
This is the content of the EAC homepage at http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/



                           Exact Audio Copy


Introduction

EAC is a new audio grabber for CD-ROM drives. The main differences towards
most other audio grabbers :

   * Low registration costs (just a postcard and a stamp)
   * It works with a new technology, reading audio CDs almost perfectly. If
     there are any errors that can't be corrected, it will tell you on
     which time position the (possible) distortion occurred, so you could
     easily control it with e.g. the media player

I am writing this software, because I am fed up with these other audio
grabbers. I always had to listen to all grabbed waves, because other audio
grabbers will do only jitter correction but CD-ROM drives reading scratched
CDs often produce distortions. Listen to all waves would be a waste of
time. So in march I decided to write my own audio grabber, mainly for my
and my friends private usage. So if you don't like this software - don't
use it!   I don't want to make any profit with it, I just want to use (and
share) the best grabber (that's in my eyes the most exact grabber) ever
programmed. Most important for me is feedback from the users, more about
that later at registration chapter.


Features of EAC

   * Usage of the Windows 95 and Windows NT ASPI Interface, so both SCSI
     and ATAPI CD-ROM drives are supported
   * Hidden sector synchronization (jitter correction)
   * Secure, fast and burst extraction method selectable. Fast extraction
     should get the same speed as other grabbers, but is probably not exact
     anymore. Burst mode just grabs the audio data without any
     synchronization.
   * Read error and complete lost of sync detection and correction in
     secure modes, as far as possible
   * Output of time positions of all non exact corrections and listen to
     these positions
   * Copy of ranges of music data, not only tracks
   * Automatic Speed reduction on errors and fallback afterwards
   * Normalization of extracted audio
   * Usage of the Windows Audio Compression Manager (ACM Codecs) for direct
     compression e.g. to MP3 waves
   * Support for the BladeEnc DLL that is usable like an ACM Codec for
     online MP3 compression
   * Support of external MP3, VQF, RA and AAC encoders for automatic
     compression after extraction
   * Batch compression and decompression of/to WAV files
   * Compression offset support for exact compression/decompression
   * Detection of pre-track gaps
   * Detection of silence in pre-track gaps
   * Automatic creation of CUE sheets for CDRWin, including all gaps,
     indicies, track attributes, UPC and ISRC
   * CD player functionality and prelistening to selected ranges
   * Automatic detection of drive features, whether a drive has an accurate
     stream and/or does caching
   * Sample Offsets for drives with no accurate streams, including the
     option of filling up missing samples with silence
   * Option for synchronizing tracks for non-accurate stream drives
   * Filename editing with local and remote CDDB database and cdplayer.ini
     support and more features like ID3 tagging
   * Lyric database support from www.lyrics.ch
   * Browse and edit local database
   * Certified Escient  CDDB(TM) Compatible
   * Local CDDB support
   * Record and Loop Record functions for recording from LP, radio, etc.
   * Automatic rename of MP3 files according to their ID3 tag
   * Catalog extraction function
   * Multisession (CD-Extra) support
   * CD-Text support
   * ID3 Tag editor with drag and drop possibility from track listing and
     database
   * Glitch removal after extraction
   * Small WAV editor with functions for delete, trim, normalize, pad,
     glitch removal, pop detection, interpolation of ranges, noise
     reduction, fade in/out, undo and more
   * Program is Cardware, so feel free to copy

Known Bugs

   * On some computers the whole system hangs after a short period of time.
     I didn't find the solution to this problem yet, because it never
     happend on my computer. It is possible that any cd-player program
     causes these problems. So try to stop any play in progress before
     starting EAC.
   * On some CD-ROM drives occur extreme jitter errors so the extraction
     will slow down to a non acceptable value (e.g. Mitsumi FX240)




About Me

I am a student of computer science and mathematics here at the University
of Dortmund. At the moment I have some preparations on aural examinations.
Beside the usual work at the university as a student, I started work for
VOB (CDWizard) on Jukebox driver and additions for CD-Wizard.
In my spare time I like spending time with my friends and playing computer
and board games. Of course I also work on some computer projects like this
one. Further I do a lot of sports like cycling, walking, inline skating and
some martial arts.
I am using now a Pentium II 400, total of 2.5 GB IDE harddisks, 4.3 GB SCSI
harddisk, 256 MB RAM, Plextor 14/32 CD-ROM drives, Teac R56S-600 CD-R
drive, Asus V3400 TNT 16 MB video card, Creative SB Live! soundcard,
Windows 98 and Stony Brook Modula 2.




Extraction Technology

In secure mode, this program reads every audio sector at least twice. That
is one reason why the program is so slow. But by using this technique
non-identical sectors are detected. If an error occurs (read or sync
error), the program keeps on reading this sector, until eight of 16 retries
are identical, but at maximum one, three or five times (according to the
error recovery quality) these 16 retries are read. So, in the worst case,
bad sectors are read up to 82 times! But this will help the program to
obtain best result by comparing all of the retries. If it is not sure that
the stream is correct (at least it can be said at approx. 99.5%) the
program will tell the user where the (possible) read error occurred. The
program also tries to adjust the jitter artefacts that occur on the first
block of a track, so that each extraction should be exactly the same. On
drives found to have the "accurate stream" feature, this is guaranteed. Of
course, this is a little bit more complex, especially with some CD drives
which have caching. When these drives cache audio data, every sector read
will be read from cache and is identical. I initially implemented two ways
of dealing with the caching problem. First there is an extra option for
resetting the cache for use the the old secure mode (the one being kept for
compatibility reasons). In the current beta version, the cache will still
be reset by resetting the drive completely. You might imagine that this
would slow down the reading process very badly.
That is why I implemented three new read modes in version 0.85beta. One
really fast mode (up to half of maximum speed) is only for non-caching,
accurate stream cdrom drives. The second one could be used for caching,
accurate stream drives and the last one will work with drives that don't
have accurate streams, or do caching. The last two will be much slower,
when no read errors occur it will usually something around a third to a
fourth of the drives maximum speed.
For my testing, I am using a Plextor 14/32 drive that does no caching and a
Teac R56S-600 drive that does caching. Furthermore the Plextor 14/32
supports the "accurate stream" feature, so it produces no jitter artifacts
on any stream. For more information on this have a look at the table at the
end of this document.
This program is really damn slow in secure mode in comparison with other
grabbers, but the program checks every sector over and over to get the
correct data with high certainty. If you don't like this feature of EAC and
prefer fast copies instead of secure copies, you should use the fast or
burst extraction option in the options menu. But of course in fast mode,
the program will no longer be able to find read errors. Only if a read
error occurs in a sector synchronization area, will a sync error will still
be displayed. Fast mode is sector synchronized with 2 blocks of 23 as
synchronization blocks. Burst copy is even worse, no synchronization is
done, enabling extraction at maximum speed of the drive. No error checking
of any kind can be performed. At least I implemented a small help. If the
stream ever breaks, it will tell the user in the status report by showing
up suspicous positions. Of course this is only heuristic; there needn't be
any errors on that positions; moreover there could be errors that are not
found at all.
A new option for selecting the error recovery quality will determine how
often these blocks of 16 reads will be done before giving up and working
with the results obtained so far. For bad CDs, low error recovery quality
will be fastest, but high recover quality should give best results.


Gap Technology

In the new versions of EAC it is possible to detect pre-track gaps. These
are the pauses between two tracks. Usually they are two seconds long and a
cd player will display a negative time during this pause. By enabling the
option 'Detect Pre-Track Gaps' it will be possible to detect all
gap-lengths by reading the sub-channel informations. Because this
information is not stored on the cd directly retrievable, EAC has to search
for the position a track ends. This search is quite fast, but it still
takes on average a second per track. That's why I made it possible to
diable it in the options. Besides that option you can choose to add the
gaps to the previous track nevertheless. Otherwise you can choose either to
append the gap to the correct track or to leave it out . A benefit of
performing the detection and getting the gap times is the selection of a
range to copy. There the correct times will be displayed. A last word on
this topic: because these pre-track gaps are found out by testing
positions, it could occur that not 100% exact values are calculated, but in
most cases it will be correct.


Automatic Feature Detection Technology

From version 0.8 beta on it is possible to autodetect cd-rom drive
features. For each drive the program builds a separate drive options page.
On this option page this function can be called.
There are two different features that will be checked by EAC, first if the
stream is accurate and second if the drive caches audio(!) data. Even if
the drive has a cache (drive specifications), it does not automatically
means that the drive uses that cache also for audio extractions.
The test for the accurate stream feature should be always correct, but
testing on cache will give some problems with drives that extracts audio
very slowly (under 4X speed). If results are uncertain (given e.g. two
different results on different tests), you should assume that the drive
does caching. The new secure mode for non-accurate and/or caching drives
should work for all drives. The other new read modes are only something
faster. If testing on accurate stream will give only sometimes a negative
result, then you could nevertheless try to use the accurate secure mode.


Track Synchronization Technology

Usually cd audio extraction programs will extract one track after another.
This could make some problems on CD-ROM drives that are not accurate on a
CD which has no gaps. When this option is enabled in the EAC options, EAC
will synchronize a track with a preceeding track if there is no silence at
the track junction, so track transitions will be free from jitter artefacts
(e.g. on live recordings).


Offset Technology

'Sample Offset' is another new feature of EAC. Because most drives lack the
'accurate stream' feature, it will help to get always the same wavs as
another reader. Some drives can not position the head correctly. That means
if the program tells the drive to read block 10000 it will probably read
data somewhere in block 9998 instead. But this is not visible to the
reading program, it won't know if it is really the data it wanted. Usually
the head will be set always to a fixed offset before or after the correct
read position. So it is possible to detect this offset once and use it for
all CDs coming afterwards. Because it is a hard task to determine the exact
absolute offset for each drive, I determined it once on my Plextor 14/32.
To find out the offset of any other drive the offset is calculated relative
to that absolute offset. To implement an offset detection for other drives
I took some bytes from some common CDs I and my friends own. These are the
reference each CD-ROM drive has to compare with. Of course I have
implemented only a limited selection of CDs that can be used to detect this
offset, a list follows below. Sometimes there are different versions
(releases) of the same CD, but only the same press like the one I used will
work. That is why in the table below show also a code, that is written on
the inner ring of the music CD, that should identify the release of a CD.
The red codes are from CDs that does not work with this test. In time I
will add more CDs to test this offset. Drives that have jitter are
furthermore not able to position their heads correctly. So you should
activate the secure or fast extraction method and moreover if your drive
does caching, activate no-caching emulation. The 'Searching Track Start'
algorithm tries to find the correct start position even if jitter occurs.
But this is not always possible, mainly if the drive jitters too much. But
it can be shown that nearly 80% of the reads will get the same results. A
drive's characteristic offset can be found automatically from the CD from
on the list of reference CDs. Because of the mentioned jitter error the
value given back is also not 100% sure. You should start the test several
times and remember to activate emulate no-caching if necessary. Then you
should get one value that occurs more often than other values. YOU SHOULD
USE THIS TEST ON TWO DIFFERENT CDS AT LEAST! BOTH TESTS SHOULD GIVE BACK
THE SAME VALUE! My Plextor 14/32 has an offset value of +679 samples, that
means that 679 samples usually are missing at the end of a wav file.
As different modells of common CD-R writer usually do not add the same
offset on writing, it seems that also big CD manufactures also do not
always press the same offset on their CDs. So I determined the most common
offset of pressed CDs and integrated it into the offset detection routines.


List of Included Reference CDs

 2 Unlimited             Hits Unlimited          MXCD-680 #2 - 011596
 2 Unlimited             Real Things             ZYX 20302-2 02

 4 Non Blondes           Bigger, Better, Faster, 756792112-2
                         More!
 ABBA                    Gold - Greatest Hits    517007-202
 ABBA                    The Hits 3              PWKS 507
 AC/DC                   Ballbreaker             755961780-2

 Ace Of Base             Happy Nation - U.S.     SONOPRESS H-5328 /
                         Version                 MRCD3239 A
 Adiemus                 Songs Of Sanctuary
 Alanis Morissette       Jagged Little Pill      936245901-2.2 WME
 Alice Cooper            The Last Temptation     01-476594-1013
 All Saints              All Saints              556004-2 01
 Andrea Bocelli          Romanza                 5337902 02 &
 Angelic Upstarts        Reason Why              GRAM CD 004 MPO 01
 Anouk                   Urban Solitude          DNCD 99680
 Art Garfunkel           The Art Garfunkel Album 1004611A4
 Art Of Noise            The Ambient Collection  450996098-2
 Astral Projection       The Astral Files        ABLEX 83367 TRANR 607
 Astral Projection       Trust In Trance         IMPRESSTIPCD5 01 6
 Back Street Boys        Millennium              A0100279604-0101
 Bad Religion            Stranger Than Fiction   12-477343-10 12

 Billy Joel              River Of Dreams         01-473872-10 11
                                                 probably wrong offset
 Blind Guardian          The Forgotten Tales     8416262@1

 Blind Guardian          Nightfall In Middle     EMI UDEN 8458992 @ 1
                         Earth

 Blind Guardian          Immaginations From The  840332 2 @ 1
                         Other Side
 Blondie                 The Complete Picture    321817
 Blur                    13                      UDEN 4991292 @ 1
 Bjork                   Debut                   521 323-202
 Bob Mintzer             Urban Contours          CD-467 21
 Bobo In Thite Wodden
 Range                   Cosmic Ceiling

 Bon Jovi                Crossroad               522 936-2
                                                 0117-468451-1021
 Britney Spears          Baby One More Time      A100272308 0101
 Bruce Hornsvy And The
 Range                   The Way It Is

 Bypass Unit             Dropz Of Obscure        A0100280627-0101 14
                         Eclipses
 Bypass Unit             Green Dreams            L791 148425-2XR2-6286-A
 Bypass Unit             On A Trance-Mission     L792 136987-R4-5272-2
 Canned Heat             The Best Of             CDP 793114 2AR7
 Cappella                The Remixes             ZYX 20305-2 02
 Cappella                U Got 2 Know            828 486-2 - 00 L7
 Cappella                War In Heaven           532 626-2 - 00 L7
 Celine Dion             Falling Into You        S0148379210- 0101
 Celine Dion             Let's Talk About Love   S0148915910-0101 182
 Celine Dion             The Colour Of My Love   4747432
 Chase                   Barefoot                L062 74321522692

 Chemical Brothers       Brothers Gonna Work It  EMI UDEN 8465992 @ 1
                         Out
 Chi Coltrane            The Best Of             CDCBS-463304 31
 Chris de Burgh          Beautiful Dreams        L003 540 432-2 01
 Chris de Burgh          Best Moves
 Chris Isaak             Heart Shaped World      925837-2 RSA
 Clanned                 Legend                  PD 70188 2893 644 01 #
 Clanned                 Magical Ring            B-7664/PD 70003
 Colorbox                Train To Chroma City    L792 157701-W1-7252-A

 Cranberries             Everybody Else Is Doing 514 156-2 00A L7
                         It, So...
 Cranberries             No Need To Forgive      524051-2
 Crash Test Dummies      God Shuffled His Feet   H-6338/4321165312 B1
 Crosby, Stills, Nash &
 Young                   Deja Vu                 756782649-2.2 WME

 Culture Club            The Best Of Culture
                         Club
 Cyndi Lauper            She's So Unusual        DIDP-10088 41
 Daryl Hall & John Oates H2O                     PD 84383 2893 851 04 #
 David Bowie             Hours...                8481572/1
 Dean Martin             That's Amore            LORDISC/CD 0224 01
 Depeche Mode            101 (CD 1)              C-6402/881800-1 A
 Depeche Mode            101 (CD 2)              C-6403/881800-2 A
 Depeche Mode            A Broken Frame
 Depeche Mode            Black Celebration
 Depeche Mode            Construction Time Again
 Depeche Mode            Some Great Reward

 Depeche Mode            Songs Of Faith And
                         Devotion
 Depeche Mode            Speak & Spell

 Depeche Mode            Depeche Mode - The      CD 1 : 4845742@1
                         Singles 86-98           CD 2 : 4845752@1
 Des'ree                 Supernatural            S0100249129-0101 29
 DEUS                    The Ideal Crash         524 643-2 01
 Die Fantastischen Vier  499                     S4942386000-0101 35
 Dire Straits            Communiqu              800 052_2 70 L7
 Dire Straits            Love Over Gold
 Donald Fagen            Kamakiriad              936245230-2 WME
 Donald Fagen            The Nightfly            1 23696-2 SRC+06 M3S14
 Doris Norton            Techno Shock            SCD 129 PHC
 Doris Norton            Techno Shock 3          SCD 180 PHC
 Dream Theater           Awake                   756790126-2 WME
 Dream Theater           Images And Words        756792148-2 WME
 EA80                    Zweihundertzwei         P+O-8884-A2
 Earth, Wind & Fire      Gratitude               S 0246684310-0101 54
 East 17                 Steam                   828 542-2 01
 Elton John              Sleeping With The Past  DIDX-005994 1
 Emerson, Lake & Palmer  Brain Salad Surgery     258174 A
 Enigma                  The Cross Of Changes    H-5504-1/8392362
 Enya                    The Memory Of Trees     063012879-2 WME
 Enya                    Watermark               246006-2 RSA
 Eric Clapton            Eric Clapton Unplugged  936245024-2
 Eric Clapton            Pilgrim                 936246577-2 01/98
 Eric Clapton            Strictly The Blues
 Eric Clapton            Timepieces              8000142 04
 Eurythmics              Greatest Hits           W.O. 17073-10V
 Everything But The Girl Walking Wounded
 F.Mercury & M.Caballe   Barcelona               837277-201
 F.R. David              Greatest Hits
 Falco                   Falco 3                 229244362-2.2 WME
 Falco                   Greatest Hits           Z-0614/4321654852 A
 Falco                   The Hit-Singles         L012 398423479-2 05/98
 Fine Young Cannibals    The Raw & The Cooked    828 069-2 01
 Fisher Z                Going Red For A Salad   CDP 794132 2 AR 1
 Fischer Z               The Best                EMI UDEN 8351902 @ 4
 Fleetwood Mac           Behind The Mask         1 26111-2 SRC=01 CD+G
 Fleetwood Mac           Tango In The Night      925 471-2 SRC-02

 Flowers For Breakfast   Baron Samedi Conducts   534 051-2 50600146 01
                         The Onion
 Fool's Garden           Dish Of The Day         L046 8225442 @4
 Foreigner               Records                 756780999-2.2 R
 Frankie Goes To         Welcome To The
 Hollywood               Pleasuredome            450994745-2 WME
 Fugees                  The Score               S0100184186-0101 12
 Genesis                 Calling All Stations    8446072 @1
 Genesis                 Invisible

 Genesis                 We Can't Dance          SONOPRESS F-6901 / GENCD3
                                                 B
 Georges Brassens        Master Serie            832 050-2 L7
 George Michael          Faith                   CDEPC-460000 41
 George Michael And
 Queen                   Five Live               789 418 2@1
 George Michael          Older                   841392 2 @ 2
 Gloria Estefan          Into The Light          1A EK 46988 12 B
 Gloria Estefan          Mi Tierra               1A EK 53807 16 C1

 Gloria Gaynor           The Very Best Of Gloria L134 5196652 02
                         Gaynor

 Golden Earring          The Very Best Of        DURECO/01.2901.61 01.
                         1965-1976
 Goya & Carmina          Noche Latina            EOD CDM01 PHON 510.076-2
 Grace Jones             Nightclubbing           253 481 A
 Grace Jones             Slave To The Rhythm     842 612-2 00 L7

 Guns'N'Roses            Appetite For            F-0932/GED24148B
                         Destruction

 Guns N' Roses           Use Your Illusion I     SONOPRESS F-5328 /
                                                 GED24415 B1
 Guns N' Roses           Use Your Illusion II    DIDX-010510 3
 H-Blockx                Time To Move            I-3486/4321187512D
 Haddaway                The Album - 2nd Edition H-5797-1/4321182752 D
 Haddaway                The Drive               991950127728 - 1526-A
 Harold Faltermeyer      Harold F                255951-2 EM 1 .
 Harry Belafonte         My Greatest Songs       G3647/4321107302 A1

 Helloween               Keeper Of The Seven     N 0061 MPO 01 @@ 9
                         Keys-Part I
 Helloween               Master Of The Rings     I-5687/CSC7150-2 A
 Henry Mancini           The Pink Panther        BPCD5091 # 01

 Herbert Tachezi         J.S.Bach, Toccata U.    903174780-2
                         Fugue
 Herman Van Veen         Harlekijn               833 240-2 01*

 Hot Chocolate           Platinum (The Very Best 827311 2@2
                         Of)
 INXS                    The Greatest Hits       526 230-2 01

 Iron Maiden             Fear Of The Dark        CDP 799161 2 AO @ 2 -1 -6
                                                 NL
 Israel Philharmonic     Peter Tchaikovsky -
 Orchestra               1812 Overture           415 379-2 02 #

 Jacques Brel            De 24 Grootste          837 297-2 02
                         Successen
 James Horner            Back To Titanic         S0106 069110 - 0101
 James Newton Howard &
 Friends                 Rock Instrumentals      CD23 W.O. # 9569-1
 Jamiroquai              Synkronized             S 0100280704-0101 51
 Janet Jackson           The Velvet Rope         84476229
 Jean-Michel Jarre       Oxygene                 800 015-2 04 *
 Jean-Michel Jarre       Oxygene 7-13            S 0 100208238-0101 22
 Jean-Michel Jarre       The Concerts In China   CD 2: 811 553-2 05 #
 Jennifer Rush           Credo
 Jennifer Rush           Movin'
 Joan Armatrading        The Very Best Of        397 122-2 02
 Joan Osborne            Relish                  526 699-2 01
 Joe Cocker              Organic
 Joe Jackson             Big World               396 021-2 04 #
 Joe Jackson             Body And Soul           395 000 2 00 L7
 Joe Jackson             Heaven & Hell           S 0 100224073-0101 14
 Joe Jackson             Laughter & Lust         F-1952/CD VUS34 A
 Joe Jackson             Look Sharp!             393 187-2 04 #
 Joe Jackson             Night And Day           394 906-2 00 L7
 Joe Jackson             Night Music             39880-2 MO L4722 F
 John Coltrane           Giant Steps             812272399-2 05/98
 John McLaughlin, Al Di  Friday Night In San
 Meola, Pa               Francisco               800 047-2 02

 John McLaughlin Trio    Live At The Royal       834 436-2 01
                         Festival Hall
 John Miles              Rebel                   820 080-2 03
 Kate Bush               Hounds Of Love
 Kate Bush               The Red Shoes
 Kate Bush               The Sensual World
 Kate Bush               The Whole Story         46414
 Keb' Mo'                Just Like You           S0148411710-0101
 Keith Jarrett           Concerts                827 286-2 01 #
 Keith Jarrett           Invocations (Disk 1)    825 474-2 01 #
 Keith Jarrett           Spheres                 827 463-2 01 *
 Keith Jarrett           The Kln Concert        810 067-2 09#

 Keith Jarrett           The Moth And The Flame  825 475-2 01 #
                         (Disk 2)
 Kid Creole & The
 Coconuts                The Best Of             ODF 28036-2
 King Sunny Ade          Juju Music              254770 A

 Kruder & Dorfmeister    The K & D Sessions -    SNV K 7073 CDA 02
                         Disc 1

 Kruder & Dorfmeister    The K & D Sessions -    K7073CD B-II #1
                         Disc 2
 Ladysmith Black Mambazo Best Of                 SH 43098 16208A 02%
 Ladysmith Black Mambazo Shaka Zulu              2 25582 @1

 Lauryn Hill             Miseducation Of Lauryn  S0148984310 0101
                         Hill
 Lenny Kravitz           Mama Said               786209 2@1
 Leonard Cohen           So Long, Marianne
 Level 42                A Physical Presence     825 677-2 02 #
 Level 42                Love Games              821 935-2 02 #
 Litfiba                 Mondi Sommersi          EMI 8557422
 Lou Reed                New York                759925829-2
 Madonna                 Bedtime Stories         936245767-2 WME
 Madonna                 Like A Prayer
 Madonna                 Like A Vigrin           WEA 9 25181-2
 Madonna                 Ray Of Light            936246847-2
 Madonna                 The First Album         23867-2@1
 Manowar                 Fighting The World      756790563-2 WME
 Manowar                 Kings Of Metal          756781930-2 WME
 Manowar                 Triumph Of Steel        756782423-2.2 WME
 Marco Masini            L'Amore Sia Con Te      991950133352 - 2641-B
 Marco Masini            Marco Masini            991950102203 - 1420-B
 Marco Masini            Scimmie                 74321628272
 Marco Masini            T'Innamorerai           991950114078 - 1251-A
 Mariah Carey            Butterfly               S0148853710
 Marillion               Fugazi                  CDP 7 46027 2
 Marla Glen              This Is Marla Glen
 Matt Bianco             Whose Side Are You On   240 472-2 2895 269 01#
 McLaughlin, Di Meola,   Friday Night In San
 De Lucia                Francisco               800 047-2 02
 Meat Loaf               Bat Out Of Hell II      839067 2@3
 Meredith Brooks         Blurring The Edges      EMI UDEN 8369192
 Metallica               Garage Inc. (CD 1)      5383522 01
 Metallica               Garage Inc. (CD 2)      5383532 02
 Metallica               Load                    532618-202
 Metallica               Master Of Puppets       838 141-2 01
 Metallica               Metallica               510 022-2 00B L7
 Metallica               Reload
 Metallica               S & M (CD 1)            07314 546 798-2 01
 Metallica               S & M (CD 2)            07314 546 799-2 01
 Michael Franks          Objects Of Desire       256973 SRC-01
 Michael Jackson         Bad                     CDEPC-450290 123 A1
 Michael Jackson         Dangerous               01-465802-10 83
 Michael Jackson         Thriller                85930 41
 Michael Jackson         Thriller                35 8P-11 91A2
 Mike Oldfield           Crises                  CDV2262 100441 02
 Mike Oldfield           Heaven's Open

 Mike Oldfield           Mike Oldfield Boxed     SONOPRESS F-1355 / CD
                         (Disc 1)                BOX1-1 A

 Mike Oldfield           Mike Oldfield Boxed     SONOPRESS D-1380/CDBOX1-2
                         (Disc 2)                A

 Mike Oldfield           Mike Oldfield Boxed     SONOPRESS D-6487/CDBOX1-3
                         (Disc 3)                A
 Mike Oldfield           Music Wonderland

 Mike Oldfield           Orchestral Tubular      S VVIPD 101 01
                         Bells

 Mike Oldfield           The Songs Of Distant
                         Earth
 Mike Oldfield           Tubular Bells 2         4500990618-2
 Mike Oldfield           Voyager
 Miles Davis             Doo-Bop                 759926938-2.2 WME
 Miles Davis             Kind Of Blue            S0106493510-0101 14
 Motley Crue             Too Fast For Love       755960174-2 RSA
 Musik Research          Cocorico 3              SCD 310 PHC 1523-A

 Musical                 Highlights From Miss
                         Saigon

 Musical                 Highlights From The
                         Phantom Of The Opera
 Musical                 West Side Story
 Nat King Cole           The Unforgettable       CDP 7992302
 Nazareth                The Best Of Nazareth    LA41 157 402
 Nik Kershaw             The Best Of Nik Kershaw
 Nina Hagen Band         Nina Hagen Band         CDCBS-83136 11
 Orchestre de Paris      Ravel - Bolero          400 061-2 03 #
 Ozzy Osbourne           No More Tears           01-467859-10 11
 Ozzy Osbourne           Ozzmosis                S0148102210-0101 31
 Paolo Conte             Collezione              258 902 A
 Paul McCartney          Off The Ground          780362 2

 Peggy Lee               All-Time Greatest Hits  77379-2 MO L3106K
                         Volume 1
 Pet Shop Boys           DISCO2
 Peter Gabriel           Passion                 DIDX-005048 10
 Peter Gabriel           So                      PGCD-5 11
 Phil Collins            Face Value              2 99143 SRC 01

 Pink Floyd              Dark Side Of The Moon   UDCD 517 5C (ORIG. MASTER
                                                 REC.)

 Pink Floyd              The Wall                CD 1 : 746036 2 3
                                                 CD 2 : 746037 2 4
 Queen                   A Kind Of Magic         CDP 746267 2 AR
 Queen                   A Night At The Opera    789492 2 @ 2
 Queen                   Greatest Hits           746033 2 AR 3
 Queen                   Greatest Hits II        797971 2 AR @1
 Queen                   Innuendo                795887 2 00 @3
 Queen                   Jazz                    789495 2 @ 4
 Queen                   Made In Heaven          M-4684/4835542A
 Queen                   News Of The World       789494 2 @ 1
 Queen                   Queen I                 746204 2 AR 10
 Queen                   The Miracle             C-7698/CDP7923572 A
 Queen                   The Works               CDP 746016 2 AR.4

 R.E.M.                  Automatic For The       936245055-2.2 WME
                         People

 Rancid                  ...And Out Come The     A0100183294-0101 21
                         Wolves
 Ray Brown & Laurindo
 Almeida                 Moonlight Serenade      123/1CD 504071
 Rexanthony              Audax                   1840969 REX004-CD 5507
 Rexanthony              Cocorico 2              SCD240 PHC 1420-B

 Rexanthony              Earthquake CD1          1840AN1 REX005-CD/1 5218
                                                 7414

 Rexanthony              Earthquake CD2          1840A1N REX005-CD/2 1228
                                                 7419
 Rexanthony              Fine Pleasure           1840823 REX003CD 5516
 Rexanthony              Polaris Dream           SOCD 244 PHC 1547-A
 Rexanthony              Techno Shock 4          SCD 220 PHC

 Rexanthony              Techno Shock 5 - Future SCD 270 PHC 01 @
                         Shock 5

 Rexanthony              Techno Shock 6 - Future 1840589 PHC SCD 400
                         Shock 6                 1609-A
 Rexanthony              Techno Shock Seven      1840773 REX001 4416

 Robert Miles            Dreamland (First        DBX030 - 1622-A
                         Edition)
 Rolling Stones          Bridges To Babylon      8449092 @1
 Rolling Stones          Voodoo Lounge           839782 2 @ 3
 Roxette                 Joyride                 796048 2 A0 2
 Roxette                 Look Sharp!             791098 2 00 @ 1
 Roxette                 Tourism                 7999292 13
 Sade                    The Best Of Sade
 Santana                 Supernatural            Z-7133/7822190802

 Scooter                 Rough And Tough And     A708844-01
                         Dangerous CD1

 Scooter                 Rough And Tough And     A708844-02
                         Dangerous CD2
 Sesamstrasse Live       1-2-3...Wir Trumen!    A15112/4321714522
 Sex Pistols             Flogging A Dead Horse   CDV 2142 / B-5399 A
 Shania Twain            Come On Over            558000-2 01
 Simple Minds            Glittering Prize

 Simple Minds            The Street Fighting
                         Years

 Sisters Of Mercy        First And Last And      240616-2
                         Always
 Sisters Of Mercy        Floodland               242246-2

 Sisters Of Mercy        Some Girls Wander By    9031-76476-2
                         Mistake
 Sisters Of Mercy        Vision Thing            9031-72663-2
 Skeptiker               Harte Zeiten            084-80262
 Soundgarden             Superunknown            540 215-2 01
 Soundtrack Sesamstrasse 25 Hits Aus 25 Jahren   T-9135/4321542342A
 Soundtrack              Armageddon
 Soundtrack              Evita                   936246450 -2
 Soundtrack              Pretty Woman            793492 2 AR 4
 Soundtrack              The Bodyguard           G-5872/7822186992A

 Soundtrack              The Rocky Horror
                         Picture Show

 Soundtrack              Titanic                 S0100239681-0101
                                                 S0106321310-0101
 Soundtrack              The Matrix              936247390-2 03/99
 Soundtrack - Music From
 The Motion Picture      The Matrix              6026.2 P+O-42759-A1 04-99
 Soundtrack              Ultima Ascension        OW684 9264 1407537
 Spandau Ballet          The Twelve Inch Mixes
 Spice Girls             Spice                   8421742 @ 1

 Stan Getz               With Guest Art.         823 149-2 02#
                         Laurindo Almeida
 Stephan Micus           Twilight Fields         835 085-2 01
 Steve Miller Band       Italian X-Rays          822 823-2 01 #
 Sting                   Brand New Day           4904512 02 6
 Sting                   Fields Of Gold          540 321-2 0 1
 Sting                   Mercury Falling
 Sting                   Nothing Like The Sun    393 912-2 07%
 Sting                   Ten Summoner's Tales    540 075-2 01
 Sting                   The Soul Cages          396 405-2 01
 Sting                   The Very Best Of Sting  540 321_2 00 L7
 Stratovarious           Visions                 TT 00312 MPO 11 @@@@ 1
 Talk Talk (Natural
 History)                The Very Best Of        CDP 793976 2AR3
 Tanita Tikaram          Ancient Heart           243877-2.2 RSA
 Tanita Tikaram          The Sweet Keeper        9 26091-2
 Tear For Fears          Tears Roll Down
 Ten Sharp               Under The Waterline     17-468451-1021
 The Alan Parsons
 Project                 The Instrumental Works
 The Art Of Noise        Below The Waste         450995911-2 WME
 The Beatles             Magical Mystery Tour    CDP 748062-2
 The Beatles             Past Masters Volume Two CDP 790044 2 AR
 The Beatles             Please Please Me        CDP 746435 2AR4

 The Beatles             Sgt.Pepper's Lonely     CDP 7 46442 2
                         Hearts Club
 The Corrs               Unplugged               756780986-2 10/99
 The Drifters            Special Editions        812271230-2 WMME
 The Eagles              The Very Best Of        954832375-2.2 WME
 The Frank Cunimondo
 Trio                    Feelin' Good            MPV 100401
 The Gathering           Nighttime Birds         77168-2
 The Jacksons            Live                    DIDP-10817 11
 The Jam                 Wasteland               PWKS4129P 10203241 02 %
 The London Philharmonic Vivaldi - 4 Seasons     EC 1006 2898 541 01 /
 The Mamas & The Papas   Monday Monday
 The Monkees             Greatest Hits           260 174 A

 The Moody Blues         This Is The Moody Blues 820 157-2 01 +
                         (Disc 1)

 The Moody Blues         This Is The Moody Blues 820 158-2 01 #
                         (Disc 2)
 The Police              Greatest Hits           540 030-2 00 L7
 The Prodigy             Experience              Y4699 - 2 61365-2 03

 The Prodigy             Music For The Jilted    1735004 PHC UDP-CD1021
                         Generation              1637-B
 The Prodigy             The Fat Of The Land     3395517 NR1150-2 1247
 The Psychedelic Furs    Talk Talk Talk          DIDP 70008
 Thomas Dolby            The Flat Earth          CDP 7 460282
 TLC                     Fanmail                 73008 26055 2

 Ton Steine Scherben     Keine Macht - Fr       EFA 02007-26
                         Niemand !

 Ton Steine Scherben     Warum Geht Es Mir So    EFA 02008
                         Dreckig
 Toure Kunda             Live                    CELCD 6106 (V)
 U96                     Das Boot                513 185-2 01 /

 Ultravox                Dancing With Tears In
                         My Eyes
 Vangelis                1492
 Vangelis                Oceanic
 Vangelis                Themes
 Various Artists         De Pre Historie 1960    EOD BOD01 BMG 74321162162
 Various Artists         De Pre Historie 1970    SONOPRESS 260 742 A
 Various Artists         De Pre Historie 1980    SONOPRESS 261780 A
 Various Artists         Feelings 2              D-8679/77612-0
 Various Artists         Rock Super Stars        8405342 - K-8890 A

 Various Artists         The Tarantino           SONOPRESS R-7233/
                         Connection              MCD80325 A
 Viktor Lazlo            Sweet, Soft & Lazy      521 122-2 02
 Violent Femmes          Hallowed Ground         820093-2
 Westernhagen            Affentheater            450997018-2.2 WME
 Whitney Houston         My Love Is Your Love    X-7098/7822190372
 Whitney Houston         The Preachers Wife      441252

 Wiener Philharmoniker   Dvorak / Symphonie No.
                         9
 Xavier Naidoo           Nicht Von Dieser Welt   S1248986913-0101 104
 Yello                   Baby                    848 791-2 01
 Yello                   Flag                    836 426-2 03 #

 Yello                   You Gotta Say Yes To    812 166-2 03 %
                         Another Exc
 ZZ Top                  One Foot In The Blues   936245815-2




Sound Editor


From version 0.8 on EAC includes a small wave editor that will have some
neat functions that could be handy when handling extracted audio files. At
the moment only uncompressed 16 bit 44.1 kHz stero samples files could be
used. Following some functions are described more in detail.


Glitch Removal

From version 0.6beta on it is possible to remove glitches from extracted
wave files. This will work only on uncompressed files.
What are glitches? Glitches are single samples that are completly out of
the wave stream. Best to see on these pictures, which is a really extreme
example that probably won't occur with EAC.
Only these glitches are removed. When hearing a wave file with glitches it
is usually a high frequent 'tick'. Linear interpolation is used for removal
of these glitches. Pops and other artefacts are more deep in the sample
structure and are not removed yet, but is also planned for future releases.
Pops occurs mainly in a lost of sync, where two parts of a wavefile are
joined that does not fit correctly at these points of change of parts.


Interpolation

At first I want to note that this feature is not fully correctly
implemented and would create not always clean replacements of the selected
wav range. The selected range has to be pretty small, otherwise the menu
entry will be disabled.
This function will work on the frequency spectrum of the wave. The spectrum
of the selected range will be interpolated from spectra of ranges left and
right of the selected one. This function should be used to remove detected
pops.
Linear Interpolation will create a linear connection between the points of
the wave in the selected range. This should only be used for very small
ranges.


Automatic Detection Of Pops

This function tries to find automatically pops in the selected range. This
is something slow, so you shouldn't select the complete file, but a smaller
area. This algorithmus is also not very good yet, it will find some pops
where no are and also not found all real pops... In the next version
improvements are planned that will add user defineable parameters to nearly
all these edit functions.
After EAC ended the search it will display a dialog with all found
positions. With a double click on such a position it will select the
matching range.


Noise Reduction

To reduce noise from a wave it is necessary to have a noise profile. This
could either be loaded from disk (or saved after created), or created from
a selected range. This range should at least something around half a
second. This range used for the creation of the profile should consist of
pure noise, no other sound/music should be found in the selected range.
After having a noise profile this could be used on any range of the wav
(usually the complete file) to reduce the kind of in the profile analyzed
noise.


Spectral Display

If the Spectral button is selected, it takes some seconds to calculate a
frequency spectrum for the displayed range. This kind of display has some
advantages. E.g. pops are easily be recognized, as example you should have
a look at the top of the page.
The Y axis will be used for different frequencies, at the bottom low
frequencies are displayed and at the top high frequencies (up to 22.5 kHz).
Further the color of a point describe the amplitude of each frequency band.
If there are discontinuties in this view, there is sometimes something
wrong in the wave.


Smooth Samples

This function will smooth the amplitude of a sound. This is usefull for LP
recordings or other pops/clicks. The amplitude is smoothed, what means that
high frequent parts are filtered out. So this function will perform a kind
of low pass filtering, but it won't cut of frequencies about a special
limit, but lower the volume according to its frequency.
This function will also help on removing pops/clicks. This function could
be called as often as needed for the same range.



Documentation

This is only a prerelease, so no work on the user documentation has been
done yet. A complete user guide and documentation will be done as soon as a
stable version has been published.
If you encounter any further bugs, please report them by mail or e-mail.
Also report any drives that work or don't work, to complete the list below.
If you want to report anything, please don't forget these important
informations

   * Operating system
   * Hardware configuration (CPU, memory, CD-ROM drive, etc.)
   * CD-ROM drives working / not working, drive caches audio data / don't
     caches audio data, accurate streaming / non-accurate streaming
   * Any bugs that occurred

Please do not bother me with simple questions like "How could I save my
wave file with 22.050 Hz, 8 bit, mono ?". I will try to answer all reports
/ questions but I don't know how long it will take. I am a student and I
also have to work to earn some money, so I have not much time for these
things, so please be patient.



Registration

As I mentioned before, this program is and will be Cardware. This means,
using the program will cost you no money, but a nice picture postcard from
your hometown or a beautiful countryside nearby (perhaps it will also be
possible to use a nice stamp for sending the postcard). This support helps
me developing the software to more and more functionality and safety.
Please tell me what you like (or dislike) and please don't forget your
e-mail address. If I ever decide that not enough users register (to my
subjective decision), I will add nag screens which key codes will remove to
registrated users. So if I have already your e-mail address, it will be
much easier to send you your personal registration code. Of course, this
will only be done if there isn't enough support. But I released until now
also some other programs and so I am already disillusioned.
Of course I would greatly appreciate any donations made freely by you to
help me to improve EAC by using the donations for compiler updates etc.

If you want to register in order to support me please use this address

Andre Wiethoff
Stockumer Str. 412
44227 Dortmund
Germany



Legal Limitations

Even if you are free to copy the program for private purposes, it is not
allowed to

   * Make changes to the executable and distribute it
   * Disassemble / decompile the executable
   * Spread it together with other programs on CD-ROM, web sites or any
     other media without my permission. It is allowed to put it up on free
     FTP sites or make links directly to my homepage. Of course you can
     pass a copy of it to your family and friends.


Bugs

Please report if a version starts or stops working on your computer, or if
you find any suspicious behaviour. But try everything multiple times before
reporting and specify as exactly as possible where and how the bug
occured.


CDDB

CDDB (CD database) is an information database containing artist, disc
title, track titles, and other information for digital audio compact discs.
Over time, this archive has grown to contain a substantial collection of CD
information and is continuing to grow at a rapid rate. This database can be
accessed by applications via the CDDB server hosts that have been set up on
the Internet around the world.
The CDDB data format and the CDDB servers are designed to be open, and are
used by many client applications requiring CD information. CDDB has become
the de facto standard for Internet access of compact disc information.
Music CD-related data is provided through the Internet from the Escient 
CDDB(tm) Music CD Database.
Copyright  1999 Escient INC. All rights reserved.
Escient is a registered trademark of Escient INC. CDDB(tm), the Escient
CDDB Logo, are trademarks of Escient INC.

Caution !    Beta Version !

This is a only a beta version from the final program that will be
distributed later in this year, at least I hope so. This version should
only be used by experienced users.
I will not take responsibility for any damage to your hard- and/or software
that is caused directly or indirectly by this program. So download this
beta version on your own risk.

  Daniel Schmid created a PDF file including most informations from these
webpages. This is still no real documentation, but is in a better printable
                                   form.

   The new prebeta version is officially available just this once, if you
   encounter problems with this version you should step back to v0.85b4




Tips & Drive Specifications


Did you know :

   * In the audio editor it is possible to use the time bar and the sample
     value bar for moving the waveform by moving the mouse while having the
     left mouse button pressed on these bars.
     With the right mouse button it is possible to zoom a range on the time
     or sample value bar. A right double click will zoom out the specific
     bar.
   * Some drives make problems reading TOC informations from CDs. As
     version 0.85 beta has some more features regarding the TOC, I
     implemented two more command line options to help on problems when
     starting EAC or inserting a CD. You could use
     -nocdtext
     -nomultisession
     and it again it is possible to combine any of the command line
     options.
   * An unofficial EAC page that has plenty of tips for offset correction,
     etc. can be found under Unofficial EAC Page .
   * Some CD-ROM drives will perform better DAE when updating the firmware.
     For example the Creative DVD drives and some Teacs will perform better
     when a new firmware was flashed in.
   * The WAV comparison feature could also be used to determine a combined
     reader/writer offset for exact audio duplication. This offset will be
     different for each pair of reader/writer.
     To determine the offset, you need an already copied audio CD where the
     WAV files were extracted with 0 offset.
     Now extract the same range (somewhere in the middle of a track) with
     your prefered audio drive of the original and the copied CD.
     When extracted call compare WAV files and have a look at the number of
     the first missing/extraneous samples. This number will be the combined
     reader/writer offset. To determine wheter the number should be
     positive or negative, you have to look if the samples are missing or
     are extraneous. If the original wav file has extraneous samples at the
     beginning, the offset should be negative otherwise positive (if the
     file of the copied CD has extraneous samples the offset should
     otherwise be positive, etc.)
     To check the correct offset, you could enter the offset value in the
     options and extract again the same range from the copied CD and
     compare it again with the range of the original CD, both should then
     be the same...
   * With the WAV editor it is also possible to compare the actual file
     with another WAV file. This has the advantage that the differing
     positions could automatically be selected by double-clicking the
     position in the list box. This will make correction of badly read
     tracks very easy.
   * EAC will crash on some systems. Therefore I implemented some command
     line options that will disable some functions that could crash the
     system. You could combine any of these options, I hope that works for
     this version. I will try to remove these problems in the next
     version... The options are
     -nostopcommand
     -notestunit
     -nospeedsel
     -noreadsub
     e.g. EAC -noreadsub -notestunit
     You should have CDs already inserted in ALL your drives when starting
     EAC. On some systems it will still crash if no CD is present when EAC
     is running.
     Furthermore, you might want to disable the flag 'DMA Transfer' from
     system properties, hardware manager for each CD-ROM drive in the
     system.
   * On some systems EAC will not find a matching read mode. In that case
     select the correct read command in the drive options menu directly. If
     your drives seems to still make a bus reset (red blinking LEDs for
     some seconds) or still does not find a matching read mode, please tell
     me about it!
   * The lyrics server address changed a while ago, so I added an option to
     change the address. But I couldn't test if the new server worked
     because a few days ago it was forced to close down, at least for the
     moment.
   * If a CD has songs from various artists, you could select the option
     'Various Artists' from the 'Edit CD Informations' menu. This will
     enable split track names. The first part of each track name is then
     the artist name and the second part is the song title. Both parts are
     separated by the character '/'. For example :
     Metallica / Nothing Else Matters
   * The caching that is supported by Windows 95/98/NT does not affect a
     cache that is included in a CD-ROM drive. Even if you reduce or
     disable this Windows cache, it does not affect grabbers that use the
     ASPI interface. So you can't make your drive non-caching, in what EAC
     understands by this, by changing that cache.
   * CDDB servers require an E-mail address in the CDDB options. If a
     server times out or does not respond, you can select another CDDB
     server from the list supplied in the list box. From time to time you
     should update the server list by pressing the button below that list
     box.
   * If your computer doesn't show any drives or shows an access violation
     after starting EAC, it is often the ASPI interface. There are many
     versions out there which will work (more or less reliably) with EAC.
     Changing the interface could help. To install a new ASPI, you should
     choose one from Adaptec. If you do not own an Adaptec SCSI adapter you
     should download the file "aspiw95.exe" (after locating it on the
     internet, e.g. with help of a search engine), or perform a search for
     "ASPIME" or "ASPI_ME" on the internet or have a look at the page of
     Official Undernet... I did not tried ASPI installation on NT yet, so I
     can't guarantee success!
     If this still does not help, you should probably look around to find a
     matching one... There should also be ASPI interfaces for NT4 out
     there.
   * You can open two instances of EAC, enabling you to read audio data
     from two different CD-ROM drives simultaneously.
   * To exactly position the sliders in selecting a range to copy, you
     could move the sliders secondswise by clicking left or right of the
     sliders (same as pressing the <page up> and <page down> keys) and
     blockwise by pressing the <cursor left> and <cursor right> keys.
   * If your drive caches audio data, you have to use the appropriate
     extraction mode, or if you still use the old secure mode, you have to
     enable the option 'disable CD-ROM drive cache'. If not, only the same
     result as 'Fast Extraction' is achieved (No error detection).
   * To detect if your drive has the accurate stream feature, you should
     set the options 'secure extraction' and 'emulate cache'. After reading
     a track (a few percent should also be enough) the status window will
     report if it has or not.




Here is a premlimitary list of tested CD-ROM drives. There could of course
be mistakes in this list, so please tell me of any you know of.

Results of secure extraction :

 CD-ROM drive name           offset  overreads    cache   accur. stream
 ACER CDRW4432                +740        -         no           yes
 ASUS CD-S400                 +1858       I         no           yes
 COMPAQ CR-589                +102        -        yes           yes
 HP 7100                      +1566       -         no           yes
 PHILIPS CDD 3600             +1263       -        yes           yes
 PHILIPS 4201                 +433        I         no           yes
 PIONEER 24x DR-A02S          +1582      I/O        no           yes
 PLEXTOR CD-ROM PX-32TS       +679       I/O        no           yes
 PLEXTOR CD-ROM PX-40TS       +676       I/O        no           yes
 PLEXTOR CD-R PX-R820T        +355       I/O        no           yes
 SAMSUNG SCR 3211               ?         -         no           yes
 TEAC CD532E-B                +684        I         no           yes
 TEAC CDR56S-600              +687        I        yes           yes

   Overread feature "I" stands for Lead-In / "O" stands for Lead-Out




Contact

If you need help or want to be notified of any news regarding EAC, please
subscribe to one or both of the mailing lists below.

 This mailing list is for users        This mailing list will notify you
 helping users. If you are willing to  of any news regarding EAC
 help or if you have questions,
 subscribe this list and ask your
 questions.

If you encountered severe bugs, please check it twice and read the
documentation (the homepages), perhaps this problem is already in work or
even already removed. Otherwise you may contact me on my private e-mail
address
Do not use this email address for questions of usage !

If you want to registrate in order to support me or just want to send me
snail mail please use this address

Andre Wiethoff
Stockumer Str. 412
44227 Dortmund
Germany
