EAC and AAC (qaac)

Important note

This guide is in need of an update, because in EAC 1.0 beta 2, the replacement strings changed. For example:

• "%s" is now "%source%"
• "%d" is now "%dest%"
• "%a" is now "%artist%"

See the full list in the EAC FAQ or in the EAC Compression Options guide.

Software Needed

• Exact Audio Copy
• CLI QuickTime AAC/ALAC encoder

Note: This guide has now been amended to reflect changes made to QAAC as of 2.18.

refalac's command line usage

• refalac usage

qaac's command line usage

• Command Line Options

Installation

Note: This guide assumes that EAC has been configured for secure ripping, if not please follow this guide.

• Download CLI QuickTime AAC/ALAC encoder, Then unzip the chosen QAAC version (include qaac.exe and refalac.exe) into the same directory as EAC.

General Configuration for Encode ALAC

• Open EAC and insert a CD into the drive.
• Click the EAC menu and select Compression Options.
• Click the External Compression Tab, and put a tick in the box for use external program for compression.
• Change Parameter Passing Scheme to User Defined Encoder.
• Change Use file extension to .m4a if not already that.
• Click the Browse button and locate the refalac.exe that you unzipped earlier.
• Remove the ticks from Use CRC check and Add ID3 tag.
• Tick Check for external programs return code.
• If you are using EAC 1.0b2 or newer, then in the Additional command line options box, copy and paste the following string:

--title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --composer "%composer%" --comment "%comment%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr1%/%numtracks%" --disk "%cdnumber%/%totalcds%" %haslyrics%--lyrics "%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% %hascover%--artwork "%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%

• Note: Remember that you cannot change the compression level.

General Configuration for Encode AAC

• Open EAC and insert a CD into the drive.
• Click the EAC menu and select Compression Options.
• Click the External Compression Tab, and put a tick in the box for use external program for compression.
• Change Parameter Passing Scheme to User Defined Encoder.
• Change Use file extension to .m4a if not already that.
• Click the Browse button and locate the qaac.exe that you unzipped earlier.
• Remove the ticks from Use CRC check and Add ID3 tag.
• Tick Check for external programs return code.
• If you are using EAC 1.0b2 or newer, then in the Additional command line options box, copy and paste the following string:

--title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --composer "%composer%" --comment "%comment%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr1%/%numtracks%" --disk "%cdnumber%/%totalcds%" %haslyrics%--lyrics "%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% %hascover%--artwork "%coverfile%"%hascover% %islow%-a %bitrate%%islow% %ishigh%-v %bitrate%%ishigh% %source% -o %dest%

• High quality in EAC = Constrained VBR mode = VBR on in iTunes.
• Low quality in EAC = ABR mode = VBR off in iTunes.
• Note: for other encoding modes (such as CBR, True VBR, HE-AAC, etc.), edit the parameters between the %islow% and/or %ishigh% tags. See Command Line Options.