[How to] EAC configuration for mp3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, and WavPack

[DreamTactix291]

NOTE: This FAQ is out of date. However a lot of the information in it is still useful. See bottom of the next post for details.

Download Exact Audio Copy.

First you will need to select what you want to use.

For mp3:

Select Select Lame 3.97 if you want to use the most recent stable LAME.

For Ogg Vorbis:

Select libVorbis 1.1.2 if you want to use the latest official version.

Select aoTuV b5 if you want to use the newest version of Vorbis or speed enhanced Lancer which is based off aoTuV b5.

No matter which encoder you choose select the appropriate version for your CPU

For FLAC:

Select FLAC 1.1.4

For WavPack:

Select WavPack 4.40

The first time you run EAC it should pop up with a Configuration Wizard. Run it. (If it doesn't automatically pop up it can be found under EAC > Configuration Wizard).

At the Welcome screen click Next.

Make sure all of your drives are checked and click Next.

Make sure "I prefer to have accurate results" is selected and click Next.

You will either get the Feature Detection screen or the Feature Database screen to show up. If the Feature Database screen shows up choose "I don't trust these values, detect the features for my drive".

Once on the Feature Detection screen make sure you have an audio CD in the drive being tested and click Next. The test takes a few minutes to get done.

Once done you will get a Feature Results screen

If you have more than one drive repeat until all drives are done testing. EAC will tell you what it thinks your best and 2nd, 3rd, etc drives are. The one it says best will probably be the fastest ripper.

On the Encoder Configuration screen uncheck the "Install and configure the external LAME>EXE compressor". We will do that part later.

Enter an email address on the freedb Configuration screen. It doesn't have to be valid but something is required to access freedb information.

On the Done screen select "I am an expert, let me use the full potential of EAC" and click Finish

Go to EAC > Compression Options (alternatively F11)

Go to the External Compression tab and make sure "Use external program for compression is selected".

Browse and find either your LAME.exe or OggEnc.exe. Other formats are possible but since this is an iRiver player EAC FAQ I will not go into detail on them.

If you are using mp3:

Select "User Defined Encoder" in the Parameter passing scheme and Use file extension should be ".mp3"

Browse and find your LAME.exe

In Addtional commandline options select one of the following

For LAME 3.96.1 use either of these

-V2 --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors --tt "%t" --ta "%a" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" --tg "%m" %s %d

-V3 --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors --tt "%t" --ta "%a" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" --tg "%m" %s %d

-V4 --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors --tt "%t" --ta "%a" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" --tg "%m" %s %d

-V5 --athaa-sensitivity 1 --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors --tt "%t" --ta "%a" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" --tg "%m" %s %d

-V2 ends up at around 190kbps on average
-V3 ends up at around 175kbps on average
-V4 ends up at around 160kbps on average
-V5 --athaa-sensitivity 1 ends up at around 135kbps on average

-V1 and -V0 are also valid and end up around 215 and 245kbps on average respectively. They're both considered redundant over -V2 however.

-V6 and lower through -V9 are also options looking for really low bitrate. Check out my Audio Formats 101 for the table in the mp3 section.

If you choose to use LAME 3.97b2 use either of these

-V2 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors --tt "%t" --ta "%a" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" --tg "%m" %s %d

-V3 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors --tt "%t" --ta "%a" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" --tg "%m" %s %d

-V4 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors --tt "%t" --ta "%a" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" --tg "%m" %s %d

-V5 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors --tt "%t" --ta "%a" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" --tg "%m" %s %d

The --vbr-new mode is considered to be equal or superior to the --vbr-old mode nowadays so it is semi-recommended now. Another advantage is the massive increase in encoding speed.

All the other options will be disregarded.

Now go to the ID3 Tag tab and make sure the 3 checkboxes are unchecked.

If you are using Ogg Vorbis:

Select "User Defined Encoder" in the Parameter passing scheme and Use file extension should be ".ogg"

Browse and find your OggEnc.exe

In Addtional commandline options select one of the following

-q4 -a "%a" -t "%t" -l "%g" -d "%y" -N "%n" -G "%m" %s

-q5 -a "%a" -t "%t" -l "%g" -d "%y" -N "%n" -G "%m" %s

-q6 -a "%a" -t "%t" -l "%g" -d "%y" -N "%n" -G "%m" %s

-q4's nominal bitrate is 128kbps
-q5's nominal bitrate is 160kbps
-q6's nominal bitrate is 192kbps

-q6.01 through 10 are also valid as are -q-1 through -q3.99 (all the way down to -q-2 in the aoTuV builds actually). Check out my Audio Formats 101 for the table in the Ogg Vorbis section.


If you are using FLAC:

Select "User Defined Encoder" in the Parameter passing scheme and Use file extension should be ".flac"

Browse and find your FLAC.exe

In Addtional commandline options select one of the following

-5 -V -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s

-8 -V -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s

Alternatively any numbers between 0 and 8 are valid. The closet to -0 the faster the compression but also the larger the file. The closer to -8 the slower the compression but also the smaller the file. -5 is the default. -8 will yield you the best compression.

If you are using WavPack:

Select "User Defined Encoder" in the Parameter passing scheme and Use file extension should be ".wv"

Browse and find your WavPack.exe

In Addtional commandline options select one of the following for lossless compression

-hm -w "artist=%a" -w "title=%t" -w "album=%g" -w "year=%y" -w "track=%n" -w "genre=%m" %s

-m -w "artist=%a" -w "title=%t" -w "album=%g" -w "year=%y" -w "track=%n" -w "genre=%m" %s

-fm -w "artist=%a" -w "title=%t" -w "album=%g" -w "year=%y" -w "track=%n" -w "genre=%m" %s

WavPack's lossless can operate in three basic modes. The first is high, the second is normal, and the third is fast. Alternatively you can tweak the line a bit more if you'd like to get a bit more compression by adding the -x command and an optional number between 1 and 6 (3 is the default IIRC).

For example -hx3 or -x6 or -fx1. Also WavPack can store the md5 of the original audio file using -m. So -hmx6 is valid or -fm or just -m.

In Addtional commandline options select one of the following for lossy compression

-hb384c -w "artist=%a" -w "title=%t" -w "album=%g" -w "year=%y" -w "track=%n" -w "genre=%m" %s

-hb320c -w "artist=%a" -w "title=%t" -w "album=%g" -w "year=%y" -w "track=%n" -w "genre=%m" %s

-hb384 -w "artist=%a" -w "title=%t" -w "album=%g" -w "year=%y" -w "track=%n" -w "genre=%m" %s

-hb320 -w "artist=%a" -w "title=%t" -w "album=%g" -w "year=%y" -w "track=%n" -w "genre=%m" %s

-xb384 -w "artist=%a" -w "title=%t" -w "album=%g" -w "year=%y" -w "track=%n" -w "genre=%m" %s

-xb320 -w "artist=%a" -w "title=%t" -w "album=%g" -w "year=%y" -w "track=%n" -w "genre=%m" %s

-fb384 -w "artist=%a" -w "title=%t" -w "album=%g" -w "year=%y" -w "track=%n" -w "genre=%m" %s

-fb320 -w "artist=%a" -w "title=%t" -w "album=%g" -w "year=%y" -w "track=%n" -w "genre=%m" %s

At this point is where it could get confusing. The first two lines are for high quality 384kbps and 320kbps abr lossy encoding with a correction file for possible lossless decoding. Those two files together are as big as the lossless file.

The next two lines are the same thing without the correction file.

The next two are for normal quality 384kbps and 320kbps lossy files.

The next two are for fast quality 384kbps and 320kbps lossy files.

There are many possibilities you can do. It isn't recommended for WavPack lossy to go below 320kbps because unlike other codecs like mp3 it is not designed for low bitrates but rather for transcoding. If low bitrate lossy is your goal (200kbps vbr or smaller) then stay away from WavPack lossy/hybrid. FWIW though it can go as low as 196kbps for CD audio (though I wouldn't recommend it).

For those of you who don't feel like or don't know how to look up WavPack's options here they are.

Now exit out back to the main EAC screen

Go to Database > Get CD Information From > Remote freedb (alternativerly Alt+G). This should fill in your CD's information for tagging. Verify that everything is correct.

Go to EAC > EAC options and click the "Filename" tab. I personally use this string "%D\%C\%N %T". Feel free to experiment. This decides how your filename is saved.

Exit out of that and click the MP3 button (or Shift+F5 - don't worry it will save to Vorbis if that's what you chose).

Have fun watching your stuff rip

[DreamTactix291]

I figured this was worth a second post since I've decided to idiot-proof the guide even further. I also added FLAC and WavPack since Rockbox has made this a portable option to H1xx owners and also for people who feel like doing lossless archival.

For those of you having problems for some reason or just want it easier DOWNLOAD THIS. It contains screenshots of every step of my setting up of EAC and an example of how to encode one WavPack file with it as well as setup screens for all the other formats.

EDIT: I am well aware that this FAQ is pretty badly out of date. I plan on very soon updating quite a few things in it like:

• Updating to v0.99pb3
• Updating codecs to most up to date
• Adding a few codecs such as AAC and Musepack
• Setting up AccurateRip
• Ripping to Image+cue
• And probably more I'm not thinking of right now