Exact Audio Copy

Last updated

Exact Audio Copy
Developer(s) Andre Wiethoff
Initial release25 June 1998;
25 years ago (1998-06-25) [1]
Stable release
1.6 / 11 November 2020;
2 years ago (2020-11-11) [1]
Written in Modula-2 (with extensions in C++ and C#)
Operating system Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10
Size 5.0 MB
Type CD ripper
License Proprietary, Freeware
Website exactaudiocopy.de

Exact Audio Copy (EAC) 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 performed jitter correction while scratched CDs often produced distortion.

Contents

Overview

Exact Audio Copy is proprietary freeware, free for non-commercial use. [2] It is written for Microsoft Windows. It has also been tested to work under newer versions of Wine on Linux. [3]

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 (ACM Codecs) for direct compression. It supports AccurateRip, which automatically compares the copy with rips made by others, [4] 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 (see below), or a local database. [5]

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.[ citation needed ]

A licensed version of Exact Audio Copy called Rockstar Custom Tracks was released by Rockstar Games in collaboration with Andre Wiethoff for use on the PlayStation Portable release of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories . [6]

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" [7] 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. [8] Version 1.3 was a hotfix released soon after version 1.2. [1] Version 1.4 was released in 2020 with version 1.5 released soon after as a hotfix. [1]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "What's new » Exact Audio Copy" . Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  2. ↑ "Registration » Exact Audio Copy".
  3. ↑ "WineHQ - EAC - Exact Audio Copy". appdb.winehq.org.
  4. ↑ "AccurateRip". www.accuraterip.com.
  5. ↑ "Exact Audio Copy - Hydrogenaudio Knowledgebase". wiki.hydrogenaud.io. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  6. ↑ Rockstar Custom Tracks v1.0: Readme file (Report). Rockstar Games . Retrieved 21 October 2017. Rockstar Custom Tracks was developed by Rockstar Leeds with the creator of Exact Audio Copy. Rockstar Custom Tracks has benefited enormously from the expertise of the author, Andre Wiethoff. Thanks Andre!
  7. ↑ "AudioMastermind Weblog". audiomastermind.us. Archived from the original on 26 June 2008. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
  8. ↑ "Exact Audio Copy". Download.com. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
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