Here is a easy to follow guide for ripping your music collection and encoding it to FLAC. This guide is very thorough and caters to the most discriminating of FLAC lovers. While there are quicker methods or ripping and encoding, you should take pride in knowing that your rips are flawless and can be appreciated by all. Bits of the guide were "appropriated" from other guides around the web, which made for less typing for me. Thank you to the others who have put forth that effort. Now, let's get moving...


Using EAC:

EAC is the most important part of the entire process. When ripping a cd, you create WAV files, which is then encoded to FLAC, mp3, or whatever codec you choose to use. Without WAV files that are 100% perfect, you have a finished product that is flawed and imperfect as well. Set up and use EAC properly, and you will have perfect results, provided your cd being ripped is not too damaged to allow proper reading.

AccurateRip:

AccurateRip is a simple plugin that compares your rip to those of other AR users. Here is a sample of the results:


What this tells me is that my ripped tracks match other user's rips EXACTLY. The confidence number is how many submissions my rip matches. You'll see that two of the tracks have a lower confidence number. What that means is that someone either had rips of those tracks that did not match, (likely had errors), or that someone ripped all but those two tracks. Either way, having a confidence number of at least 1 is an excellent indicator of a perfect rip, provided you are not comparing your rip against YOUR OWN PRIOR RIP. It is next to impossible for two cds, owned and ripped by two different people, to have damage, resulting in a read error, that are exacly the same. NOT IMPOSSIBLE, but you have a much better chance of being elected King of the World, than that happening. An example of a bad rip:

Pretty straightforward, methinks. And one more:


If I have EAC setup correctly, and get an AccurateRip result like this, it means exactly what it says: I have a cd from a different pressing than the other two that are in the database. Is my rip bad? Not neccesarily. It is possible that the rip is PERFECT, but AR is unable to tell me so at this time.

Why use AccurateRip? Because in the case of the cd above that has the two incorrectly ripped tracks, EAC reported NO READ ERRORS. EAC was able to read the disc, but cannot tell on it's own that what it read was bad. AccurateRip makes that plainly clear. Like freedb, AR depends on us, the users, to make it work. Not every disc, or pressing is in the database. Remember the days when you would try to rip a cd, and no matches could be found in freedb? Now, some years later, it's pretty rare to find such an occurance. Eventually, with enough users, AR will become the same way.

Now, onwards...

Launch EAC installer.

http://www.exactaudiocopy.org/

Click next, I agree, choose destination folder, click next, and install.

Click finish.

A setup wizard will launch. Cancel out of it, and close EAC.


Launch dMC AccurateRip installer.

http://www.accuraterip.com/dMC-AccurateRip.exe

Choose destination folder, click next. Click install. Click Finish.

Browse to your AccurateRip install folder, and right-click on accuraterip.dll, and select "copy". Then browse to your EAC install directory, and right click and select "paste".

Launch FLAC Installer.

http://cyberial.com/flacinstaller.asp

Click continue, choose "typical", and click "install". FLAC will install, then click "no". A reboot may be required, but is not neccessary at this time. Do it later at your leisure.

Now, you need to configure AccurateRip to correspond to your particular cd/dvd-rom/rw drive. It is a simple process, requiring an original cd, (not a burned cdr), in good condition. A relatively popular cd is best, because it checks this "keydisc" against it's database to determine your drive's read offset. See accuraterip.com for more details. If you wish to be sure you have a disc in it's database, see

http://www.accuraterip.com/keydiscs.htm

for a list.

Launch EAC, be sure the dropdown box near the top is showing the drive you wish to use. If not, select the proper one. Insert the CD, and after a few moments, an AccurateRip window will pop up for a few seconds, and then go away.

Now, at the top, click EAC and select "Drive options", or just hit F10. Uncheck the box "show this information next time", and click "OK". Go to the "Offset/Speed" tab. If the first two options are greyed out and unchangeable, AccurateRip has detected your drive's offset. If it is not, try a different CD.

Now, leave the disc in the drive, and go to the "Extraction Method" tab. Click "Secure Mode", and at the bottom, click"Detect Read Features". Take note of the results, but do NOT click "apply". Instead, click "OK". On the next window, please click "Yes", as this will help build a database of drive features for future users. Regardless of what EAC said about C2 Error Correction, do not check that the drive is capable. It causes EAC to depend on the drive for error results, which may or may not be accurate. Save yourself the headache, and don't bother with using C2. Now check the boxes for accurate stream and caching if they applied to your drive.

"Drive" tab: Check "Spin up drive before extraction".

Now, on the "Offset/Speed" tab, check the Overread into lead-in and lead-out box. IF YOU GET SYNC ERRORS ON THE FIRST OR LAST TRACK ON YOUR FIRST RIPPED DISC, COME BACK TO THIS STEP AND UNCHECK THIS BOX.
Check "Allow speed reduction during extraction", and check "CD-Text read capable drive". If it is capable, great, if not, no harm done.

"Gap Detection" Tab: Gap Index retrieval method, Set to "A", but after trying your first gap detection, come back to this, and set to "B", and detect gaps again. Whichever is fastest, stick with that setting. "Detection accuracy", set to "secure".

Now, Click EAC, and 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
[X] Synchronize between tracks
[ ] Delete leading and trailing silent blocks
[ ] Skip track extraction on read or sync errors
[ ] Skip track extraction after duration longer than X times realtime
[X] After each 60 minutes of extraction, cool down the drive for 5 mins *Optional, but recommended*
[X] Lock drive tray during extraction
Extraction and compression priority: Normal
Error recovery quality: High

General Tab
[X] Use alternate CD play routines
[X] Disable "CD Autostart"
[X] On unknown CDs, Automatically access online freedb database
[ ] Display time using frames
[X] Ask before overwriting
[X] Correct bug
[X] Show status
[ ] Beep *Trust me, uncheck this*
[ ] Eject *optional*

Tools Tab
[X] Retrieve
[X] Use CD-Text
[ ] Create m3u *If you choose not to use the NFO-builder discussed near the bottom of the post, check this*
[X] Automatically write status report
[ ] On extraction
[ ] Do not open
[ ] Submit drive
[ ] Activate

Normalize Tab
NO!

Filename Tab
Naming scheme:

This is subjective, but this is what is most commonly done. Change it if you feel the overwhelming urge.

%A - %C\%N - %T

[X] Use Various Artist naming scheme

VA - %C\%N - %A - %T

Directories Tab
[X] Ask every time

EAC, Compression options:

External Compression Tab:
[X] Use external program

click the dropdown, select "user defined encoder".
Use file extension: .flac
browse to find 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" -T comment="%e" -T "comment=EAC-Secure Mode" %s

What the above jumble means is that FLAC will tag all your files properly, and will compress the files to its maximum capability, Level 8. Many may say that the extra compression takes too much extra time, especially when you figure how much space you are gaining. I say this: unless you are bulk-encoding, (which we are not), the extra time it takes is NOT noticeable. EAC's extraction of the tracks takes MUCH longer than the minute it takes each track to be encoded by FLAC.

Bitrate: Doesn't matter
[X] High quality
[X] Delete WAV after compression
[X] Use CRC check
[ ] Add ID3 tag
[X] Check for external compression return code

Offset Tab
[ ] Use offset detection for encoding and decoding
Check "Write the following text" and make the box blank.

ID3 Tag Tab
Uncheck everything

EAC, freedb options:

freedb tab:
Enter your email addy. No, you won't be spammed. But an email is necessary to make freedb work.
Pick a server.

If, when you put in a CD, and you get a freedb error, go back and pick a different server, then try again.

Now you should be done...

Now to rip!!!

Be sure all of your disc's info is filled in at the top, and is accurate. Adjust or fill in the fields as necessary.

Action, Detect gaps.

Now, Action, be sure "Append gaps to previous track" is checked.

Action, create Cue sheet, Multiple wavs with gaps, noncompliant
Save this where you want to rip your disc to.

Action, Test and copy selected tracks, Compressed.
Choose your location, and click save.

What you have done is told EAC to give each track a test read, then to read it again, create the WAV file, and encode it to a .flac. Selecting "test and copy" will make the extraction take TWICE as long. It is already a LONG process. You've just made it longer. BUT, you have done everything in your power to create a PERFECT, BIT FOR BIT COPY OF THE SOURCE DISC. Which, as it so happens, is the entire point of this guide. You may skip the testing if you wish, but then you will only have one set of CRC values, making a comparison to check for anomalies impossible. You would then put the fate of the rip entirely in the hands of AccurateRip, which as stated above, is still an ongoing compilation.

Go do something else for a while now...Come back later and it should all be done.

When it is done, click OK, and then OK again. Then your AccurateRip results should come up. Highlight and copy these, and click OK. Go to your rip directory, open up your .log in notepad, and paste your AccurateRip results at the bottom. Save and close it. Move your .log and your .CUE into your folder with your ripped tracks.

Check the CRC values in EAC. Do they all match? Yes? Good. No? Did you have read or sync errors? What did AccurateRip say? It's not difficult to tell if you had a bad rip. If you do, try cleaning the disc, and reripping.

Once you have a rip that you are confident is 100% it's time to move forward.

Open the FLAC Frontend. It will be in your programs list, and on your desktop. Click "add files". Browse to your ripped tracks. CLICK ON THE LAST TRACK, HOLD SHIFT, AND THEN CLICK ON THE FIRST TRACK. Doing it this way ensures that the tracks are listed in the proper order. Not necessarily important, but for the perfectionist, it looks pretty. Click "open". Now, click "fingerprint". Save the file as "Fingerprint" in your rip directory. Close the FLAC Frontend.

Now, an optional, but recommended step. Go to this site, and download v1.18.

http://www.nfobuilder.com/

I have found v1.19 to be a bit buggy, so I HIGHLY recommend v1.18.

Install it, launch it, browse to your rip directory, (being sure that you have .flac checked), and click "next".

Scan over all of the information, making sure it is all filled out, except for ID3 and APE tagging info. In the "Ripper" field, put this: EAC (Secure mode) / FLAC. In the CD/DVD model field, select your drive, if listed, and if not, type it in manually. Click "Next".

Put your screen name in the "ripped by" field, and again in the "posted by" field. The "information", "Newsserver", "Group", and "Selected groups" fields may remain blank. The "Add notes" section is optional, but handy for copy and pasting a review of the cd from allmusic, amazon, or similar. If you've nothing extra you wish to add, uncheck it.

[ ]Add ads *optional* All this does is place a small text advert for the program author's website at the bottom of your NFO

NOTE: If the album is a VARIOUS ARTISTS compilation, the NFO Filename will be generated as "00. (TRACK 1's ARTIST NAME) - album title.nfo"

This is annoying. Change it to read "00. VA - album title.nfo"

On the right:

[ ]Checksums *optional*
[ ]Playlist .pls
[X]Playlist .m3u
[X]EAC LOG
[ ]PAR [ ]PAR v2
[X]CUE Sheet

And if you have a scanner, or wish to include downloaded covers, check the boxes of any covers you are including. Click "Preview". Scroll down, checking that everything is as you wish it to look. You can edit the NFO here, just as if it were a text file. I highlight and remove the newsgroup info, as it is not being used. Click "Save NFO". It saves it to your rip directory, and creates a .m3u file for you, also saved in the same place.

Now, upload that sucker for the rest of us to enjoy!

Also:

"I've downloaded one of your's and I don't know what to do with the .cue file."

Open the FLAC Frontend, click "Add files", select the downloaded files, and click "open". Set the "Output directory" to the same location as your .cue, and click "Decode". Sit for a minute, watch it work it's magic, press any key to close it when it's finished, and then go look at your results in your save location. You may close the FLAC Frontend. You will now see that you have WAV files for all your tracks. Open Nero or similar, and select "Burn image to disc", or whatever is appropriate for you app. Select your .cue and proceed to burning. When it is finished, go back and delete the WAV files.

What you have just done is truly wonderful. You have burned an EXACT CLONE of the original cd, bit for bit. No quality loss, no trip to the store, no hassle.

A very nice addition to the guides section this should help loads of FLAC fanatics

Cheers, perfection is so hard to achieve nowadays.

10/10

I can't add anything to this guide Imasickboy

Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to put this fantastic guide together. It has been invaluable to me. I, like my files, have been converted. "Once you go FLAC, you never go back".

YOU ROCK SIR

i agree with Glassman, but i am only semi-converted

i only just spent nearly 200GBP on a sony ericsson, headphones, handsfree kit and 1gb memcard

so i rip or dl FLAC, burn to audio CD, then EAC+LAME 'extreme' it for my phone, but on pc i listen to the flac stuff

ThanX imasickboy

If you're having trouble finding a cd which accuraterip recognises try this:

Excelllent guide, learned a bunch about getting the perfect rip (was using losless before but not any type of error correction to rip my CDs). Now I just have to convince my friends to use this method rather than ripping their music as mp3s, some of them even use wma . It hurt me when I see people doing this.

Good man enc

wma my backside

I ran into a problem. I am ripping "Liquid Tension Experiment" following this guide exactly (checked 3 times that I have the same settings). Everything ripped properly, plays correctly and sounds good. The problem I am running into is when I try to burn the album back to cd. When I open the CUE sheet with EAC I get an error,


Well, this is line 11:

This is also the value/entry for each track, they are all filled with zeros.

I checked all of the other CUE files from the other rips I have done and none of them have this problem. I also put a different cd in the drive, detected gaps, and created a cue sheet which also does not have this problem.
So, what exactly is an ISRC string and what does it mean when it is filled with zeros.
Since I don't know what an ISRC string is I don't know if this means anything but when I detected the gaps with the disc that I am having trouble with there was a 2 second gap on the first track and 0 gaps on the rest of the tracks.

Help!! And as always I am really grateful to all of you.

Note: I don't really know what everything does, I just follow the guides, hope the smart people aren't fooling me and laughing, and try to apply as much common sense as I can.

edit: oops, meant to attach the cue file (changed extension to txt)

your cue sheet looks fine, i can't see any problem

every rip i have ever done has ISRC 000000000000 for each track

2 seconds of gap on 1st track 0 on rest is standard for most cd's i've ripped too

what are you trying to burn the cue file with?

i had major troubles with nero 7, switched to nero 6 and was fine (now i use burrrn)

I am trying to burn it with eac, I will dig up some install discs and try some other programs.
The errors go away and it burns if I take those lines out but somehow I don't think that is the right way to do things.

EAC Options/Tools:

UNcheck the first box, "Retrieve UPC/ISRC codes in CUE sheet generation"

Redetect gaps, and make a new CUE sheet. That should take care of your issues.

Ok, I will do that. Since this code doesn't relate to the audio I am not to worried about it. But, if I plan on sharing the files is this something that some folks like to have to tell different versions of a cd apart or are they not this picky? Basically, can I leave it unchecked or should I try to include whenever I can?

You may leave it unchecked.

Excellent. Keep sporting the penguin. I don't understand how some people dislike that little guy.

You cannot make a perfect copy of a CD unless you also BURN the CD with the correct write offset. Only EAC and PlextTools will do that. If you use Nero or Burrrn, the copy will not be exactly the same as the original and if you try to rip from it then Accurate Rip will be of no help.

Thanks for this great guide ! Straightforward yet complete.

One thing for those who have trouble installing the AccurateRip plugin in EAC. (like I did, It just wouldn't show up even though the DLL was in the EAC folder.)

If it's installed, there is an icon just right of the timebar.

If there isn't :
Install dBpoweramp
Install dMC-AccurateRip.exe
Then copy'n'paste AccurateRip.DLL from the dBpoweramp folder to the EAC folder.

Start EAC. If an AccurateRip pop-up shows up, you're done.

real good one this...now I know what to do....[font="Palatino Linotype"][/font]

Great guide, just about to start ripping my small collection of cd's. Now I know how it's done

sorry, i don't know hoe to burn using EAC. can anyone please explain?
also, is there a subforum here at the darkside where i can ask for AR runs, to check cds that are not on database but i plan to release? i have sui generis' confesiones de invierno and soda stereo' musica para volar, both quite rare, and the first one is not on database, and the second one is a different press (argentinian band, mine is bought on US).

Thanks this will come in handy

Excellent guide!

Just followed it 'step by step' and it worked like a charm.
Only thing different from the time it was posted is that the optional Music NFO Builder is up to ver 1.20 *fixed* now.

I'm going to dive right in, floaties are on.

can anyone tell me in a general sense, the output ratio in file size of the flac compared to wav.
i.e. a 128k mp3 = 10% +/-

Very good tute. Saving this for sure. Thanks

In case anyone else wonders : 65-70%.
Of course minimalistic techno would be more like 30%, but with most music that's what I get.

Here is a easy to follow guide for ripping your music collection and encoding it to FLAC. This guide is very thorough and caters to the most discriminating of FLAC lovers. While there are quicker methods or ripping and encoding, you should take pride in knowing that your rips are flawless and can be appreciated by all. Bits of the guide were "appropriated" from other guides around the web, which made for less typing for me. Thank you to the others who have put forth that effort. Now, let's get moving...

I've made a few flac rips and people seam to be pretty pleased with them but I would like to fill a request which asks for ' (96 khz / 24 bit FLAC) ' what exactly does this mean and how would I change eac or w.e to rip flac to this format?

Thanks and top eff for this guide it got me into flac originaly

That my pink chum is vinyl or you may remember it as a record

Oooooh How inconvenient thanks anyway dude!

I believe that is also what DVD-audio usually is.

Correct.

And will someone please motivate me to update this guide. It needs it...

Update this guide or I will whip you with a scart lead

On second thought...Update this guide or I WONT whip you with a scart lead

Come on Imasickboy sort your act out, or i will make sure that your Beer supply is cut off and get a certain monkey to pee in all your Gin..

How did i do?

*groans*

This weekend, it shall be done.

What's the best way to go backwards? You know, burning a FLAC (convert to wav first) without losing too much quality.

I will wait. I was about to start to follow this guide, but suddenly I read the last comments and has seen it was out-dated.

Thanks for this guide imasickboy !!! I needed this info and you covered it well .

click the dropdown, select "user defined encoder".
Use file extension: .flac
browse to find flac.exe

this bit confuses me, where do i browse to find flac.exe ?

i cant find it anywhere, really need some help !!



EDIT: i hadn't copied flac.exe to EAC folder

EDIT 2: NEW PROBLEM FOLKS !!! ... okay well im now at the ripping stage but after every track it says... the external compressor returned an error .. what doe this meen ?

Can you paste the command string that you are using please?

when the files are finished they are in wav format, now i want to upload to what.cd and they dont allow that , how do i then convert them , or have i completely gone wrong somewhere ?

I will PM you tonight when i get home and hopefuly we can sort this quick

Can somebody tell me how to burn cue-file with EAC???? for several hours i´ve tried but no luck..tried that one above,tried this:EAC-guide

All i get error in Cue sheet:file doesn´t exist in line 7 etc...

Open ther .cue with notepad, whats line 7 say?

i would guess that it says .wav or .wave and you have .flac. in the past i have converted with foobar2000 to wav and converted it that way

I also have used Burrrn

Jep,it´s wav..it´s strange that you can rip with eac but not burn?? i would like burn result be exact as possible than original cd..but can i hear difference in quality between other burning softwares? I dl the Burrrn but write fails!! This the cue-file:

REM GENRE Metal
REM DATE 2004
REM DISCID 890EED0C
REM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v0.99pb4"
PERFORMER "Dark Tranquillity"
TITLE "Exposures-retrospect and denial"
FILE "Track01.wav" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Track01"
PERFORMER "Dark Tranquillity"
ISRC GBDHC0405031
INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "Track02.wav" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Track02"
PERFORMER "Dark Tranquillity"
ISRC GBDHC0405032
INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "Track02.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "Track03"
PERFORMER "Dark Tranquillity"
ISRC GBDHC0405033
INDEX 00 04:05:00
FILE "Track03.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 04 AUDIO
TITLE "Track04"
PERFORMER "Dark Tranquillity"
ISRC GBDHC0405034
INDEX 00 04:10:05
FILE "Track04.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 05 AUDIO
TITLE "Track05"
PERFORMER "Dark Tranquillity"
ISRC GBDHC0405035
INDEX 00 04:37:20
FILE "Track05.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 06 AUDIO
TITLE "Track06"
PERFORMER "Dark Tranquillity"
ISRC GBDHC0405036
INDEX 00 03:56:45
FILE "Track06.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 07 AUDIO
TITLE "Track07"
PERFORMER "Dark Tranquillity"
ISRC GBDHC0405037
INDEX 00 04:38:55
FILE "Track07.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 08 AUDIO
TITLE "Track08"
PERFORMER "Dark Tranquillity"
ISRC GBDHC0405038
INDEX 00 03:49:72
FILE "Track08.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 09 AUDIO
TITLE "Track09"
PERFORMER "Dark Tranquillity"
ISRC GBDHC0405039
INDEX 00 07:27:48
FILE "Track09.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 10 AUDIO
TITLE "Track10"
PERFORMER "Dark Tranquillity"
ISRC GBDHC0450310
INDEX 00 07:29:12
FILE "Track10.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 11 AUDIO
TITLE "Track11"
PERFORMER "Dark Tranquillity"
ISRC GBDHC0450311
INDEX 00 05:40:63
FILE "Track11.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 12 AUDIO
TITLE "Track12"
PERFORMER "Dark Tranquillity"
ISRC GBDHC0450312
INDEX 00 05:19:45
FILE "Track12.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00

I am at work at the moment so i dont have access to help but with luck i will give my BRAIN a dust down later tonight
i do think that burrrn will edit the .cue to .flac from wave

Have you converted it to a .wav?

I have been told that this will work from good ol Maz

I tried to rip another cd but error..error..error can´t burn into cd, used burrrn, converted to wav with flac frontend ..no luck!! too much headache,this EAC-shit is leaving out from my computer!!!

anyway thanks for trying to help me but i´m so fed up with this!!!

Just wanted to say thanks! I ripped my first CD and I think everything went well. It will be my first upload soon so then all you guys can tell me how I did....