Exact Audio Copy is a CD ripping program for Microsoft Windows. The program has been developed by Andre Wiethoff since 1998. Wiethoff's motivation for creating the program was that other such software only performedjitter correction while scratched CDs often produce distortions.
Overview
Exact Audio Copy is proprietary freeware, free for non-commercial use. It is written for Microsoft Windows. It has also been tested to work under newer versions of Wine on Linux. EAC is used to convert the tracks on standard audio CDs to WAV files, which can then be transcoded into other formats. These include lossy ones such as MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, or lossless ones such as ALAC, FLAC, or WavPack using external encoders. It also has the option of using the Windows Audio Compression Manager for direct compression. It supports AccurateRip, which automatically compares the copy with rips made by others, and can automatically create cue sheets, with all gaps, track attributes, ISRC, and CD-Text included. EAC also supports automatic ID3 tagging using Internet-based databases such as freedb, GD3, or a local database. If there are uncorrectable errors the software reports the error location. EAC is popular among audiophiles for its accuracy and ability to rip slightly damaged audio compact discs.
History
The program was created by Andre Wiethoff in 1998, while he was a student at the University of Dortmund in Germany. Wiethoff stated that he became "fed up with other audio grabbers" that only do jitter correction while scratched CDs often produce distortions, and decided to develop his own. In release 1.0b1, EAC supported the downloading of CD cover art, and in b2, an option was added to have the ID3 information, such as artist, CD title, track names, and cover art downloaded automatically from the GD3 database. Release 1.0b1 removed support for Windows 2000 and older versions of Windows. Version 1.1 was released in 2015. Version 1.2, released in 2016, provided mainly bug fixes for the cdrdao component and updated the cover search in the freedb++ plugin. Version 1.3 was a hotfix released soon after version 1.2. Version 1.4 was released in 2020 with version 1.5 released soon after as a hotfix.
Examples
Example of a log file generated by EAC. Exact Audio Copy V1.3 from 2. September 2016 EAC extraction logfile from 31. May 2019, 19:57 Hiroyuki Sawano / PROMARE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK Used drive : PIONEER BD-RW BDR-XD05 Adapter: 1 ID: 0 Read mode : Burst Read offset correction : 667 Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000 Gap handling : Appended to previous track Used output format : User Defined Encoder Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s Quality : High Add ID3 tag : No Command line compressor : C:\Program Files \Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE Additional command line options : -8 -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% TOC of the extracted CD Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector --------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 0:00.00 | 3:54.04 | 0 | 17553 2 | 3:54.04 | 3:47.63 | 17554 | 34641 3 | 7:41.67 | 5:09.42 | 34642 | 57858 4 | 12:51.34 | 2:21.25 | 57859 | 68458 5 | 15:12.59 | 4:27.71 | 68459 | 88554 6 | 19:40.55 | 3:18.38 | 88555 | 103442 7 | 22:59.18 | 5:56.06 | 103443 | 130148 8 | 28:55.24 | 3:49.20 | 130149 | 147343 9 | 32:44.44 | 5:27.13 | 147344 | 171881 10 | 38:11.57 | 5:17.14 | 171882 | 195670 11 | 43:28.71 | 3:36.04 | 195671 | 211874 12 | 47:05.00 | 2:24.39 | 211875 | 222713 13 | 49:29.39 | 2:09.62 | 222714 | 232450 14 | 51:39.26 | 3:11.13 | 232451 | 246788 15 | 54:50.39 | 2:34.67 | 246789 | 258405 16 | 57:25.31 | 2:27.14 | 258406 | 269444 17 | 59:52.45 | 2:38.67 | 269445 | 281361 18 | 62:31.37 | 2:20.22 | 281362 | 291883 19 | 64:51.59 | 2:54.73 | 291884 | 305006 20 | 67:46.57 | 2:27.25 | 305007 | 316056 21 | 70:14.07 | 5:21.17 | 316057 | 340148 Track 1 Filename C:\EAC\Hiroyuki Sawano - PROMARE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK\1-01 Inferno.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00 Peak level 100.0 % Extraction speed 11.3 X Test CRC DC10A7F5 Copy CRC DC10A7F5 Track not present in AccurateRip database Copy OK Track 2 Filename C:\EAC\Hiroyuki Sawano - PROMARE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK\1-02 PRO--MARE.wav Peak level 100.0 % Extraction speed 12.4 X Test CRC 7AC4A903 Copy CRC 7AC4A903 Track not present in AccurateRip database Copy OK
None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database No errors occurred End of status report
