Configuration

Exact Audio Copy setup guides

Practical EAC settings and command lines for the components supplied with EAC Codecs. Commands shown as verified are taken from working configurations or the encoder's own EAC documentation.

Not sure which format to use? Compare codec capabilities, bitrate modes and use cases, or open the personalized setup assistant for copyable paths and settings.

Open personalized setup assistant

EAC setting: use User Defined Encoder for the examples below. Where the encoder writes its own metadata, leave EAC's separate Add ID3 tag option disabled. LAME is the exception: enable EAC's Add ID3 tag option for MP3 tagging.

MP3

LAME 4.0 cVBRb

Recommended EAC command

Executablelame.exe

Extension.mp3

Add ID3 tagEnabled

Delete WAVEnabled

Preferred buildPerformance

AlternativeSolid State

Performance is recommended for most systems. Solid State is the compatibility-focused alternative. Only one LAME build can be selected at a time. EAC should write the MP3 tags using its own Add ID3 tag option.

-V0 -b 192 --vbr-min-strict --bitrate-boost 3

Lossless

FLAC 1.5.0

Verified working EAC command

Executableflac.exe

Extension.flac

CompressionLevel 5

Delete WAVEnabled

-T "artist=%artist%" -T "title=%title%" -T "album=%albumtitle%" -T "date=%year%" -T "tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "genre=%genre%" -5 %source%

AAC

CW-AAC 1.0.1.0

Recommended VBR q2

Executablecw-aac.exe

Extension.m4a

ModeVBR q2

TaggingWritten by CW-AAC

%source% %dest% -q 2 --title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" --disk "%cdnumber%/%totalcds%"

Keep %source% and %dest% as the first two positional arguments with this release. --albumartist may be used instead of --band.

Alternative pVBR q2: %source% %dest% --pvbr -q 2 --title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" --disk "%cdnumber%/%totalcds%"

Lossless

CW-ALAC 1.0.1.0

Standard EAC command

Executablecw-alac.exe

Extension.m4a

Add ID3 tagDisabled

Return-code checkEnabled

--title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" -o %dest% %source%

CW-ALAC writes metadata directly into the M4A file. It also supports disc, lyrics and artwork options for more advanced EAC configurations.

Opus

CW-Opus 1.6.1.0

Recommended EAC example

Executablecw-opus.exe

Extension.opus

ModeConstrained VBR · 256 kbps

Complexity10

-cvbr -b 256000 --complexity 10 --title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --albumartist "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" %source% -o %dest%

44.1 kHz CD input is resampled automatically as required by the Opus encoder.

Dolby Digital

CW-AC3 1.0.1.0

EAC metadata mode

Executablecw-ac3.exe

Extension.ac3

Input44.1 kHz CD PCM

Encoding rate48 kHz automatically

--eac --title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --album-artist "%albumartist%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%" --tracktotal "%numtracks%" --genre "%genre%" "%source%" "%dest%"

DTS Core

CW-DTS 1.0.1.0

Verified EAC metadata command

Executablecw-dts.exe

Extension.dts

Input44.1 kHz / 16-bit PCM

Sample rate44.1 kHz native

--eac --title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --album-artist "%albumartist%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%" --tracktotal "%numtracks%" --genre "%genre%" "%source%" "%dest%"

DTS-CD

CW-DTS-WAV 1.0.1.0

Direct EAC integration

Executablecw-dts-wav.exe

Recommended output.flac

Add ID3 tagDisabled

Output24-bit multichannel FLAC

Keep the DTS-CD rip bit-perfect. Do not apply normalisation, volume adjustment, DSP, resampling, fades or lossy processing before CW-DTS-WAV receives the EAC WAV.

--eac --title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --album-artist "%albumartist%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%" --tracktotal "%numtracks%" --genre "%genre%" "%source%" "%dest%"

--eac implies overwrite and quiet operation, verifies that EAC's requested output exists and is non-empty, and removes incomplete output if conversion fails.

HDCD

CW-HDCD 1.0.1.0

Tested EAC FLAC workflow

Executablecw-hdcd.exe

Recommended output.flac

Delete WAVEnabled

Return-code checkEnabled

--eac --title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --album-artist "%albumartist%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%" --tracktotal "%numtracks%" --genre "%genre%" "%source%" "%dest%"

CW-HDCD decodes valid HDCD audio to 24-bit FLAC. In --eac mode it verifies the requested output before returning success, allowing EAC to delete its temporary WAV normally.