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Ripping on Windows

Download the latest version of Exact Audio Copy.

Tip

Skip to Ripping if you already have everything setup and wish to skip to the ripping part of the guide.

Warning

Possible causes for "File Creation Error" are the following:

  • The path of a track file is longer than 255 characters. (Shorten artist/album/title values...)
  • The filename of a track file begins with a space character. (Remove beginning spaces...)
  • The drive is not capable of retrieving UPC/ISRC codes. (Disable in drive settings...)

Warning

When WinFSP is installed (often for Rclone) the AccurateRip plugin will not function at all and opening any filesystem dialog from EAC will immediately crash the program (#162). To fix the issue either uninstall WinFSP or run fix162.bat.

Setup

The following should be done once when setting up the program.

1. Install

Uncheck the paid metadata plugin.

2. Launch

Cancel the setup wizard as we will configure everything manually.

Upon inserting the most popular disc you own in the drive, the AccurateRip dialog should appear. If it does not appear, skip this step for now, otherwise proceed to configure AccurateRip, depending on the result multiple discs may need to be inserted and the process repeated.

3. EAC options

Normalization should never be used as it irreversibly modifies the data, which guarantees an inaccurate rip. Non-destructive ReplayGain can be applied to the tracks after ripping instead.

The %cdnumber%-%tracknr2%. %title% track naming scheme is recommended for all rips. Do not include folder parts in the scheme as the generated cuesheet will be messed up.

Make all character replacements replace with either an underscore or an empty value. Original titles are always available from the file tags, replacing characters in filenames with similar symbols causes unnessecary confusion when performing file operations.

4. Drive options

Autodetect the read command.

If AccurateRip could not be configured earlier, find the offset for your drive from the AccurateRip Drive Offsets page and set it as the read sample offset correction.

5. Compression options

Tip

Instead of using the bundled FLAC encoder, it is recommended to download the latest version of the libFLAC encoder and set the compression program path to point to it.

Additional command-line options:
-8 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "DISCTOTAL=%totalcds%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "TRACKTOTAL=%numtracks%" %source% -o %dest%

6. Metadata options

Pick the CUETools DB Metadata Plugin and proceed to configure it. If you submit metadata and disc ids to MusicBrainz before ripping, pick the MusicBrainz Metadata Plugin instead.

Pick large cover search mode, otherwise it will only find thumbnails.

Use any random email.

Ripping

The following should be done for every disc in the release.

1. Prerip

If no metadata was found automatically, click on the caret to the left of the mailbox in the top-left corner to change the data source and then click the icon to fetch metadata from that source.

Make sure the fetched metadata is the same as what is printed on the physical release. If they do not match, update the metadata in the program to match.

2. Midrip

Danger

To rip a hidden track (when the first track is highlighted in red) the disc must first be ripped normally by the guide, then range ripped (Action -> Copy Range -> Compressed...) from block 0 to block [start sector of first track] - 1.

It is recommended for the folder name to simple and be consistent, for example Album Artist - Album Title (Year) {Cat. No}.

Warning

Make sure to pick a folder that won't leave any personal information in the path as it will be added to the generated rip log.

Tip

When ripping multiple discs select the same folder and be sure to update the CD Number in the bottom-right corner of the main window.

3. Postrip

  1. Check the rip log with a logchecker. See Ripping CDs
  2. Find a high quality cover. See Finding Artwork
  3. Scan the release. See Scanning Media


Salty • Created 2021-10-04 • Updated 2024-12-06

  1. https://doujinstyle.com/eac/setup.html ↩

  2. https://doujinstyle.com/eac/ripping.html ↩

  3. https://web.archive.org/web/20121112011036/https://blowfish.be/eac/rip/rip11-hidden.html ↩