A few things are incorrect. "Add ID3 tag" should not be checked in the "External Compression" tab of the Compression options. FLAC files use Vorbis comments for tagging. Most players will work with it nowadays, but there can be compatibility issues with FLAC files if ID3 tags are added. ID3 tagging is meant for MP3s. For the same reason, all of the boxes in the ID3 tag dialog should be unchecked. If you look at the command line arguments in the "External Compression" tab, you can see there are arguments to add the various Vorbis comments using the FLAC compressor (for example, "ARTIST=%artist%" writes the artist tag) so adding ID3 tags as well is redundant. Also in the "External Compression" tab, the "Bit rate" and "High quality/Low quality" options are essentially ignored by the program when compressing to FLAC. So changing them won't hurt anything, the only effect it'll have is it will display the Bit rate you chose on the log file. However, FLAC is variable bit rate by its nature and the compressor will ignore this field. It's meant for use with MP3, AAC, and other lossy codecs. Lastly, this is not necessarily something incorrect, just something I'd like to point out. In the command line options, changing -6 to -8 will make the files slightly smaller. This increases the compression rate that FLAC uses meaning that it will take a bit longer to compress the file, but it will also result in a slightly smaller file. The compression is still done losslessly so no quality is lost by doing this. The resulting difference is rather small but for storage of a large number of files it may be worth changing.
8 years later and the video is still solid, there's now an alternative compression option so I'm going to try FLAC and MP3 from the same rip as I'll want archive quality and something for portables. I'm tired of these CDs sitting in the living room, now they can be stored in the closet and out of the way. I think my BluRay player hooked up to my TV, or my PS5 hooked up to my TV are my only real options for playing. Even PCs nowadays ... my CD-Rom is an external, and this might be the first time I've plugged it in ... I got an external enclosure when PC cases no longer had slots for 5.25" drives. THank you
I am keeping the original CD and the CD art book as proof of ownership but I am thinking of just ripping out the first page of the CD art book and tossing the rest, these art books are very thick.
+EposVox No worries. One thing I ran into is when I import the songs into Musicbee, the artist title and album are not separated. It just reads one large name under the title column within Musicbee. Not sure if you know a fix for this or ran into this yourself.
***** I feel like this is a very inconsistent problem with the process, which makes it more annoying. There should be a set of "Tags" options in the software that you can look at to customize how they show up, or you can use MP3Tag (www.mp3tag.de/en/) to customize their metadata prior to importing them to your music player.
For future viewers, perhaps make a note of the missing step pointed out by Daaell in the External Compression settings (around 4:48)? Otherwise, very helpful. Thank you.
I would like to upload the files to TH-cam in the highest quality they can possibly take, I can't find a video that explains how to do that. could you possibly make a tutorial for that one? I'm sure I'm not the only one with this question. Thank you.
Oh thank you, I faved this video for future reference, I have some music from a band from my town that broke up years ago that is very hard to get and wanted it to share with my friends in the absolute highest quality possible.
This is an excellent video! I used it along with another website to configure my newly installed EAC V 1.3 to rip CDs to FLAC format. I was having some problems at first with the rip going into *.wav files, NOT *.flac. However, I used this in compression options command line: -T "artist=%artist%" -T "title=%title%" -T "album=%albumtitle%" -T "date=%year%" -T "tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "genre=%genre%" -5 %source% And EAC produced *.flac files, after the rip. I believe I used the same command line options, when EAC was ripping to *.wav; however, I think there may have been some hidden characters present in the full string. So, if anyone is having problems with this you may want to manually type in the above command line, or paste it into your favorite text editor first to ensure it isn't "corrupted" by the presence of hidden characters.
I think you missed a crucial point through your video. It's about compression. If i do everything like you explained, i end up with only .wav files. Why? In the compression, to use .flac you have to set a user defined encoder, which also means, by default the addidtional command line (the one that tells flac.exe what to do with the .wavs) is empty. You have to add this manually (atleast in EAC 1.1) the commandline is this: -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "BAND=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%--tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" %hascover%--picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%
+Daaell If you are using EAC 1.0b2 or newer, then in the Additional command line options box, copy and paste the following string: -T "artist=%artist%" -T "title=%title%" -T "album=%albumtitle%" -T "date=%year%" -T "tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "genre=%genre%" -5 %source% If you are using EAC 1.0b1 or earlier, then in the Additional command line options box, copy and paste the following string: -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" -5 %s
This video I so timeless I didn't know it was from 2015 until I heard you mention it! good job brother you were leagues ahead of other creators at the time
I found this application extremely useful for ripping LP's to flac personally. CD's already have some down-sampling when they're recorded which can become evident when ripping to .flac. However using this app to do the same thing but with an LP was so simple it's unreal. Thumbs up for sure as you just saved me about a days worth of tinkering lol!
I recently switched over to FLAC and I will never go back. I actually hear the difference easily. This is probably because I grew up listening to a lot of cds on a stereo system and portably through a walkman. Never realized how much audio clarity I sacrificed when I switched to MP3 in mid 2000's.
I was surprised to see, at first, how LONG this video was! But then after watching it I can see why. There is a lot to explain; and the OP does a very good job!
If you are viewing the song as it is being ripped it will be in a .wav format at first then it will convert it to .flac,if not go back to your compressor settings and verify your settings.
I have the same problem. Once the program worked as it should but then it somehow stopped creating flac files and I got wavs instead. I have gone through all the settings and double checked them..
@E. O. I'm new to this audio stuff and have original cds i wanna take to flac, idk what any of that means do you have recommendations to try in getting better results?
Great video with super instructions on how to use a fairly complicated program. Greatly appreciated. In my future I see hours and hours of ripping pleasure to come. Many thanks.
After a disaster while backing up my computer (1 HDD board started on fire and took out every one of my SSD/HDDs so I'd lost everything - ouch even) I'm starting over ripping my CD collection. I'd forgotten how to use EAC and this video was extremely helpful. Actually don't think I'd used the metadata steps before. Great video and can't thank you enough. :)
I use other software to tag my music as it's super useful and makes things faster to tag all together. It also allows to create so many different tags if you so choose to. It's called Mp3Tag. I found it after doing some research on the best ones available. That's what I found. I'm no audiophile (yet) or professional but I thought I'd share it with you guys.
I just looked at how much CDs I'm gonna have to rip... This may take weeks or possibly months lol This is an amazing tutorial btw, straight to the point and no filler :D Great work!
EAC is good for ripping, but it has a very poor metadata support. I rip my discs with EAC and encode with CueTools that has way better metadata support and it connects with MusicBrainz and Discogs.
I got this and figured out it is to do with the command line options for the flac converter, this box is blank by default. I found a suggestion of -T "artist=%artist%" -T "title=%title%" -T "album=%albumtitle%" -T "date=%year%" -T "tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "genre=%genre%" -5 %source% which made it all work for me. Your mileage may differ.
I don't know if you have updated this video, but there is no need for a bit rate higher than 44.1K when ripping a CD. The CD itself will not give you more resolution than what it was recorded on. So since CDs are 16bit/44.1 that is the highest you can actually expect. Up sampling, its just a waste of processing power at both the encoder and decoder end.
@E. O. Question remains he chose 1024, that's not 1411? I thought he was chasing SampleRate. @4:51. I use Apple Lossless for ripping my CDs.It defaults to 868, or 829, sometimes more others less bit rate. Sample rate CD quality of 44.1. I am in the apple ecosystem so it works perfectly for me.
Wanted to say two things. First, your tutorial (I've been following the channel itself for a while now) helped me a great deal and exact audio copy is actually really great software to use I've found out thanks to you! Second, thought you should know that if you look up on google ripping cds to flac, your tutorial is on the first page ^_^ Just thought I'd let you know. Anyway, love your content, and keep up the great work!
Hi, thanks for the video, very helpful! However, I set the options exactly as shown in the video but the option "Get new image from metadata provider" is greyed out. Do you know how I can solve this?
Changing Bit Rate while ripping FLAC doesn't matter, it sounds the same as it is and the file size doesnt stays the same even if you ''rip FLAC to 1024bit or 64bit''
Por exemplo mesmo se alguém mudar para 128kbps a qualidade permanecerá Flac e porque alguns arquivos .log aparecem alterados pelo usuário para 128kbps esses arquivos são realmente bons?
excellent, it's been several years since I've used this. Could you make a quick checklist, not of all the settings, but the steps you took up to test and copy?
Do WAV is better than FLAC? What I specifically mean is in terms of audio quality noticeable by ear. Obviously each person is different but in theory, is it better? I assume the file size is bigger though.
flac is compressed lossless. so it sounds identical to wav but takes up less space. the only advantage to using wav is it uses less pc resources, because it doesn't need to be uncompressed
I wonder why the manufacturer of the program does not provide such settings by default, since the program assumes that it should copy music from CDs without a scratch.
Very good voice, perfect explanation, so my Cd information got not found but media player showed it, so I entered it manually, but the rest, although there was one box I could not check , perhaps as I did not buy the eac program but downloaded it, ...but my Cd is now getting ripped in a flac, and then put on a Usb Stick and then I listen in my new car which has no CD player :-). Thanks for your support and for getting best possible quality.
You skipped a required step and gave out some misinformation about the Compresion options. :/ The bit rate and high/low quality settings don't specify anything to the FLAC encoder. The CRC and ID3 tag settings are also ignored. FLAC doesn't support ID3 tags, it uses another metadata format (Vorbis). The command-line options tell the FLAC encoder all of things it should do (tags, quality etc.), and you skipped spelling that out. You can look up the paramaters in the FLAC encoder's documentation. This is what I use and why with FLAC 1.3.1/1.3.2 (note, this is case sensitive; -p and -P are different settings): -V --replay-gain -m -8 -e -p -T "artist=%artist%" -T "title=%title%" -T "album=%albumtitle%" -T "date=%year%" -T "tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "genre=%genre%" %source% -V - verify a correct encoding (hopefully this triggers a return code to EAC, otherwise the verfication check doesn't mean anything) --replay-gain - Calculates the gain level that should be used at replay and stores it in the tag -m -8 -e -p - specifies the maximum compression options, since FLAC is lossless this means less disk space at the same quality, the -m, -e, -p flags don't save much, but I have plenty of CPU cores to throw at it, so I don't care if takes a little longer. -T etc. - This tells EAC to pass the specified metadata to the FLAC encoder %source% - This must be at the end (i.e. you're calling the flac encoder to do the above on the source, if you ordered it differently it would fail/ignore some of your options) One other little gotcha: If you're realing with network shares for your file structure or encoder files, they must be mapped network drives for the FLAC encoder. Otherwise it will test fine, but fail silently when you choose the compression option from a disc.
Thanks for the info! Though the author of EAC included Flac.exe, I'm disappointed that he hasn't upgraded his program since August 2016. He needs to add the command lines for Flac into EAC like he did for Lame and other encoders. I rip to both flac and Mp3 (for my car stereo and phone) and its a hassle entering the command line every time you switch to lame.
YES! This totally screwed my ability to play the flac file on certain devices So, do NOT check "Add ID3 Tag" under "Compression Options" (assuming you're going to .flac)
EAC didn't create a cue file, even tho I set it to look up info in freedb. I used AIMP which read the disk info and created the cue file. Probably uses the same flac routines, but compresses in half the time as EAC. Result is same as EAC in terms of filesize. Flac will also play in VLC as well as AIMP. Somebody probably has a video out that describes CD to flac in AIMP. Very easy! Control A to highlight all the tracks, then select your flac output folder and start. Menu >utilities>convert. Then select your CD drive with down arrow and screen fills up with the tracks. At that point control A , etc. Very nice, easy -to-use program. You can read the cue file in Wordpad or Notepad by the way.
Thanks for the comprehensive guide, it’s nice to see how to do this for hifi :). My rips are taking 3 hours per cd with these settings - is there a setting that will reduce this? - I’m even willing to lose some fidelity
Nice video. Would you happen to have a current tutorial? I just discovered this process, and now I want to re-rip my collection, and move away from Apple.
Just seems to be unable to rip to FLAC anymore. I converted loads of CDs before, but on return maybe 2 or three years later, it's only ripping to WAV, despite selecting compressed as the option.
I followed it through step by step. I got a folder full of .wav files. Why doesn't someone invent a FLAC ripper that works easily? I downloaded EAC a year ago and still can't use it.
Thank you for replying. I must have done something wrong but I can' think what. I made all my settings identical to you. Then selected all and hit the same process as you. I also tried by using the CMP (copy selected tracks and compress) button on the EAC interface. ...I know I have the FLAC converter set up right.
I have managed to rip to FLAC, by finding the solution further down in the comments; Rui Placido said, If you are using EAC 1.0b2 or newer, then in the Additional command line options box, copy and paste the following string: -T "artist=%artist%" -T "title=%title%" -T "album=%albumtitle%" -T "date=%year%" -T "tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "genre=%genre%" -5 %source% (This has worked. However I am puzzled by the file size. E.g. EAC on track one of my first successful rip says, Size 34.45 MB = Compressed size 25.59 MB. However the end result rip of this track is, 17.7 MB.)
I noticed something else too. You said ripping a disk takes a good while. Yet I copy and compress within ten minutes. I think I must have set it up on fast copying, but I followed your settings. Or I am not error checking, which defeats the object of using EAC. I wanted to get top quality rips. (Sad face.)
If I try to make a cue sheet or rip the CD, EAC immediately crashes. I have no idea what the problem could be, but I notice online it seems to be a decent problem?
thanks for the vid, really helped a lot. just a question, I followed all your steps however I wasnt able to find those flac files but instead wav files. do I missed something?
"detect gaps" is no longer a feature. The context menu item "get new image..." is disabled, and dragging an image there looks like it should work as there is a drag-n-drop hotspot there, but it doesn't do anything.
In my General Tab of EAC Options it keeps it locked and greyed out to "open CD information dialogue" when I check "On Unknown CDs" instead of "automatically access online metadata database." I'm not sure if this is because, two years later, I'm running a different version of EAC. I thought if I unchecked ""Activate Beginner Mode..." in the Tools Tab it would make a difference, but it didn't.
The video helped me with the ripping process and one comment here helped with the ".wav not .flac" issue, but I can't edit _anything_ on the file's properties -> details after ripping it. The details don't even show the audio bitrate. When I get .flac files from other sources, I can usually edit these details any way I want. Any ideas on how to solve that?
I found an incorrect option in the video. In Compression options the "Add ID3 tag" checkbox needs to be unchecked, at least for Windows 10, or Windows Explorer won't display metadata (title, album name, etc.). I had everything working then did a final compare of options to the video and found that I had this option unchecked when the video shows it checked. I checked it then after that for new rips the metadata stopped being displayed. Unchecked the option and the problem went away. From google searches it seems ID3 tags are non-standard for FLAC which uses Vorbis comments instead.
I'm having an issue with the metadata on my songs. I am exporting them successfully with the artist, title, track number, etc. all correct.....EXCEPT FOR THE COVER ART. I have used EAC before months ago, but then i had gotten a new computer and it just so happens that EAC is now version 1.3. I have been surfing the comments and trying to find a solution, but only to have no luck. if anyone knows the reason and how to fix this issue, please let me know. I do not want to have to find out how to manually embed cover art for each song individually and manually. [SOLVED THIS IN THE REPLY TO THIS COMMENT]
*Solution* *found* Apparently, The songs had to sit for a while with the cue document and other files, but eventually (the next day at most) the cover art had made it into the songs and now they are complete with all of the tag data, I wish I had better patience hahaha. Hope this helps anyone with the same issue.
Great video! Under Test and Copy Selected Tracks, what is the difference between uncompressed and compressed? Is there a quality difference? Thank you!
How can I manually set the cd cover art? I just want to add a jpg or jpeg as the cd cover but dragging the image or right clicking the box doesn't allow for adding an image, it's grayed out.
Is the cue file supposed to go in the file folder with the FLAC files? Seems so but my player isn't seeing the them and using the art. For example: I ended up with \Music\The Byrds\Mr. Tambourine Man [RM 1996]\The_Byrds__-Mr._Tambourine_Man-_-[RM_1996]. I accepted cue generator suggestion of new folder "Mr. Tambourine Man [RM 1996" where cue file was saved and compressor was told to put the files is same folder but it creates a subfolder for FLAC files "The_Byrds_-_Mr._Tambourine_Man_[RM_1996" separating the cue and the FLAC files. The exact structure is not the issue rather I assume cue and FLAC have to be together to be useful to players. Right? [Obvious, it is not working for my receiver/amp that plays FLAC files, so I tried it both ways. Neither got a picture up and little other info beyond name.) I just read the comment re: 'do NOT check "Add ID3 Tag" under "Compression Options"' but haven't tried unchecking it yet.]
I have been redoing my cd collection and ripping them to Flac rather than Mp3 like I used to do in the past.I have bought a Hi Res Audio Player and prefer listening to my music in better quality. However i have noticed that I have haven't been picking a bitrate option and have just been leaving the option to Rip to Flac on the default setting. Do you think I should go back and change the setting to 1 bitrate for the better quality and convert again or just leave it as it is bearing in mind I was converting to default setting?
This tutorial is based on the 1.2 version of Exact Audio Copy (EAC). Currently, when you download the EAC program, you get the 1.3 version. So, some of the screen views of the various menu options have changed, but not so much that this video wasn't EXTREMELY HELPFUL to me!
![ILLSLICK - KILLSHOT REMIX [FULL VERSION]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RIK8RrqIAzE/mqdefault.jpg)
A few things are incorrect. "Add ID3 tag" should not be checked in the "External Compression" tab of the Compression options. FLAC files use Vorbis comments for tagging. Most players will work with it nowadays, but there can be compatibility issues with FLAC files if ID3 tags are added. ID3 tagging is meant for MP3s. For the same reason, all of the boxes in the ID3 tag dialog should be unchecked. If you look at the command line arguments in the "External Compression" tab, you can see there are arguments to add the various Vorbis comments using the FLAC compressor (for example, "ARTIST=%artist%" writes the artist tag) so adding ID3 tags as well is redundant.
Also in the "External Compression" tab, the "Bit rate" and "High quality/Low quality" options are essentially ignored by the program when compressing to FLAC. So changing them won't hurt anything, the only effect it'll have is it will display the Bit rate you chose on the log file. However, FLAC is variable bit rate by its nature and the compressor will ignore this field. It's meant for use with MP3, AAC, and other lossy codecs.
Lastly, this is not necessarily something incorrect, just something I'd like to point out. In the command line options, changing -6 to -8 will make the files slightly smaller. This increases the compression rate that FLAC uses meaning that it will take a bit longer to compress the file, but it will also result in a slightly smaller file. The compression is still done losslessly so no quality is lost by doing this. The resulting difference is rather small but for storage of a large number of files it may be worth changing.
Thanks a lot for that 🙌 You were right!
When you say the -6 in the command line optiones you mean inside drive optiones>Offset/speed section?
8 years later and the video is still solid, there's now an alternative compression option so I'm going to try FLAC and MP3 from the same rip as I'll want archive quality and something for portables. I'm tired of these CDs sitting in the living room, now they can be stored in the closet and out of the way. I think my BluRay player hooked up to my TV, or my PS5 hooked up to my TV are my only real options for playing. Even PCs nowadays ... my CD-Rom is an external, and this might be the first time I've plugged it in ... I got an external enclosure when PC cases no longer had slots for 5.25" drives. THank you
I am keeping the original CD and the CD art book as proof of ownership but I am thinking of just ripping out the first page of the CD art book and tossing the rest, these art books are very thick.
I'm just starting my audiophile adventure and I found this video VERY helpful. Thank you for taking the time to make this.
+Reckless Yuki - 4k Gameplay & Tech Thanks for watching & commenting!
+EposVox No worries. One thing I ran into is when I import the songs into Musicbee, the artist title and album are not separated. It just reads one large name under the title column within Musicbee. Not sure if you know a fix for this or ran into this yourself.
***** I feel like this is a very inconsistent problem with the process, which makes it more annoying. There should be a set of "Tags" options in the software that you can look at to customize how they show up, or you can use MP3Tag (www.mp3tag.de/en/) to customize their metadata prior to importing them to your music player.
3 years later I'm staring :)
sammeee
For future viewers, perhaps make a note of the missing step pointed out by Daaell in the External Compression settings (around 4:48)?
Otherwise, very helpful. Thank you.
I've finally made another tutorial! How to rip to .FLAC using EAC. :) th-cam.com/video/58RmQsGGbeQ/w-d-xo.html
I would like to upload the files to TH-cam in the highest quality they can possibly take, I can't find a video that explains how to do that. could you possibly make a tutorial for that one? I'm sure I'm not the only one with this question.
Thank you.
Jay Simons I'll look into it :)
Oh thank you, I faved this video for future reference, I have some music from a band from my town that broke up years ago that is very hard to get and wanted it to share with my friends in the absolute highest quality possible.
Jay Simons
You can just put a link into the description with the FLAC files
Oh I'm three years late
9 years later and this tutorial is still good
Exactly, just started ripping CDs today and stil relevent!
This is an excellent video! I used it along with another website to configure my newly installed EAC V 1.3 to rip CDs to FLAC format. I was having some problems at first with the rip going into *.wav files, NOT *.flac. However, I used this in compression options command line:
-T "artist=%artist%" -T "title=%title%" -T "album=%albumtitle%" -T "date=%year%" -T "tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "genre=%genre%" -5 %source%
And EAC produced *.flac files, after the rip.
I believe I used the same command line options, when EAC was ripping to *.wav; however, I think there may have been some hidden characters present in the full string. So, if anyone is having problems with this you may want to manually type in the above command line, or paste it into your favorite text editor first to ensure it isn't "corrupted" by the presence of hidden characters.
^^^
i can't get mine to work, still snding up with .WAV files, why do they make things so difficult???
woukd help if you told us where the command line is entered
@@danielwilder7835 Were you able to fix it? same issue like you I am getting .WAV files instead od .FLAC
@@jrgumex i started using total audio MP3 Converter, it can convert CD to MP3 or flac or anything you can think of.
I think you missed a crucial point through your video. It's about compression. If i do everything like you explained, i end up with only .wav files. Why? In the compression, to use .flac you have to set a user defined encoder, which also means, by default the addidtional command line (the one that tells flac.exe what to do with the .wavs) is empty. You have to add this manually (atleast in EAC 1.1)
the commandline is this:
-6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "BAND=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%--tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" %hascover%--picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%
+Daaell Legend
+Daaell
If you are using EAC 1.0b2 or newer, then in the Additional command line options box, copy and paste the following string:
-T "artist=%artist%" -T "title=%title%" -T "album=%albumtitle%" -T "date=%year%" -T "tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "genre=%genre%" -5 %source%
If you are using EAC 1.0b1 or earlier, then in the Additional command line options box, copy and paste the following string:
-T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" -5 %s
+Freak 37 None of these work for me. I'm still just getting .wav files. Am I missing something?
+simbin Deleting the old files and restarting the program fixed it. Thanks!
+simbin
I'm glad you've solved the problem
This video I so timeless I didn't know it was from 2015 until I heard you mention it! good job brother you were leagues ahead of other creators at the time
I found this application extremely useful for ripping LP's to flac personally. CD's already have some down-sampling when they're recorded which can become evident when ripping to .flac. However using this app to do the same thing but with an LP was so simple it's unreal. Thumbs up for sure as you just saved me about a days worth of tinkering lol!
Glad it helped :)
Thanks for the tutorial! I've ripped only one cd so far, but I'm watching again because I forgot, and I'm ripping more cd's.
Thanks for making a 2015 tutorial. Most other tutorials are from 2006-2009.
fnwc Thanks for watching!
And here i am, watching this in the end of 2019
@@herrsick364 #metoo
10 months after first finding this and i need it again, starting my audiophile journey after getting a decent set of headphones (hd6XX)
the huh duh six hungeos
I recently switched over to FLAC and I will never go back. I actually hear the difference easily. This is probably because I grew up listening to a lot of cds on a stereo system and portably through a walkman. Never realized how much audio clarity I sacrificed when I switched to MP3 in mid 2000's.
I was surprised to see, at first, how LONG this video was! But then after watching it I can see why. There is a lot to explain; and the OP does a very good job!
Even 9 years later very useful! Thank you!
Concise, no BS, understandable for the everyday-man.
Perfect.
Excellent step by step tutorial. Well done and keep up your good work.
Thank you for this tutorial, really helped me get started on preserving my Audio CD's that have been sitting in a bin for far too long.
Not sure the reason but when I try compressing to flac, files still come out as wav uncompressed??
If you are viewing the song as it is being ripped it will be in a .wav format at first then it will convert it to .flac,if not go back to your compressor settings and verify your settings.
I have the same issue. Did you manage to fix it?
I have the same problem. Once the program worked as it should but then it somehow stopped creating flac files and I got wavs instead. I have gone through all the settings and double checked them..
@E. O. probably yes. I wasn’t able to figure out what was the problem so I started using CUEripper instead which is working just fine
@E. O. Yup, I have checked that too.
4'50"
There's no use in setting the bit rate and quality settings since these are ignored for Flac conversion.
I stopped watching at that point
@E. O. I'm new to this audio stuff and have original cds i wanna take to flac, idk what any of that means do you have recommendations to try in getting better results?
@E. O. no, I haven't, I have nothing yet im just doing my research first
That was amazingly helpful. Thanks. So much better than another I had seen sadly, about 150 CDs ago. Got some revisions to do now....
Great video with super instructions on how to use a fairly complicated program. Greatly appreciated. In my future I see hours and hours of ripping pleasure to come. Many thanks.
Thanks for watching!
Man, it's such a good guide, every time I re-install my PC, I watch this vid for best setup options :) thanks!
After a disaster while backing up my computer (1 HDD board started on fire and took out every one of my SSD/HDDs so I'd lost everything - ouch even) I'm starting over ripping my CD collection. I'd forgotten how to use EAC and this video was extremely helpful. Actually don't think I'd used the metadata steps before. Great video and can't thank you enough. :)
Glad to help, thanks for watching
I use other software to tag my music as it's super useful and makes things faster to tag all together. It also allows to create so many different tags if you so choose to. It's called Mp3Tag. I found it after doing some research on the best ones available. That's what I found. I'm no audiophile (yet) or professional but I thought I'd share it with you guys.
I just looked at how much CDs I'm gonna have to rip... This may take weeks or possibly months lol
This is an amazing tutorial btw, straight to the point and no filler :D Great work!
Thanks :)
EAC is good for ripping, but it has a very poor metadata support. I rip my discs with EAC and encode with CueTools that has way better metadata support and it connects with MusicBrainz and Discogs.
Just what I needed. Clear and concise. Thanks to the author.
EAC does make it rather counter intuitive to rip to flac and keep id3 tags, this video is very helpful
Had the flac enabled and I got wav instead.
I got this and figured out it is to do with the command line options for the flac converter, this box is blank by default. I found a suggestion of
-T "artist=%artist%" -T "title=%title%" -T "album=%albumtitle%" -T "date=%year%" -T "tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "genre=%genre%" -5 %source%
which made it all work for me. Your mileage may differ.
.wav is basically uncompressed
Man you are a lifesaver! Thank you so much! I never would have figured it out by myself!
Thanks for watching!
I don't know if you have updated this video, but there is no need for a bit rate higher than 44.1K when ripping a CD. The CD itself will not give you more resolution than what it was recorded on. So since CDs are 16bit/44.1 that is the highest you can actually expect. Up sampling, its just a waste of processing power at both the encoder and decoder end.
@E. O. Question remains he chose 1024, that's not 1411? I thought he was chasing SampleRate. @4:51. I use Apple Lossless for ripping my CDs.It defaults to 868, or 829, sometimes more others less bit rate. Sample rate CD quality of 44.1. I am in the apple ecosystem so it works perfectly for me.
Wanted to say two things. First, your tutorial (I've been following the channel itself for a while now) helped me a great deal and exact audio copy is actually really great software to use I've found out thanks to you!
Second, thought you should know that if you look up on google ripping cds to flac, your tutorial is on the first page ^_^ Just thought I'd let you know.
Anyway, love your content, and keep up the great work!
Woah, I didn't know that. Awesome! Thanks for sharing! 😀
Thanks a lot for this tutorial! I just got my first DAP and needed to rip all my CDs, 2024 and still a great video :)
Hi, thanks for the video, very helpful! However, I set the options exactly as shown in the video but the option "Get new image from metadata provider" is greyed out. Do you know how I can solve this?
you sir, are a legend - THANK YOU for making this video for the uninitiated like myself
Changing Bit Rate while ripping FLAC doesn't matter, it sounds the same as it is and the file size doesnt stays the same even if you ''rip FLAC to 1024bit or 64bit''
Por exemplo mesmo se alguém mudar para 128kbps a qualidade permanecerá Flac e porque alguns arquivos .log aparecem alterados pelo usuário para 128kbps esses arquivos são realmente bons?
excellent, it's been several years since I've used this. Could you make a quick checklist, not of all the settings, but the steps you took up to test and copy?
Do WAV is better than FLAC? What I specifically mean is in terms of audio quality noticeable by ear. Obviously each person is different but in theory, is it better? I assume the file size is bigger though.
flac is compressed lossless. so it sounds identical to wav but takes up less space. the only advantage to using wav is it uses less pc resources, because it doesn't need to be uncompressed
That Three Days Grace album in the thumbnail is one of the albums I’m ribbing to my computer while watching this tutorial.
Interesting tutorial for neophytes and experienced audiophiles alike
I wonder why the manufacturer of the program does not provide such settings by default, since the program assumes that it should copy music from CDs without a scratch.
Very good voice, perfect explanation, so my Cd information got not found but media player showed it, so I entered it manually, but the rest, although there was one box I could not check , perhaps as I did not buy the eac program but downloaded it, ...but my Cd is now getting ripped in a flac, and then put on a Usb Stick and then I listen in my new car which has no CD player :-). Thanks for your support and for getting best possible quality.
Great tutorial sir! Keep up the amazing work and Thanks for the tips!
+DJTonyChau Thanks! :)
Thank you for providing this information, it helped me out a lot.
You skipped a required step and gave out some misinformation about the Compresion options. :/
The bit rate and high/low quality settings don't specify anything to the FLAC encoder. The CRC and ID3 tag settings are also ignored. FLAC doesn't support ID3 tags, it uses another metadata format (Vorbis). The command-line options tell the FLAC encoder all of things it should do (tags, quality etc.), and you skipped spelling that out.
You can look up the paramaters in the FLAC encoder's documentation. This is what I use and why with FLAC 1.3.1/1.3.2 (note, this is case sensitive; -p and -P are different settings):
-V --replay-gain -m -8 -e -p -T "artist=%artist%" -T "title=%title%" -T "album=%albumtitle%" -T "date=%year%" -T "tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "genre=%genre%" %source%
-V - verify a correct encoding (hopefully this triggers a return code to EAC, otherwise the verfication check doesn't mean anything)
--replay-gain - Calculates the gain level that should be used at replay and stores it in the tag
-m -8 -e -p - specifies the maximum compression options, since FLAC is lossless this means less disk space at the same quality, the -m, -e, -p flags don't save much, but I have plenty of CPU cores to throw at it, so I don't care if takes a little longer.
-T etc. - This tells EAC to pass the specified metadata to the FLAC encoder
%source% - This must be at the end (i.e. you're calling the flac encoder to do the above on the source, if you ordered it differently it would fail/ignore some of your options)
One other little gotcha: If you're realing with network shares for your file structure or encoder files, they must be mapped network drives for the FLAC encoder. Otherwise it will test fine, but fail silently when you choose the compression option from a disc.
Thanks for the info! Though the author of EAC included Flac.exe, I'm disappointed that he hasn't upgraded his program since August 2016. He needs to add the command lines for Flac into EAC like he did for Lame and other encoders. I rip to both flac and Mp3 (for my car stereo and phone) and its a hassle entering the command line every time you switch to lame.
Don't use ID3 tags on FLAC files! The tags should be OGG Vorbis only.
YES! This totally screwed my ability to play the flac file on certain devices
So, do NOT check "Add ID3 Tag" under "Compression Options" (assuming you're going to .flac)
EAC didn't create a cue file, even tho I set it to look up info in freedb. I used AIMP which read the disk info and created the cue file. Probably uses the same flac routines, but compresses in half the time as EAC. Result is same as EAC in terms of filesize. Flac will also play in VLC as well as AIMP.
Somebody probably has a video out that describes CD to flac in AIMP. Very easy! Control A to
highlight all the tracks, then select your flac output folder and start. Menu >utilities>convert.
Then select your CD drive with down arrow and screen fills up with the tracks. At that point
control A , etc. Very nice, easy -to-use program. You can read the cue file in Wordpad or Notepad
by the way.
But you don’t get a log.
Is there a reason some of my ripped FLAC are only 768 kb/s instead of the 1024 kb/s selected in the menu?
Because bit rate doesn’t matter for lossless files except to give you a clue as to what kind of audio may be contained within.
Thanks for the comprehensive guide, it’s nice to see how to do this for hifi :). My rips are taking 3 hours per cd with these settings - is there a setting that will reduce this? - I’m even willing to lose some fidelity
Dude, you are my savior. I could do what I wanted and it was simple with your explanation.
My thanks for this tutorial!
Great video buddy. You've got a great voice and well done on the instruction.
Thank you :)
Nice video. Would you happen to have a current tutorial? I just discovered this process, and now I want to re-rip my collection, and move away from Apple.
Thanks for the tutorial, now finally I can rip my cd's to Flac :)
Thanks for watching!
Awsome Tutorial and awsome voice. What mic are you using?
btw... how do you get the command-line options for flac? :S still puzzled with that one.
thanks mate, this has made is so easy for me to rip all of my parents old CD's.
Just seems to be unable to rip to FLAC anymore. I converted loads of CDs before, but on return maybe 2 or three years later, it's only ripping to WAV, despite selecting compressed as the option.
Thanks for the posting, eh. I stumbled across it after messing around with EAC. It’s a powerful program.
Excellent video. But I have a problem. The "Detect Gaps" doesn't show. What can be?
here I' am looking for the exact same thing.
This was a very informative video. Thank you, Seto Kaiba!
Nice vodeo, bit do ypu know of a website where it can check log files for the accuracy? thanks again.
I followed it through step by step. I got a folder full of .wav files. Why doesn't someone invent a FLAC ripper that works easily? I downloaded EAC a year ago and still can't use it.
Either you or the program skipped the compressing step, heh
Thank you for replying. I must have done something wrong but I can' think what. I made all my settings identical to you. Then selected all and hit the same process as you. I also tried by using the CMP (copy selected tracks and compress) button on the EAC interface. ...I know I have the FLAC converter set up right.
I have managed to rip to FLAC, by finding the solution further down in the comments; Rui Placido said, If you are using EAC 1.0b2 or newer, then in the Additional command line options box, copy and paste the following string:
-T "artist=%artist%" -T "title=%title%" -T "album=%albumtitle%" -T "date=%year%" -T "tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "genre=%genre%" -5 %source% (This has worked. However I am puzzled by the file size. E.g. EAC on track one of my first successful rip says, Size 34.45 MB = Compressed size 25.59 MB. However the end result rip of this track is, 17.7 MB.)
I noticed something else too. You said ripping a disk takes a good while. Yet I copy and compress within ten minutes. I think I must have set it up on fast copying, but I followed your settings. Or I am not error checking, which defeats the object of using EAC. I wanted to get top quality rips. (Sad face.)
Error checking does tend to be what causes delays. Also the speed of your drive, length of the CD, etc.
If I try to make a cue sheet or rip the CD, EAC immediately crashes. I have no idea what the problem could be, but I notice online it seems to be a decent problem?
Thanks for the guide but damn... why arent those options already selected?! You gotta retune the whole software lol
Thank you so much for this. It helped me tremendously and following your instructions made everything work flawlessly! 😄
excellent tutorial and i like the abrupt end with no good bye :)
Thank you ....made a little more sense put this way. Now I just have to find a way to upload folders to old Galaxy for play in the car .
Great video many thanks for taking the time to put it together!
Mac only users will have to use XLD. I have used XLD in the past, when I had a working Mac. It does the job.
Thank you. This is exactly what I needed to rip my old cd's.
what mic are you using? Sounds great man!
unfortunately it rips in "wav" format and not in "flac" format ...although i followed your tutorial........
thanks for the vid, really helped a lot. just a question, I followed all your steps however I wasnt able to find those flac files but instead wav files. do I missed something?
Its nice to see comments so recent on an 8year old video
FreeDB has been shut down since March 31, 2020, is there another way to get cd information?
"detect gaps" is no longer a feature. The context menu item "get new image..." is disabled, and dragging an image there looks like it should work as there is a drag-n-drop hotspot there, but it doesn't do anything.
Wow this guide is right on. Very concise and easy to follow. Thanks!
Nice tutorial! I have the same Case and optical drive as you!
Thanks mate. That's really helpful. Now to just work out whether I have the hardware that can play it.
In my General Tab of EAC Options it keeps it locked and greyed out to "open CD information dialogue" when I check "On Unknown CDs" instead of "automatically access online metadata database."
I'm not sure if this is because, two years later, I'm running a different version of EAC. I thought if I unchecked ""Activate Beginner Mode..." in the Tools Tab it would make a difference, but it didn't.
The video helped me with the ripping process and one comment here helped with the ".wav not .flac" issue, but I can't edit _anything_ on the file's properties -> details after ripping it. The details don't even show the audio bitrate. When I get .flac files from other sources, I can usually edit these details any way I want. Any ideas on how to solve that?
I found an incorrect option in the video. In Compression options the "Add ID3 tag" checkbox needs to be unchecked, at least for Windows 10, or Windows Explorer won't display metadata (title, album name, etc.). I had everything working then did a final compare of options to the video and found that I had this option unchecked when the video shows it checked. I checked it then after that for new rips the metadata stopped being displayed. Unchecked the option and the problem went away. From google searches it seems ID3 tags are non-standard for FLAC which uses Vorbis comments instead.
What are the command line options for the flac compression?
Very well done and easy to follow. Outstanding work!
+Dave Scese Thanks!
A little production value and some editing, you could go pro.
+Dave Scese Getting there!
Excellent video, very helpful & will be saving this for even future use! Cheers.
my track names arent showing up what up i doing wrong
I'm having an issue with the metadata on my songs. I am exporting them successfully with the artist, title, track number, etc. all correct.....EXCEPT FOR THE COVER ART. I have used EAC before months ago, but then i had gotten a new computer and it just so happens that EAC is now version 1.3. I have been surfing the comments and trying to find a solution, but only to have no luck. if anyone knows the reason and how to fix this issue, please let me know. I do not want to have to find out how to manually embed cover art for each song individually and manually. [SOLVED THIS IN THE REPLY TO THIS COMMENT]
*Solution* *found* Apparently, The songs had to sit for a while with the cue document and other files, but eventually (the next day at most) the cover art had made it into the songs and now they are complete with all of the tag data, I wish I had better patience hahaha. Hope this helps anyone with the same issue.
Great video! Under Test and Copy Selected Tracks, what is the difference between uncompressed and compressed? Is there a quality difference? Thank you!
How can I manually set the cd cover art? I just want to add a jpg or jpeg as the cd cover but dragging the image or right clicking the box doesn't allow for adding an image, it's grayed out.
Thank you for a great information about how to convert cd music flac.
Should test with Audiobooks as well
Greetings from Sweden and John R
Is the cue file supposed to go in the file folder with the FLAC files? Seems so but my player isn't seeing the them and using the art. For example: I ended up with \Music\The Byrds\Mr. Tambourine Man [RM 1996]\The_Byrds__-Mr._Tambourine_Man-_-[RM_1996]. I accepted cue generator suggestion of new folder "Mr. Tambourine Man [RM 1996" where cue file was saved and compressor was told to put the files is same folder but it creates a subfolder for FLAC files "The_Byrds_-_Mr._Tambourine_Man_[RM_1996" separating the cue and the FLAC files. The exact structure is not the issue rather I assume cue and FLAC have to be together to be useful to players. Right? [Obvious, it is not working for my receiver/amp that plays FLAC files, so I tried it both ways. Neither got a picture up and little other info beyond name.) I just read the comment re: 'do NOT check "Add ID3 Tag" under "Compression Options"' but haven't tried unchecking it yet.]
I have been redoing my cd collection and ripping them to Flac rather than Mp3 like I used to do in the past.I have bought a Hi Res Audio Player and prefer listening to my music in better quality. However i have noticed that I have haven't been picking a bitrate option and have just been leaving the option to Rip to Flac on the default setting. Do you think I should go back and change the setting to 1 bitrate for the better quality and convert again or just leave it as it is bearing in mind I was converting to default setting?
This tutorial is based on the 1.2 version of Exact Audio Copy (EAC). Currently, when you download the EAC program, you get the 1.3 version. So, some of the screen views of the various menu options have changed, but not so much that this video wasn't EXTREMELY HELPFUL to me!
Glad to help, hoping to do an updated one soon
I thought flac is lossless but why do you have to set the bit rate @4:53 mark? can someone explain to me thank you.
HI, can you make a tutorial with the EAC 1.1? setting are differents.. please
Hey thanks for the tutorial. I was new to the program, not what to do exactly. Amazing freeware rip program by the way...!!
Hello. WHat should I do with the opposite? I've downloaded a folder with 1 cue and 1 flac... I don't know how to burn it on a cd. Thanks
HELP? Why is EAC putting a 1.0 in front of all my tracks? Instead of just tracks 1,2,3,4 etc. it shows 1.01, 1.02, 1.03, 1.04 etc