Prodigal-Son asked me to write something on EAC and Lame for newbies, so here's an updated version of the post I made a bit more than a year ago.


# The basic newbie's guide to getting started with
# E x a c t A u d i o C o p y a n d L a m e
# Version: 2 (updated for EAC v0.9 BETA 4)
# Author: L-ViS
==============================================================================

1. Software

EAC: http://www.exactaudiocopy.de
LAME: http://mitiok.free.fr/
Adaptec ASPI v4.60: http://www.dawicontrol.de/software/aspiinst.exe
Adaptec ASPI v4.71a2: http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/support/driverdetail.html?sess=no&language=English+US&filekey=aspi_471a2.exe
Nero ASPI: ftp://ftp.ahead.de/wnaspi32.dll

2. INSTALLATION

a) EAC

If you have got the EAC version with the installer (.exe), run it. If you
the zipped release, simply unpack it to where you want it to live.

b) Lame

Installing Lame is also a matter of simply unpacking it somewhere.

c) ASPI drivers

This can be a bit tricky. If you already have a working ASPI layer, do not
change it! If you don't, first try with Adaptecs 4.72 drivers if you use
Windows2000/XP. If you're on Win9x use the 4.60 drivers instead. If your
drive still isn't detected, try replacing the installed wnaspi32.dll with
the one from the Nero FTP server. It's the only ASPI driver that will let
me use my 52x generic CD-ROM. wnaspi32.dll should live in %SYSTEM32%.

3. EAC SETTINGS

The first time you start EAC you will be greeted with a wizard that can
autodetect and set decent settings for you. I suggest you use this, but
you will probably want to change things later on anyway.

a) EAC>>FreeDB / database Options:

Enter your email address and any http proxy that you might use

b) EAC>>EAC Options

i) General
On Unknown CD's -- check the "Automatically access online freedb database"
checkbox

ii) Tools
Check the "Create .m3u playlist on extraction" checkbox. This will create
a handy playlist for the album, but you will probably want to rename it
when ripping is done since the default naming convention is not very
intelligent.

iii) Normalize
Check the "Normalize" checkbox, normalize to 99%
The default settings should be good enough, but I use Normalize to 99% but
only if the peak is more than 80% and less than 99%.

iv) Filename
I mostly use the setting "%N - %T". This setting generates a filename like
"07 - Milez is dead.mp3".
No matter how you choose to name your files, using %N is appreciated since
the files get automatically sorted when you view them in a folder or
directory listing.
NOTE: If these files are ever going to reside on a Unix-type system, please
check the "Replace spaces by underscores" to make things easier for the
Linux peeps. It's considered good etiquette so it's a wise idea.
Another variant that generates very long filenames is "%D - %C - %N - %T",
common seen in the mp3 release groups' files.

v) Directories
Choose the directory where the ripped mp3's should reside. I have a static
dir (ie D:\eac_out) from which I move the files when I'm done ripping.

vi) Write
Make sure "Upper all characters on writing" is NOT checked. Although this
only applies to CD-TEXT (this only comes into effect if you have CD-TEXT
capable burner and burn stuff from EAC).

vii) Interface
Use "Installed external ASPI interface". If you that option is grayed-out,
install the ASPI drivers and reboot your computer.

c) EAC>>Compression Options

i) External Compression
Check "Use external program for compression"
Choose LAME MP3 Encoder in the dropdown menu for "Parameter Passing Scheme"
Find your lame.exe using the "Browse" button

It's not a good idea to use bitrates less than 192kbps if you intend to
listen to the mp3's using even halfway decent computer speakers or head-
phones. VBR, variable bitrate, is getting very popular - and for a good
reason. When you use VBR mp3's, Lame will examine the upcoming part
("window") of the wave file and try to determine how high bitrate it
needs to create an mp3 that will sound as good as possible but at the
same time not huge in filesize. This may look a bit funny when you see
the bitrate fluctuating when you're playing your mp3's in your mp3
player. To create high quality mp3's in full stereo with Lame, in the
"Additional command line options" for Lame, enter "--r3mix -ms" (without
the quotes). The "-ms" specifies full stereo and "--r3mix" is short for
an experimental yet very good set of options for Lame. For more info I
suggest you spend some time at http://www.r3mix.net.

ii) ID3 Tag
Make sure both "Use ID3 v1.1 tags" and "Additionally write ID3 v3 tags"
are checked. Do NOT use ID3 v2.4.0 tags since most mp3 players don't
support that standard yet and thus fail miserably when trying to play your
files.

d) EAC>>Drive options

Here's where it can get tricky. If you used the wizard when first starting
EAC the settings you accepted will be shown here.
Some notes on the various settings you can use: The secure mode is very
effective and will almost certainly rip completely error free if your
settings are correct. You can usually autodetect these with the help of
an undamaged audio CD. With the wrong settings and using Secure mode, you
will almost certainly fail to get good results! Secure mode will be much
slower than burst mode. My trusty old Yamaha 4416S SCSI CD burner will rip
almost any CD flawlessly and quickly using Burst mode, while my generic 52X
CD-ROM needs to use Secure mode to rip CD's without problems. I don't
recommend using Paranoid mode at all, except for very scratchy CD's that
won't even play in a regular audio CD player. Paranoid mode is very very
slow, but it shines when you have a damaged CD. The bottom line is, every
CD player will rip a CD differently so you need to experiment and see what
settings work best with your CD-ROM, burner, DVD, or whatever you use.


When EAC is running and you put a music CD in the CD-ROM EAC should
automatically connect to FreeDB and download the CD information. If there is
no information for this particular CD, or if you don't have an Internet
connection, enter the track titles yourself. NOTE: If this is the case, also see
to that you enter the CD information (artist, CD name, etc) in
Database>>"Edit CD Information...".

To rip a whole CD, select all tracks and hit the F5 key on your keyboard, or
hit the MP3 button in the left panel.



L-ViS

Text file version attached.

L-ViS

Awesome

Great post
this is good stuff
Thanks L-vis

UPDATE

Do *not* use the "--r3mix -ms" preset with Lame anymore. It has been superseded by "--alt-preset standard" which also automatically sets the stereo type to joint stereo. Also, if you want to have even higher settings you should try "--alt-preset extreme". The highest alt-preset available in current Lame (v3.93.1) is "--alt-preset extreme" which basically gives you a full-out 320kbps stereo mp3 with all of the fancy stuff turned on. Not really recommended. I'm leaning towards "extreme" more and more.

Also, for CD's that are new or just not scratched at all it's worth checking out CDex, http://cdexos.sourceforge.net
CDex will usually rip a *lot* faster than EAC and with the same correct end result (I have compared several CD's with md5 sums) and it is based on the Linux tool cdparanoia III (don't worry, there's no command line stuff with CDex! ) which means the engine is tried and works well.

L-ViS

I stopped using r3mix several months ago....not because I knew anything about a better option, but because I noticed on some players I'd have playback trouble (drops and stutters) where standard compressed mp3s would play smooth. Currently not using any presets...just setting it to stereo 256 or stereo vbr 192-320