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RIP, RIP and away

Posted by Ryelands (A) on December 31, 2009 at 02:34:51

In Reply to: RE: settings for bit accurate Exact Audio Copy rips? posted by Dawnrazor on December 30, 2009 at 22:03:34:

Here's an update of some notes I did in response to an earlier request.

I know I'm only a surrogate but it took a lot of pain to get a hold on what follows so I hope it at least gives you some pointers. See also links at end for helpful stuff on drive offsets and a caveat on backup. Others will (hopefully) pounce on any errors.

Good luck.

Dave

+++++

EAC Options > Extraction
Check:
“Fill up missing offset samples with silence”
“No use of null samples for CRC calculations”
“Synchronise between tracks”
“Lock drive tray during extraction”
Set: “Extraction and compression priority” to Normal (not critical)
Set: “Error Recovery Quality” to High (critical)

EAC Options - General
I tick all the boxes except:
“Display times using frames” and
“Beep after extraction finished”
“On unknown CDs” is set to access freedb
But I don’t think any of this is critical

EAC Options - Tools
If using compression, check:
“On extraction, start external compressors . . . ” and
“Do not open external compressor window”
If not using compression, don’t

EAC Options - Filename
Naming and tagging in digital audio is a bit like sex - everyone assumes you know all about it but no-one will demonstrate it. Also, everyone has different needs and wants. However, to illustrate the general principle (of digital filenames) as I understand it, what I do is shown below. Hopefully, others will point out where I’m going wrong.

%N - %A - %T for “Naming scheme”
Click “Use various artist naming scheme” and set it to
%N - %T

For classical music, I delete the artist’s name in the main EAC window and put in the composer instead (otherwise you can easily end up with over 256 characters in the filename as many contributors of classical music data to freedb.org treat filenames as substitute sleeve notes)..

My “naming convention” is thus:

01 - Clementi - Sonata in A flat maj, WO 13 - Allegro ma non troppo
or
01 - The Modern Jazz Quartet - Ralph's New Blues

For “various artist” CDs, click “Various Artists” in the main EAC window and put the performers into the filename:

03 - Little Junior's Blue Flames - Mystery Train

Note that “ - “ (or whatever you select in your naming scheme but " - " is the most common) is used as a separator and tells any tagging software what is what. If you break whatever rule you set up, you will not be able to derive tags reliably from filenames and may, effectively, be doing the job twice.

I put the artists’ names into the folder name, thus:

Haydn - String quartet, op 64 no 1 - Buchberger Quartet
or
Horace Silver - Song for my Father

EAC Options - Directories
Your choice.

The other option tabs do not matter in this context

+++++

Drive options - Extraction method
Click “Secure mode”
Hit “Detect Read Features” and determine the characteristics of your drive. Set the “Secure mode” tick boxes to match these.

Do not use “Burst mode” as it performs no error correction. I accidentally mis-set this box, didn’t spot it and had to re-rip well over 100 CDs. Hot Tip: hit F10 at the start of an EAC session and check that “Secure mode” is set OK.

Drive options - Offset / Speed
Tick “Use Accurate RIP”

I recommend setting drive offsets and using AccurateRIP as it provides you with a running "quality control": if something's amiss, you're more likely to catch it before ripping hundreds of CDs.

The other option tabs do not matter in this context

+++++

Compression options - External compression
If you want to use, e.g., flac, tick “Use external program for compression”
For “Parameter passing scheme”, select “User Defined Encoder”
For “Program, including path, used for compression”, it’s probably:
C:\Program Files\EAC\Flac\flac.exe but use the Browse button.

For Additional command-line options, I insert:
-T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" -5 %s
because a helpful chap on Hydrogenaudio recommended it.
I also tick “Delete WAV after compression”.

+++++

The freedb options are self-explanatory.

For stuff on CD-ROM drive offsets, see:

http://users.fulladsl.be/spb2267/offsets/offsets.htm

and:

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/support/faq/offset-questions/

EDIT:

In C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\ (or wherever), there are three *.DAT files. These retain details of the CDs you have ripped and store any changes you made to data obtained from an on-line database (i.e. in my case, pretty well every CD). If you need to re-rip any CDs, you will not need to re-edit the file names.

It's therefore a good idea to include these files in your backup routines - in the event you have to reinstall EAC or revert to an earlier image file of your system partition, current data will be lost. I launch EAC from a batch file that backs up the files on quitting EAC. (I just wish I'd thought of that absurdly simple idea months ago.)

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