Why do you want to disable accuraterip?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: verbajim on 2007-07-25 00:13:16
Hello,

      I am using Exact Audio Copy 0.99 Beta 1. I have read the previous threads and can't seem to see or figure out how to disable accurate rip. It starts and tries to connect to the internet when I insert one of my cd's to rip. I checked the options within eac and cannot find the option to disable it. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you!

Go to the EAC directory and rename AccurateRip.dll to something else like AccurateRip.dll.disabled.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: countryman on 2007-08-17 03:32:21
However, I now strongly suggest using dBpoweramp Reference (http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dbpoweramp-reference.htm). Note, EAC is free, dBpoweramp is not, plus to get the real benefits you need the better (ie more expensive package - reference, not powerpack). However, dBpoweramp outperforms EAC in secure ripping, especially on drives with good C2 handling, being both faster and more reliable. In my experience dBamp is also more stable than EAC. dBpoweramp is also being actively developed and updated. Spoon, its developer, is an active member here at HA. dBpoweramp is much easier to set up and configure, but a guide will be after dBpowerAMP adds support for HTOA (hidden first track), at which time it will be a complete backup solution completely suitable for replacing EAC.


Hi,

I have over 1000 CDs to rip so I want to get it right!  I am using Vista 64 and Slimserver.

With the latest version of EAC, is dBpoweramp still superior?  I don't begrudge the $28, I just want the most accurate FLAC rips for networking.

Cheers.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Empgamer on 2007-08-26 13:29:21
Must admit I'd be interested to hear to.  If dBpowerAMP really is THAT much better it would be nice to know why.

As for being easier I'm not so sure.  I'd say it BADLY needs a user guide like this as the support/help screens I've accessed when trying to get it set up are pretty dire.  Foobar doesn't seem to like/recognise it's default naming conventions and I've wasted hours this morning trying to bottom it out.  If it wasn't for AMG I'd likely bin dBpowerAMP in all honesty.  Took me 1/2 an hour to set up EAC and get it working fine.  While DBPA may make the codec set up easy getting your head round it's tagging and naming conventions is far from it.  At least there are countless good guides on EAC to help through the maze.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Sgt_Strider on 2007-09-11 04:59:32
Hey guys, I'm just wondering if it's still okay to use Eli's setting posted on the first page?


However, I now strongly suggest using dBpoweramp Reference (http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dbpoweramp-reference.htm). Note, EAC is free, dBpoweramp is not, plus to get the real benefits you need the better (ie more expensive package - reference, not powerpack). However, dBpoweramp outperforms EAC in secure ripping, especially on drives with good C2 handling, being both faster and more reliable. In my experience dBamp is also more stable than EAC. dBpoweramp is also being actively developed and updated. Spoon, its developer, is an active member here at HA. dBpoweramp is much easier to set up and configure, but a guide will be after dBpowerAMP adds support for HTOA (hidden first track), at which time it will be a complete backup solution completely suitable for replacing EAC.


Hi,

I have over 1000 CDs to rip so I want to get it right!  I am using Vista 64 and Slimserver.

With the latest version of EAC, is dBpoweramp still superior?  I don't begrudge the $28, I just want the most accurate FLAC rips for networking.

Cheers.


I agree with what you're saying too. Can an expert come in here and weigh in on this topic? $28 isn't much if dBpoweramp is indeed better and easier to use than EAC.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: greynol on 2007-09-11 06:40:45
I personally think a guide designed to help people with EAC ought not to come out and endorse a different program.  For this reason, I don't think it's right for this thread to be a sticky any longer. 

As far as the suggested settings go and although I don't think I've mentioned it before, I do take issue with the drive options.  It is utterly pointless to tell EAC that your drive caches audio data if EAC's test indicates that it doesn't.  Use of C2 pointers with EAC is generally not a good idea, but so long as you perform T&C rips with matching CRCs it should be ok.  While it is true that these suggested options are intended to be the most fail-safe, they continue to reinforce the commonly-held myth that a rip is useless if the caching setting isn't checked.

Regarding the recommendations regarding "good C2 handling" and dBpowerAMP, I actually don't think it matters if the handling is "good" or not.  dBpowerAMP uses C2 pointers in a very different way than EAC, and because of this, C2 pointers are useful with dBpA no matter how bad they are with EAC.

Purely from the perspective of ripping, if your drive provides C2 pointers or caches audio data, do check out a trial version of dBpowerAMP.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Sgt_Strider on 2007-09-12 08:44:45
I personally think a guide designed to help people with EAC ought not to come out and endorse a different program.  For this reason, I don't think it's right for this thread to be a sticky any longer. 

As far as the suggested settings go and although I don't think I've mentioned it before, I do take issue with the drive options.  It is utterly pointless to tell EAC that your drive caches audio data if EAC's test indicates that it doesn't.  Use of C2 pointers with EAC is generally not a good idea, but so long as you perform T&C rips with matching CRCs it should be ok.  While it is true that these suggested options are intended to be the most fail-safe, they continue to reinforce the commonly-held myth that a rip is useless if the caching setting isn't checked.

Regarding the recommendations regarding "good C2 handling" and dBpowerAMP, I actually don't think it matters if the handling is "good" or not.  dBpowerAMP uses C2 pointers in a very different way than EAC, and because of this, C2 pointers are useful with dBpA no matter how bad they are with EAC.

Purely from the perspective of ripping, if your drive provides C2 pointers or caches audio data, do check out a trial version of dBpowerAMP.


I'm not sure if I understand you here. Should I have C2 checked or not checked? I realize this is a guide made for all people, but I have the original Plextor Premium drive and EAC is telling me to make use of C2 pointers while this guide is telling me not to.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: greynol on 2007-09-12 09:01:47
C2 pointers with T&C in EAC is perfectly fine.  If you have problems getting matching CRCs, you can always try it again without using C2 pointers.

For any real Plextor drive I recommend you trying the force unit access command in addition to the use of C2 pointers.  For more information, check out this thread starting with post #19:
http://www.digital-inn.de/exact-audio-copy...released-2.html (http://www.digital-inn.de/exact-audio-copy-english/35653-eac-0-99pb3-released-2.html)

Without the use of C2 pointers and especially without FUA, your drive will run pretty slow in EAC because it caches audio data.  Your other option to speed up things with EAC is to use burst mode.

dBpowerAMP doesn't take the same kind of hit in ripping speed as EAC with caching drives because it doesn't need to flush in order to properly synchronize bursts.  With FUA, flushing is no longer necessary in which case EAC and dBpA will deliver similar performance, though dBpA may be able to get accurate data from some damaged tracks that EAC cannot because it has the ability make use of C2 pointers during re-reads.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Sgt_Strider on 2007-09-14 05:18:34
C2 pointers with T&C in EAC is perfectly fine.  If you have problems getting matching CRCs, you can always try it again without using C2 pointers.

For any real Plextor drive I recommend you trying the force unit access command in addition to the use of C2 pointers.  For more information, check out this thread starting with post #19:
http://www.digital-inn.de/exact-audio-copy...released-2.html (http://www.digital-inn.de/exact-audio-copy-english/35653-eac-0-99pb3-released-2.html)

Without the use of C2 pointers and especially without FUA, your drive will run pretty slow in EAC because it caches audio data.  Your other option to speed up things with EAC is to use burst mode.

dBpowerAMP doesn't take the same kind of hit in ripping speed as EAC with caching drives because it doesn't need to flush in order to properly synchronize bursts.  With FUA, flushing is no longer necessary in which case EAC and dBpA will deliver similar performance, though dBpA may be able to get accurate data from some damaged tracks that EAC cannot because it has the ability make use of C2 pointers during re-reads.


I'll check out the thread, but are you sure that if I enable C2 pointers with Test and Copy, it won't affect the quality of my rip?

Just for the record, I have the original Plextor Premium drive. It is supposively the best CDRW to have ever came out. I'm not talking about the Plextor Premium's successor, but the original!

I don't have to enable FUA though right? I would think C2 and test and copy is more than adequate?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: greynol on 2007-09-14 06:37:34
I'll check out the thread, but are you sure that if I enable C2 pointers with Test and Copy, it won't affect the quality of my rip?
If the CRCs match, I'm every bit as sure that the quality won't be affected as I am if you don't use C2 pointers, or you use burst mode for that matter.  This does not mean with 100% certainty that the rips with matching CRCs are accurate, regardless of the configuration.

Just for the record, I have the original Plextor Premium drive. It is supposively the best CDRW to have ever came out. I'm not talking about the Plextor Premium's successor, but the original!
Numbers Spoon gathered from AR submissions don't support this claim.  Anyhow, I don't think you're going to run into many situations where the C2 setting will make a difference in accuracy when it comes to this drive.

I don't have to enable FUA though right? I would think C2 and test and copy is more than adequate?
You don't have to enable FUA, but you'll find a significant change in speed between FUA + C2 and flushing + C2.  Try it for yourself.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Sgt_Strider on 2007-09-14 09:30:05
I'll check out the thread, but are you sure that if I enable C2 pointers with Test and Copy, it won't affect the quality of my rip?
If the CRCs match, I'm every bit as sure that the quality won't be affected as I am if you don't use C2 pointers, or you use burst mode for that matter.  This does not mean with 100% certainty that the rips with matching CRCs are accurate, regardless of the configuration.

Just for the record, I have the original Plextor Premium drive. It is supposively the best CDRW to have ever came out. I'm not talking about the Plextor Premium's successor, but the original!
Numbers Spoon gathered from AR submissions don't support this claim.  Anyhow, I don't think you're going to run into many situations where the C2 setting will make a difference in accuracy when it comes to this drive.

I don't have to enable FUA though right? I would think C2 and test and copy is more than adequate?
You don't have to enable FUA, but you'll find a significant change in speed between FUA + C2 and flushing + C2.  Try it for yourself.


Where are the numbers that you quote Spoon to have reported?

I'm also going to post my EAC log here and maybe you can analyse it to tell me if there are any problems with my settings and if any other further changes are necessary:

Code: [Select]
Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 3 from 28. July 2007

EAC extraction logfile from 14. September 2007, 1:58

Christina Aguilera / Stripped

Used drive  : PLEXTOR CD-R   PREMIUM   Adapter: 5  ID: 0

Read mode               : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache      : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : Yes

Read offset correction                      : 30
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out          : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks   : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations       : Yes
Used interface                              : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling                                : Appended to previous track

Used output format              : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate                : 320 kBit/s
Quality                         : High
Add ID3 tag                     : No
Command line compressor         : C:\Program Files\FLAC\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s


All tracks are accurately ripped as indicated by AccurateRip.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: greynol on 2007-09-14 18:38:43
Where are the numbers that you quote Spoon to have reported?
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....c=45643&hl= (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=45643&hl=)

I'm also going to post my EAC log here and maybe you can analyse it to tell me if there are any problems with my settings and if any other further changes are necessary:
I'm assuming you're not using FUA or I'd say you don't need to tell EAC that your drive caches audio data.

You can safely check that your drive is capable of overreading into the lead-in/lead-out and everything else looks just fine.

As I said earlier, if AccurateRip cannot verify your tracks, I recommend you use T&C.  I normally will press Shift + F5 to rip, check for the results and then choose the tracks that can't be verified and press F8 when necessary.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Sgt_Strider on 2007-09-14 22:21:28
Where are the numbers that you quote Spoon to have reported?
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....c=45643&hl= (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=45643&hl=)

I'm also going to post my EAC log here and maybe you can analyse it to tell me if there are any problems with my settings and if any other further changes are necessary:
I'm assuming you're not using FUA or I'd say you don't need to tell EAC that your drive caches audio data.

You can safely check that your drive is capable of overreading into the lead-in/lead-out and everything else looks just fine.

As I said earlier, if AccurateRip cannot verify your tracks, I recommend you use T&C.  I normally will press Shift + F5 to rip, check for the results and then choose the tracks that can't be verified and press F8 when necessary.


No, I'm not using FUA.

Are you 100% sure that my original Plextor Premium drive is capable of overreading into the lead-in/lead-out? I don't want to enable any setting that might compromise the quality of the rip in the name of getting more speed. I do realize that I'm no expert in this area compared to you.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: greynol on 2007-09-14 22:28:06
Are you 100% sure that my original Plextor Premium drive is capable of overreading into the lead-in/lead-out? I don't want to enable any setting that might compromise the quality of the rip in the name of getting more speed.
I wouldn't have said anything that I've said so far if I wasn't 100% sure.  I'm trying my best to separate facts from fear, but if you prefer not to take my advice, that's fine too. 
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: rickd on 2007-12-08 02:08:25
Do I need to have a cuesheet with my flac rips to re create a cd later...I am ripping to single files?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Synthetic Soul on 2007-12-08 11:01:51
Do I need to have a cuesheet with my flac rips to re create a cd later...I am ripping to single files?
Yes.  The cuesheet is required to re-create the individual track marks - otherwise you'd have one long track.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: eevan on 2007-12-08 11:12:18
He said that he's ripping to single files

So, the only thing that will be missing are the 00 indices, so your player won't display negative times before tracks (if the original CD had them). But if you used the default settings of EAC, you wont miss any audio.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Synthetic Soul on 2007-12-08 11:14:57
He said that he's ripping to single files
Doh!  I read it as ripping to one single file.  Thanks.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: greynol on 2007-12-08 19:18:41
So, the only thing that will be missing are the 00 indices
...and indices greater than 01, CD-TEXT, catalog and ISRC information as well as a variety of other flags.  All of these things (including 00 indices) may or may not exist on the original disc.

In terms of only the audio data and assuming the standard method of handling the audio data that would be marked by a 00 index if gaps were detected, the only thing a CUE sheet may be able to recreate is the data before the beginning of the first track (but only if that data consists entirely of null samples); otherwise this information would be lost.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: lipidicman on 2008-01-11 10:49:50
A question for Greynol I guess. I've had some great help from this thread.  So thanks to everyone.

Since reading your posts I have been using Burst T&C and relying on Accuraterip.

Obviously sometimes accuraterip has no CRC.

When this happens I use a second drive (different make) configured for secure mode to check my rip.  Basically I run a second test.  I am trying to eliminate the consistent errors you have been enlightening people about (though i do not think that I have ever seen one!)

Is this a good strategy?  Have you ever seen a different drive in a different mode throw up a consistent error?

Cheers in advance!
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: greynol on 2008-01-11 12:02:40
Is this a good strategy?
Yes, I believe so.  I think I first read about it from Pio2001, but have also read it from others who seem to have the same level of deep understanding as he does.

Have you ever seen a different drive in a different mode throw up a consistent error?
Personally, no, I don't recall.  I may have with others I have helped in the past, but most likely not.  There's always the possibility that one has occurred but gone undetected because errors are typically identified through inconsistencies (that is to say errors not identified by C2 pointers).  The only data I've posted to the forum is this (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=49305&view=findpost&p=441313), but I don't think there was a consistent error across different drives.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: lipidicman on 2008-01-15 12:17:16
Cheers Greynol.  I think I am on safe ground

Pio2001 sure knows his stuff.  I was impressed with his input on a thread a while back
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: greynol on 2008-01-15 17:53:58
When going the extra step in finding errors, these are the main methods in order of descending confidence:(*) In the case of AccurateRip, it's placement is only relevant when it can verify a rip.  Any other result is inconclusive.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: lipidicman on 2008-01-16 14:14:36
Good list there.

These problems are only just becoming important to me.  Our library has all of my CDs in it.  Now I am going through the other half's.  Lets just say she wasn't quite as careful as me with her originals!
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: greynol on 2008-01-17 16:08:29
If you haven't already, check out this post:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=541915 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=60225&view=findpost&p=541915)
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: mofonyx on 2008-01-21 16:33:29
Hi,

Thanks for the great guide.

When ripping however, do I just Copy (Shift + F5), or do I choose "Copy & Test" (Shift + F6)

Edit: Oooh, I found my answer, should've searched this topic beforehand.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: 2tec on 2008-04-14 15:39:33
Additional Command Line Options:
-6 -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

What does %e expand to? And why is this tag quoted differently than the rest?

-T comment="%e"

instead of

-T "comment=%e"

I'm not sure why it's quoted differently than the rest, however, this is what I've found:

-T comment="%e"

adds the contents of %e to the comment field of each file, the value of %e being whatever "comment" EAC has found, which, in my case, was nothing, so a "; " was inserted into the comment field,

-T "comment=EAC (Secure Mode)"

adds the literal text "EAC (Secure Mode)" to the comment field of each file, with no quotes, however, there will first be a space and then a semicolon inserted between each field which is added, therefore, as this point the comment field should contain " ;EAC (Secure Mode)".

It doesn't help to move the variable %e to the last comment entry, as EAC doesn't seem to check whether the varible is empty before inserting the semicolon followed by a space, which then results in a comment field which looks like this, "EAC (Secure Mode); ".

I wonder if EAC populates %e from a cue file?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Synthetic Soul on 2008-04-14 19:10:49
%e is populated by the value specified on the "Compression options" > "Offset" tab. (press F11 to open the dialogue, select the "offset" tab and look to the bottom of the tab).

I'm not sure why you are getting a semicolon; I can only assume that you have "Write following text into ID3 tag comment field" selected and a semicolon in the text field.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: 2tec on 2008-04-14 20:17:45
%e is populated by the value specified on the "Compression options" > "Offset" tab. (press F11 to open the dialogue, select the "offset" tab and look to the bottom of the tab).

I'm not sure why you are getting a semicolon; I can only assume that you have "Write following text into ID3 tag comment field" selected and a semicolon in the text field.

Yes, "Write following text into ID3 tag comment field" was indeed selected, but no, the field is empty, as I didn't want EAC to populate the comment field. (the offset tab doesn't seem like the best place for the comment tag selection)

As well, these tags, "-T comment=EACv095b4 -T comment=newcomment" produce this comment field, "EACv095b4; newcomment", so it seems to me that EAC is inserting a space followed by a semicolon to divide up the comment field.

BTW, this is my current EAC FLAC config, "-8 -S -V -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T date=%y -T tracknumber=%n -T genre=%m -T CRC=%b -T totaltracks=%x -T freedb=%f -T DAE=EACv095b4 -T CDR=Plextor716A %s"

I've added seektables via -S and several extra tags, CRC, FreeDBID, DAE etc.
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Synthetic Soul on 2008-04-14 22:29:18
As well, these tags, "-T comment=EACv095b4 -T comment=newcomment" produce this comment field, "EACv095b4; newcomment", so it seems to me that EAC is inserting a space followed by a semicolon to divide up the comment field.
Ah, I didn't see that you had two -T comment= switches.  That'll be why then.  I'm not sure why people would use two switches...
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: 2tec on 2008-04-15 01:34:04
Ah, I didn't see that you had two -T comment= switches.  That'll be why then.  I'm not sure why people would use two switches...

Actually, I personally don't use two comment tags, as my config shows, however, the example EAC config that starts this thread does, "-T comment="%e" -T "comment=EAC (Secure Mode)". This was the part of the configuration string that produce this result, " ;EAC (Secure Mode)" in each of the files' comment fields.

This output does depend upon which ID3 tag option is selected on the "Offset" tab, which I now understand, thanks!

So, from what I can see now, using the following recommended config, "-6 -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", will result in one of the following comment fields in each FLAC file:

tracknumber ;EAC (Secure Mode)
CRC ;EAC (Secure Mode)
FreeDBId ;EAC (Secure Mode)
text ;EAC (Secure Mode)

(italics indicate variable contents)

I hope this is clear. 
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: Synthetic Soul on 2008-04-15 08:14:43
Crystal.  I'm not sure why people wouldn't just do:

Code: [Select]
 -T "comment=%e; EAC (Secure Mode)"

... though.

However, the most important point is that users should be aware of the origins of %e.  They should also research enough about FLAC and FLAC tagging to adapt the suggested command line to suit their personal needs.  If they are not interested in recording the tracknumber, CRC or freedb id, and are never going to bother with the bespoke text on the "Offset" tab, they may as well just use:

Code: [Select]
 -T "comment=EAC (Secure Mode)"

... or:
Code: [Select]
 -T "comment=<insert personal comment here>"
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: 2tec on 2008-04-16 18:39:21
Crystal.  I'm not sure why people wouldn't just do:

Code: [Select]
 -T "comment=%e; EAC (Secure Mode)"
... though. However, the most important point is that users should be aware of the origins of %e.

Sure, however, it wasn't easy to find out where "%e" originated. Did I miss that section in the EAC  documentation, the HA forum or this thread? If so, I apologize for my lack of diligence. 

They should also research enough about FLAC and FLAC tagging to adapt the suggested command line to suit their personal needs.

I couldn't agree more ... so here I am! 

If they are not interested in recording the tracknumber, CRC or freedb id, and are never going to bother with the bespoke text on the "Offset" tab, they may as well just use:
Code: [Select]
 -T "comment=EAC (Secure Mode)"
... or:
Code: [Select]
 -T "comment=<insert personal comment here>"

True, however, personally, I'm interested in just how far some people have taken this tagging thing as I'm involved in tagging some complicated collections. For instance, there are quite a few vorbis tags (http://www.reallylongword.org/articles/vorbiscomment/), especially when classical,  compositional or remixed music is involved. I'm quite curious, does anyone use any special EAC / FLAC configurations when ripping non-mainstream music?
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: greynol on 2008-04-16 18:45:54
All research into any program should begin at its official site.

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/...sion-questions/ (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/support/faq/compression-questions/)
(This is in the FAQ which is available from EAC's Help menu, believe it or not).

Also, EAC has an official discussion forum:
http://www.digital-inn.de/forum271 (http://www.digital-inn.de/forum271)
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: dissociative on 2008-04-30 20:28:27
My drive supports overread in lead-in but not in lead-out. I think that the only way to workaround this is to rip the first track separately with overread in lead-in/out enabled, then go for the rest with overread disabled in this kind of situation
Title: Eli's Suggested EAC settings for FLAC
Post by: boomtopper on 2008-06-18 17:46:44
Eli thanx so much for this tutotorial it is very useful :-)