EAC & FLAC.....Are they working?

Bob in St. Louis · « **on:** 30 Jan 2008, 03:14 pm »

So, You've got your Squeezebox wired up, you've downloaded EAC (with AccurateRip) and you've downloaded FLAC. You pop in a disc to rip it and EAC opens. Great....You've now got your new tunes playing on your Squeezebox. Thing are working as designed.

Right?

But isn't there suppose to be little "quality fairies" floating above your monitor and PC spreading pixy dust, thereby giving you confirmation that your EAC is "Copying exact Audio"? And your "Audio Codecs are Free Lossless"?

Maybe a beam of light from the heavens shining upon you?

Just HOW is a guy to know that things are as good as they can get?
What's the indicator? How do you know if you're getting better quality (more accuracy) than any other ripping software?

Bob

dB Cooper · « **Reply #1 on:** 30 Jan 2008, 03:21 pm »

Trust your feelings, Luke

mgalusha · « **Reply #2 on:** 30 Jan 2008, 03:36 pm »

Read this page on the EAC site: http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/overview/basic-technology/accurate-rip/

The last sentence on the page says it all: "AccurateRip will simplify and support exact extraction even more than simply using secure mode!"

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #3 on:** 30 Jan 2008, 04:12 pm »

Very Funny Mr. Cooper!

Mike, Thank you. I'd seen that page before, but my eyes tend to glaze over when reading the AccurateRip site. My bad....

That answers another of my questions; Why does AccurateRip show "0 Tracks sent" when I attempt to send them information. Because I didn't move the .dll file to EAC so basically it's not "turned on".

Gotcha!

Valuable information, Thank you very much.

Bob

bprice2 · « **Reply #4 on:** 30 Jan 2008, 04:30 pm »

I'm confused.

Is Accurate Rip something new added to EAC? If I don't have this plug-in, have I been getting the best rips possible?

I also just read in another thread that Tone Audio in collaboration with some pretty big names in audio is going to write an article on why uncompressed files reproduce music better than compressed lossless files (WAV better than Flac).

What the hell is going on here? EAC=bit perfect...Flac=lossless...have I been living in delusion?

Please, God...don't make me have to re-rip 800 cd's.

bpape · « **Reply #5 on:** 30 Jan 2008, 04:38 pm »

Accurate rip is better and easier to use in the newer version of EAC. It's really more about getting the drive parameters set correctly and matching your rips to known rips from others of the same disc.

As for FLAC vs WAV, if the coverter is accurate and can recreate a bit for bit perfect copy, then there should be no difference - especially with the SB capability to decode FLAC on the fly instead of having that task fall to the PC and streaming larger streams over the network.

Bryan

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #6 on:** 30 Jan 2008, 04:48 pm »

Quote from: bprice2 on 30 Jan 2008, 04:30 pm

I'm confused. Is Accurate Rip something new added to EAC? If I don't have this plug-in, .........

Check out the first sentence of the link Mike provided. You can download AccurateRip's .dll file.

Bob

bprice2 · « **Reply #7 on:** 30 Jan 2008, 05:05 pm »

Thanks, guys for your replies. I somehow missed the fact that there were updates with EAC. I try to pay attention to these things.

As you were, gentlemen.

Bob Wilcox · « **Reply #8 on:** 31 Jan 2008, 02:17 pm »

I could not get AccurateRip working on EAC until I installed the trial version of DBpoweramp. If you don't see a little swirly circle in the lower right hand corner of the expanded EAC window, AccurateRip is not working even though you might have fed EAC a recognized disk and ran the configuration test on it.

Bob

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #9 on:** 31 Jan 2008, 02:55 pm »

Hey Bob,
The link that Mike gave us has a little instruction on how to solve this (although it sound like you already have by other means).

A snippet from the AccurateRip page:

"In order to install the plugin into EAC, you need to drop the AccurateRip.dll in the EAC directory (or in a Windows search path for DLLs). EAC should then recognize the plugin automatically. You can easily find out whether EAC has been loaded AccurateRip as the AccurateRip menu entry in EACs “Database” menu will be enabled. Additionally EAC will reserve a squared area for a symbol at the bottom right corner (besides the playback control)."

Bob

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #10 on:** 1 Feb 2008, 04:41 pm »

This morning I dropped Donald Fagens "Morph the Cat" in the drive and fired up EAC.
I did not move the AccurateRip .dll file as was mentioned in the link, but there is the AccurateRip icon in the far lower right corner of the window.
So....I can assume it's working?

Here's the specs for the CD, can anybody confim if this looks correct, like it's the right size?

Morph the Cat is = 533.94MB before 297.55MB after.

Thanks guys!
Bob

bpape · « **Reply #11 on:** 1 Feb 2008, 04:46 pm »

There's more to it than just the size depending on how you set EAC. After you're done ripping, select to create a log file. If Accurate Rip is running, there will be text in the file after each song referencing it.

Bryan

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #12 on:** 1 Feb 2008, 05:27 pm »

Thank for the info Bryan. Yea, there Is quite a bit more to EAC than just shear file size, but that's all the specs I'm able to obtain at this point in time. Since I'm new to the software, I'd figure I'd start with what I know and what I see in front of me hoping that if the numbers I posted didn't look right to those that have used the program (and have "Morph the Cat"). I see all the adjustable options but haven't messed with any of them yet.
I'll create the lof file and see what happens. Thank You again!

Bob

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #13 on:** 2 Feb 2008, 12:57 pm »

Ok, so I goto the 'Action' pull down menu, select 'test and copy selected track', then choose 'uncompressed' (F6).
That sound right?
Or, do I goto the 'tools' menu and select 'copy CD...' (Alt+Y)?
Which is prefered for ripping?

Bob

bpape · « **Reply #14 on:** 2 Feb 2008, 02:53 pm »

If you want FLAC to work at all, you have to 'copy compressed'. I personally don't even do the test. I just select all tracks, then copy compressed. Try it with one you haven't ripped. You should be seeing a DOS window pop up during the process at the end of each track copy for FLAC to do it's thing. At the end, do the 'create log' thing and you'll verify that it was all done and if Accurate Rip was working. You can send me the log file if you want and I'll take a look.

Wish I had some time this weekend - I'd pop over there and we'd get it going. Maybe sometime next week?

Bryan

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #15 on:** 2 Feb 2008, 05:12 pm »

Allright good. "Morph" goes back in the disc drive......
So I choose the 'Action' on the toolbar, then 'Copy Selected Tracks' then 'Compressed' (ShiftF5).

Another Window pops up entitled "Sine Waveform". I choose where to store the file (album) on the PC. Looks good so far.
It says the "File Name": 'will be ignored'.... {That's strange.

}

One thing I see that's give me high hopes is it says "Save as type": External Compressor [*.flac]
That looks like a good thing. aa

Next Saturday the 9th I have to work. Will be home at about 4:00pm.
Sunday the 10th is wide open (I think it is....I'll have to verify with my "director of free time" to be sure).
I have Friday the 15th off. (My "reward" for having to work Saturday)
At some point soon, I need to go to Scotts house to pick up the super duper massive high dollar Squeezebox power supply he snatched up for me. {Thanks man!

}

Bryan, I'd love to have you over. I have beer.
I'd also like to take your cousin up on his offer to give me an estimate for a dedicated box and circuits for the HT room, but not necessarily this trip.

Thank you
Bob

bpape · « **Reply #16 on:** 2 Feb 2008, 05:18 pm »

Maybe we'll work something out. I'll call Grant and see when he's free.

The reason you're having to specify the location is because you don't have the default music folder specified correctly. I generally just setone up under the root (C:\) and then name it something complicated like Music Folder

So, in the defualt you'd specify C:\Music Folder. If you've already done that, then it probably means that you haven't actually manually created that directory. It'd be nice if EAC asked you if you want to create it if it doesn't exist - but it doesn't.

Bryan

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #17 on:** 2 Feb 2008, 11:49 pm »

Thanks Bryan,
For now, I don't care much where it puts the files as long as I can find them. I'll probably put them in the same folder as the old Napster files that I......um.......{nevermind}
Right now is "play time". When I'm confident that everything is RIGHT I'll be installing a second hard drive in this PC for all of the music storage. At that point, I'll be puttting a stack of CD's on the left side of the desk and S*L*O*W*L*Y rip them one by one and set them on the right side of the desk (then I will be above board and delete all the low res crap). So for now, I'm working the bugs out. Kind of a 'smoke test' if you will. One of these days I'll get an external HD and have have myself the beginnings of a RAID array. aa

Bob

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #18 on:** 9 Feb 2008, 02:59 pm »

I've not ripped anything yet as the PC that's loaded with EAC/FLAC/SlimServer is having a buzzing issue. One of the cooling fans is hitting something, and for fear of the fan locking up and cooking something I've not used it. Today I'll be making the repair and putting "Morph" back in the drive. Bryan, I'll PM you the file. I'm free all weekend if you'd like to stop by (with or without Grant) my phone number is in your PM box.

Bob

EDIT: Bryan, your PM box is full..... Scott F. has my phone number.

bpape · « **Reply #19 on:** 9 Feb 2008, 05:13 pm »

Sorry Bob.

This weekend became OBE (not to mention getting sick...). Shoot me your number again and we can walk through it when you're ready. Honestly, the new setup for EAC is really nice and will walk you through everything to get it going pretty easily. That might be the easiest way to go rather than digging through the menus and manually setting things. Just make sure you download the newest EAC.

Bryan