[ComfyCan]

When I first came to Head-Fi, I was overwhelmed with new concepts and information, and I found EAC intimidating (while simultaneously trying to learn Foobar, Rockbox, and a few other such things).

Thererore, I looked for alternatives and found Easy CD-DA Extractor Professional, available from www.poikosoft.com. It was suggested by someone as a user-friendly alternative to EAC on one of the audio boards, but I don't remember where/who. I was very pleased with the versatility and ease of use of this extraction and conversion software, and have remained happy with it. It has a very intuitive user interface. It is not free, but it's not very expensive either.

Easy CD-DA Extractor supports various CD reading/error correction strategies, and has integrated freedb for tagging.

Now, I am wondering whether I did the right thing. I have had no audible problems with ripping, but I do not know if I am getting bitperfect rips or not, or whether I would get better results if I bother to learn EAC.

So, here's a couple of questions:
1) Does anyone else use Easy CD-DA, and if so, what do you think of it?;
2) How can I test files I have ripped to see if they are, in fact, bit perfect?

Thanks for any input.

 

[russdog]

I don't know the answers to your questions.

But I do know that when I decided to convert hundreds of CD's to mp3, I got EAC info from the hydrogenaudio site, spent an hour or two messing with it, got it sorted out, and wound up with a press-1-button solution that works fine all the time. It's not that complicated. It mainly takes a willingness to get in the middle of it, do a bit of trial and error, and just get it right. I don't know about other people, but for me it's one of those things that would be impossible to do *if* I was holding out to get perfect clarity about how to do it ahead of time. It just takes messing with it some. Just remember that you are the smart one, it's your computer that's stupid

 

[DrDobs]

Hmm.. I too would like to hear if anybody else has some answers to these questions.

 

[muckshot]

Another one who can't answer your question, but I'd also recommned you going to takle a look at Hydrogen Audio's site, they used to have a step-by-step guide that took you through the process of getting EAC up and running properly.

That part I found pretty easy though, it was getting LAME configured that had me stumped for a while. In case it's of any interest, I'll post my encoding string (I think I stole it wholesale from somewhere on the net, but at one point I did know what most if the switches were for

), as you can see it's set up for V0, highest quality variable bit rate encodes - also, if anyone want to correct or improve upon what I have below, please don't be shy:

-V 0 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d

 

[muckshot]

Just saw this posted a few down, regarding EAC tutorials:

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=190664

 

[russdog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by muckshot Just saw this posted a few down, regarding EAC tutorials: http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=190664

Anyone doing this should stop and think about the dir structure and file naming convention you want. It's easy to have it do exactly what you want. But it's a *major* pain in the rear to make changes to a zillion files after the fact. Really. No kidding. Trust me on this.

 

[ComfyCan]

Thanks guys; I'm not sure how many people know about Easy CD-DA. The bias is so often in favor of free open source programs like Foobar, Rockbox, and EAC. I'm a big fan of "free," but I don't mind paying a few bucks for a program that will make things simple if it if will give me the same results. I'll try hydrogen audio, but I tend to wind up in over my head pretty quick over there.

Isn't there a utility that will allow me to compare waveform or otherwise compare a track ripped with one program against the same track ripped with another? If so, I can rip something with EAC and then compare it to the same track ripped with Easy CD-DA, and can test this for myself. I'll be sure to post the results if informative.

 

[chelrob]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ComfyCan Thanks guys; I'm not sure how many people know about Easy CD-DA. The bias is so often in favor of free open source programs like Foobar, Rockbox, and EAC. I'm a big fan of "free," but I don't mind paying a few bucks for a program that will make things simple if it if will give me the same results. I'll try hydrogen audio, but I tend to wind up in over my head pretty quick over there. Isn't there a utility that will allow me to compare waveform or otherwise compare a track ripped with one program against the same track ripped with another? If so, I can rip something with EAC and then compare it to the same track ripped with Easy CD-DA, and can test this for myself. I'll be sure to post the results if informative.

Where can I get the source code for EAC?

 

[russdog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chelrob Where can I get the source code for EAC?

I don't know if you can get the source code. You can get executables from various sites, hydrogenaudio especially.

 

[chelrob]

Quote:

Originally Posted by russdog I don't know if you can get the source code. You can get executables from various sites, hydrogenaudio especially.

I was just pointing out that it's not "open source".

 

[Laptopia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by muckshot Another one who can't answer your question, but I'd also recommned you going to takle a look at Hydrogen Audio's site, they used to have a step-by-step guide that took you through the process of getting EAC up and running properly. That part I found pretty easy though, it was getting LAME configured that had me stumped for a while. In case it's of any interest, I'll post my encoding string (I think I stole it wholesale from somewhere on the net, but at one point I did know what most if the switches were for ), as you can see it's set up for V0, highest quality variable bit rate encodes - also, if anyone want to correct or improve upon what I have below, please don't be shy: -V 0 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d

I am using EAC to rip entire albums in FLAC, with a cuesheet. One of my DAPs doesn't support FLAC, so when I am loading it, I convert my FLAC files to MP3 using DBPowerAmp. What is the general assessment of the "bit perfect" quality of the MP3s that are produced when "downconverting" from FLAC? Again, I am using DB and not EAC to do this downconversion.

 

[lordgibbness]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ComfyCan Thanks guys; I'm not sure how many people know about Easy CD-DA. The bias is so often in favor of free open source programs like Foobar, Rockbox, and EAC. I'm a big fan of "free," but I don't mind paying a few bucks for a program that will make things simple if it if will give me the same results. I'll try hydrogen audio, but I tend to wind up in over my head pretty quick over there. Isn't there a utility that will allow me to compare waveform or otherwise compare a track ripped with one program against the same track ripped with another? If so, I can rip something with EAC and then compare it to the same track ripped with Easy CD-DA, and can test this for myself. I'll be sure to post the results if informative.

Yeah sure - rip a track in EAC secure mode then rip the same track in Easy CD-DA. Archive them both in a zip file and check the CRC value. If the values are the same, then they are identical.

 

[Laptopia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordgibbness Yeah sure - rip a track in EAC secure mode then rip the same track in Easy CD-DA. Archive them both in a zip file and check the CRC value. If the values are the same, then they are identical.

How does one check the CRC value--is that under properties? Do you mean file size, or is that something related to CHECKSUM?

 

[LFF]

The only bit perfect copying and ripping tool I know of is EAC and CloneCD.

 

[JACK5ON]

getting a "bit-perfect" copy of a cd cannot be 100% guaranteed at this point, not even when using EAC. the best option when using EAC, (if you rip to single tracks) is to use the AccurateRip database.

foobar2000 has a secure ripping component that has been tested and proven to be basically as good as EAC.

foobar can also bit-compare the audio data in two files. highlight the two tracks, right click, bit compare tracks. it's very easy. much easier than creating an archive just to verify they are the same.