Latest revision as of 10:56, 9 September 2025

Exact Audio Copy guides
Configuration
EAC configuration EAC Options EAC Drive Options EAC Compression Options EAC Metadata Options EAC WAV Editor Options EAC Configuration Wizard
Compression
EAC and AAC (neroAac)‎ EAC and AAC (qaac)‎ EAC and ALAC (FFmpeg)‎ EAC and ALAC (qaac)‎ EAC and ALAC (refalac)‎‎‎ EAC and FLAC EAC and LAME EAC and LossyWAV EAC and Monkey's Audio EAC and Musepack EAC and Ogg Vorbis EAC and Opus EAC and TAK EAC and WavPack
Other
EAC Gap Settings EAC and Cue Sheets EAC Lossless Backup

Software Needed

Installation

Note: This guide assumes that EAC is has been configured for secure ripping, if not please follow this guide.

Get FLAC from here and uncompress the latest "win-zip" archive in Windows' program directory, e.g. "C:\Program Files\FLAC".
Alternatively the current version of EAC comes with an older FLAC encoder in "C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac".

NOTE: On 64-bit Windows, you may find these folders in "C:\Program Files (x86)".

Configuration

Open EAC and insert a CD into the drive.
Click the EAC menu and select Compression Options.
Click the External Compression Tab, and put a tick in the box for use external program for compression.
Change Parameter Passing Scheme to User Defined Encoder.
Change Use file extension to .flac if not already that.
Click the Browse button and locate the FLAC.EXE that you unzipped earlier.
Remove the ticks from Use CRC check and Add ID3 tag.
Tick Check for external programs return code.
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

Note: The green portion is where you would change the compression level.
The range is -0 .. -8 (fastest compression .. highest compression; default is -5). Since FLAC is always lossless the effect of the compression level is small and cannot be compared to the compression of lossy formats.

Do not worry what bit rate is shown in the bit rate drop down box; this will be ignored, as will the quality setting chosen below it.

If you told the EAC configuration wizard to use FLAC, then the command-line options are preconfigured with the following default string. As compared to the string above, the order of parameters is different, more metadata fields are supported (harmless), the output filename is unnecessarily included (-o %dest%), and output verification is unnecessarily enabled (-V):

-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 "ALBUMARTIST=%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%

Copy Image & Create CUE Sheet

When extracting to an Image & CUE Sheet, the CD-Text Tags (artist, album title, track titles, track numbers, etc.) are located in the CUE Sheet so you should not need to tag the Image.

Note:

There is a BUG in EAC where Track#2 information is used for all track related placeholders when you use [Test & ]Copy Image & Create CUE Sheet > Compressed.... If you do decide to tag the Image, make sure to only use placeholders that are intended for the entire CD.

No Tags:

-6 %source%

No Tags (except for the cover):

-6 %hascover%--picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source%

Embedding the CUE Sheet

FLAC has a couple of options to embed the CUE Sheet information into the Image.

Note:

EAC does not provide a sample CUE Sheet for the Test encoder function so you will receive an error code if you try to test the encoder with the following strings.

The following command will extract the text from the CUE Sheet and store as a UTF-8 encoded TAG named CUESHEET:

--tag-from-file="CUESHEET=%albumartist% - %albumtitle%.cue"

The following command will extract the Index points (e.g. INDEX 00, INDEX 01, but not the CD-Text Tags) from the CUE Sheet and store them in a CUESHEET metadata block:

--cuesheet="%albumartist% - %albumtitle%.cue"

The following example will store the CUESHEET Tag, CUESHEET metadata block, and cover:

-6 --tag-from-file="CUESHEET=%albumartist% - %albumtitle%.cue" --cuesheet="%albumartist% - %albumtitle%.cue" %hascover%--picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source%

External links

Another guide to set up EAC (including some screenshots) by Case (archived on May 4, 2022)
FLAC command line tool options
EAC placeholders

Cue Sheet & Image Problem

Attention: This issue is already fixed in EAC V1.0 beta 3.

Using this configuration with EAC when creating an image and cue sheet rip can cause the cue sheet not to work with the resulting FLAC file. The problem is caused by EAC not liking the four letter .flac extension, which results in EAC putting the extension on to the image name twice.

e.g. the image name is referenced in the cue sheet as "myflacimage.flac" but after encoding it ends up being called "myflacimage.flac.flac", so when you open the cue sheet for playing or burning, the referenced file doesen't exist.

Some solutions to the problem

Synthetic Soul's batch file method
REACT EAC addon.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{merge-from|Create a lossless back-up with EAC and FLAC}}
+{{EAC guides|FLAC|yes}}
+= Software Needed =
+* [http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/resources/download/ Exact Audio Copy]
+* [https://xiph.org/flac/download.html Latest FLAC]
-= Configuring EAC and FLAC =
+= Installation =
-== Software Needed ==
-* [http://exactaudiocopy.org/eac6.html Exact Audio Copy]
-* [http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html FLAC 1.1.3]
-== Installation ==
 '''Note:''' This guide assumes that EAC is has been configured for secure ripping, if not please follow [[EAC_Drive_Configuration | this]] guide.
-* Install FLAC using the FLAC installer
+* Get FLAC from [https://xiph.org/flac/download.html here] and uncompress the latest "win-zip" archive in Windows' program directory, e.g. "C:\Program Files\FLAC".
+* Alternatively the current version of EAC comes with an older FLAC encoder in "C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac".
+NOTE: On 64-bit Windows, you may find these folders in "C:\Program Files (x86)".
-== Configuration ==
+= Configuration =
 * Open EAC and insert a CD into the drive.
 * Click the '''EAC''' menu and select '''Compression Options'''.
-* Click the '''External Compression''' Tab, and put a check box in '''use external program for compression'''.
+* Click the '''External Compression''' Tab, and put a tick in the box for '''use external program for compression'''.
 * Change '''Parameter Passing Scheme''' to '''User Defined Encoder'''.
 * Change '''Use file extension''' to '''.flac''' if not already that.
-* Click the '''Browse''' button and locate the '''FLAC.exe''' that you unzipped earlier.
+* Click the '''Browse''' button and locate the '''FLAC.EXE''' that you unzipped earlier.
-* Remove the ticks from '''Use CRC check''', '''Add ID3 tag''' and '''check for external programs return code'''.
+* Remove the ticks from '''Use CRC check''' and '''Add ID3 tag'''.
-* In the '''Addtional command line options''' box, copy and paste the below string.
+* Tick '''Check for external programs return code'''.
+* 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=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" <font style="color:green">'''-5'''</font> %s
+  -T "artist=%artist%" -T "title=%title%" -T "album=%albumtitle%" -T "date=%year%" -T "tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "genre=%genre%" <font style="color:green">'''-5'''</font> %source%
-<span style="color:green">'''Note:''' The green portion is where you would change the compression level or add settings for the FLAC encoder.</span>
+* If you are using EAC 1.0b1 or earlier, then in the '''Additional command line options''' box, copy and paste the following string:
-* Do not worry what bit rate is shown in the bit rate drop down box, this will be ignored.
+ -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" <font style="color:green">'''-5'''</font> %s
-[[Image:EACandFLAC.png|frame|center|FLAC configured with tagging support]]
+<span style="color:green">'''Note:''' The green portion is where you would change the compression level.</span> <br />
+The range is -0 .. -8 (fastest compression .. highest compression; default is -5). Since FLAC is always lossless the effect of the compression level is small and cannot be compared to the compression of lossy formats.
-== Cue Sheet & Image Problem ==
+* Do not worry what bit rate is shown in the bit rate drop down box; this will be ignored, as will the quality setting chosen below it.
-Using this configuration with EAC when creating an image and cue sheet rip can cause the cue sheet not to work with the resulting FLAC file. The problem is caused by EAC not liking the four letter .flac extension, which results in EAC putting the extension on to the image name twice.
-e.g. the image name is referenced in the cue sheet as "myflacimage.flac" but after encoding it ends up being called "myflacimage.flac.flac", so when you open the cue sheet for playing or burning, the referenced file doesen't exist.
+[[Image:EACandFLAC.png|frame|center|600px|FLAC configured with tagging support]]
-== Some solutions to the problem ==
+If you told the EAC configuration wizard to use FLAC, then the command-line options are preconfigured with the following default string. As compared to the string above, the order of parameters is different, more metadata fields are supported (harmless), the output filename is unnecessarily included (-o %dest%), and output verification is unnecessarily enabled (-V):
-Synthetic Soul's [http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=37978 batch file method]
-Tycho's excellent [http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=35158 REACT] EAC addon.
+ <font style="color:green">'''-6'''</font> -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 "ALBUMARTIST=%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%
-= EAC and FLAC Lossless Backup =
+== Copy Image & Create CUE Sheet ==
-== Software Needed ==
-* [http://exactaudiocopy.org/ Exact Audio Copy]
-* [http://flac.sourceforge.net/ FLAC Encoder]
-* [http://cyberial.com/flacinstaller.asp FLAC Frontend]
-* [http://www.burnatonce.com/downloads/ Burnatonce]
-== Exact Audio Copy ==
+When extracting to an Image & CUE Sheet, the CD-Text Tags (artist, album title, track titles, track numbers, etc.) are located in the CUE Sheet so you should not need to tag the Image.
-=== One Time Drive Setup ===
+{{panel|title=Note:|There is a BUG in EAC where Track#2 information is used for all track related [[EAC_placeholders|placeholders]] when you use {{code|[Test & ]Copy Image & Create CUE Sheet > Compressed...}}. If you do decide to tag the Image, make sure to only use placeholders that are intended for the entire CD.|color=yellow}}
-* Open EAC
-** Insert an audio CD into your drive.
-** Click EAC\Drive Options (F10) on the menu bar, select the Extraction Method tab & then press the Detect Read Features.... button
-** Wait for EAC to finish analyzing your drive then take a note of your drive's features & press the OK button
-** Select: Secure mode with the following drive features (recommended)
-==== Feature: Caching/Drive caches audio ====
+No Tags:
-If EAC reports "Caching: Yes" your drive caches audio data, every sector read will be read from cache and is identical, this will increase the probability of errors & cause a speed decrease. EAC needs to clear the cache by overreading it, enable this by ticking the "drive caches audio" box.
+ <font style="color:green">'''-6'''</font> %source%
-==== Feature: Accurate Stream/Drive has ‘Accurate Stream’ feature ====
+No Tags (except for the <font style="color:DarkOrange">cover</font>):
-If EAC reports "Accurate Stream: Yes" your drive doesn't jitter this will decrease the probability of errors & cause a speed increase, enable this option by ticking the "Accurate Stream" box.
+ <font style="color:green">'''-6'''</font> <font style="color:DarkOrange">%hascover%--picture="%coverfile%"%hascover%</font> %source%
-==== Feature: "C2 Error Info/Drive is capable of retrieving C2 error information" ====
+=== Embedding the CUE Sheet ===
-With C2 enabled EAC's error detection becomes dependent on the drives C2 accuracy which varies from drive to drive & increases the probability of errors, this feature also results in a speed increase because EAC doesn't read the data twice anymore, If your drive supports this feature & you decide to use it enable this by ticking C2 Error Info box.
-* '''Tip:''' ''It's usually better to leave the C2 Error Info box unticked.  If you do decide to tick the C2 Error Info box, it's a good idea to also use EAC's Test & Copy function in order to help ensure that errors don't go undetected.''
+FLAC has a couple of options to embed the CUE Sheet information into the Image.<br />
-* '''Tip:''' ''To determine your drive's C2 accuracy you could attempt creating a DAE Quality test CD.''
+{{panel|title=Note:|EAC does not provide a sample CUE Sheet for the {{code|Test encoder}} function so you will receive an error code if you try to test the encoder with the following strings.}}
+The following command will extract the text from the CUE Sheet and store as a UTF-8 encoded TAG named {{code|CUESHEET}}:
+ <font style="color:#9932CC">--tag-from-file="CUESHEET=%albumartist% - %albumtitle%.cue"</font>
-=== Extraction ===
+The following command will extract the Index points (e.g. INDEX 00, INDEX 01, but not the CD-Text Tags) from the CUE Sheet and store them in a CUESHEET metadata block:
-* Enter CD info, e.g. Artist, album, track names (will be present in the CUE Sheet)
+ <font style="color:#00BFFF">--cuesheet="%albumartist% - %albumtitle%.cue"</font>
-* Click Action\Copy Image & create CUE Sheet\Uncompressed (Alt+F7)
-* A Save Waveform dialog box will open, input your desired name & press the Save button.
-== FLAC Frontend ==
+The following example will store the </font> <font style="color:#9932CC">CUESHEET Tag</font>, <font style="color:#00BFFF">CUESHEET metadata block</font>, and <font style="color:DarkOrange">cover</font>:
-Open the FLAC frontend and '''Tick only:'''
+ <font style="color:green">'''-6'''</font> <font style="color:#9932CC">--tag-from-file="CUESHEET=%albumartist% - %albumtitle%.cue"</font> <font style="color:#00BFFF">--cuesheet="%albumartist% - %albumtitle%.cue"</font> <font style="color:DarkOrange">%hascover%--picture="%coverfile%"%hascover%</font> %source%
-* Verify (verifies there were no errors during encoding)
-* Add tags (Set-up tag conf. fields & set Filename scheme to Custom: X)
-* Replaygain (stores replaygain values, doesn't modify the original audio data)
-* Cuesheet (Created by EAC, Set full path)
-* Delete input files (removes input wave file)
-'''Then press encode.'''
+== External links ==
+* Another guide to set up EAC (including some screenshots) by Case {{webarchive|https://web.archive.org/web/20220504234648/http://www.saunalahti.fi/cse/EAC/index.html|2022-05-04}}
+* [https://xiph.org/flac/documentation_tools_flac.html FLAC command line tool options]
+* [[EAC placeholders]]
-* '''Tip:''' ''You can now store CD TEXT within your FLAC image using Foobar; just open your CUE sheet with notepad then copy contents & paste it into the cuesheet tag of the FLAC image file within foobar''
+= Cue Sheet & Image Problem =
-* '''Tip:''' ''Keep the external CUE Sheet to display your image's tracks in Winamp using this plugin & for later restoring your image to a compliant audio CD
-== Burnatonce ==
+'''Attention: This issue is already fixed in EAC V1.0 beta 3.'''
-Open Burnatonce
-Click Mastering\Data DVD(or CD)\ISO Settings
+Using this configuration with EAC when creating an image and cue sheet rip can cause the cue sheet not to work with the resulting FLAC file. The problem is caused by EAC not liking the four letter .flac extension, which results in EAC putting the extension on to the image name twice.
-'''Tick only:'''
+e.g. the image name is referenced in the cue sheet as "myflacimage.flac" but after encoding it ends up being called "myflacimage.flac.flac", so when you open the cue sheet for playing or burning, the referenced file doesen't exist.
-* Compliant PVD
-* ISO9660:1999
-* Joliet Names
-* Long Joliet Names
-* UDF v1.02
-* Rock Ridge
-This will allow maximum character & folder limits
+== Some solutions to the problem ==
+* Synthetic Soul's [http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=37978 batch file method]
-Press OK, drag & drop your files, compile then press write.
+* [http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=REACT REACT] EAC addon.
-* '''Tip:''' ''Burn with UDF directory records, Par(2) recovery volumes &/or SFV/MD5 checksums to be sure you have the best error detection & recovery.''
-'''And that's all you need to do to create a lossless back-up.'''
-== Image Restoration ==
-In this section of the guide we will restore our back-up to a compliant audio CD, this will be useful if your original CD becomes damaged or lost.
-Copy your backed-up image & EAC generated CUE sheet to where EAC originally extracted them on your hard drive so that the paths in the CUE sheet are correct
-=== Decoding ===
-* Open FLAC Frontend then input your FLAC image file (.FLAC file) you just copied to your hard disk
-* Press decode, this will restore your FLAC image back to WAV making it compatible with your EAC generated CUE sheet.
-=== Burning ===
-* Open EAC then go to Tools\Write CD-R (Alt-W), the EAC Writer window will open
-* Go to File\Load CUE Sheet, open your working folder & select the EAC generated CUE then press Open
-* Go to CD-R\write CD, then select Close CD & press Make It So to begin writing.
-'''Tip:''' ''Write at low speeds for best results.''
-'''And that's all you need to do to restore your back-up.'''
-== See also ==
-* [[Free Lossless Audio Codec]] (FLAC)
-* [[Exact Audio Copy]] (EAC)
-* About [[Lossless]]
-[[Category:Guides]]
-[[Category:EAC Guides|FLAC & EAC]]