EAC and AAC (qaac): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:53, 11 June 2024

Exact Audio Copy guides
Configuration
EAC configuration EAC Options EAC Drive Options EAC Compression Options EAC Metadata Options EAC WAV Editor Options EAC Configuration Wizard
Compression
EAC and AAC (neroAac)‎ EAC and AAC (qaac)‎ EAC and ALAC (FFmpeg)‎ EAC and ALAC (qaac)‎ EAC and ALAC (refalac)‎‎‎ EAC and FLAC EAC and LAME EAC and LossyWAV EAC and Monkey's Audio EAC and Musepack EAC and Ogg Vorbis EAC and Opus EAC and TAK EAC and WavPack
Other
EAC Gap Settings EAC and Cue Sheets EAC Lossless Backup

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

Note: This guide has now been amended to reflect changes made to QAAC as of 2.76.

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 the latest version of CLI QuickTime AAC/ALAC encoder, Then unzip the chosen QAAC version (include qaac.exe and refalac.exe for 32-bit, include qaac64.exe and refalac64.exe for 64-bit) into the same directory as EAC.

General Configuration for Encode Apple 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 or qaac64.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 one of the following strings:

AAC ABR (Small file size):

--title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" -a 96 -q 1 %source% -o %dest%

AAC ABR (iTunes High Quality):

--title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" -a 128 -q 1 %source% -o %dest%

AAC True VBR mode (90)

--title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" -V90 %source% -o %dest%

AAC Constrained VBR mode (iTunes Plus):

--title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" -v 256 -q 2 %source% -o %dest%

AAC Constrained VBR mode (Maximum Quality):

--title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" -v 0 -q 2 %source% -o %dest%

General Configuration for Encode Apple Lossless Audio Codec (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 or refalac64.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%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" %source% -o %dest%

Note: Remember that you cannot change the compression level for ALAC.
refalac does not require QuickTime or other Apple components.
refalac does not require a codec specifier option such as -A.

@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 * Download [https://github.com/nu774/qaac/releases the latest version of CLI QuickTime AAC/ALAC encoder], Then unzip the chosen QAAC version (include '''qaac.exe''' and '''refalac.exe''' for 32-bit, include '''qaac64.exe''' and '''refalac64.exe''' for 64-bit) into the same directory as EAC.
-===General Configuration for Encode Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) ===
+=== General Configuration for Encode Apple AAC ===
 * Open EAC and insert a CD into the drive.
@@ Line 31: / Line 31: @@
 * 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''' or '''refalac64.exe''' that you unzipped earlier.
+* Click the '''Browse''' button and locate the '''qaac.exe''' or '''qaac64.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:
+* If you are using EAC 1.0b2 or newer, then in the '''Additional command line options''' box, copy and paste one of the following strings:
+AAC ABR (Small file size):
+ --title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" <font style="color:green">-a 96 -q 1</font> %source% -o %dest%
+AAC ABR (iTunes High Quality):
+ --title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" <font style="color:green">-a 128 -q 1</font> %source% -o %dest%
+AAC True VBR mode (90)
+ --title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" <font style="color:green">-V90</font> %source% -o %dest%
+AAC Constrained VBR mode (iTunes Plus):
+ --title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" <font style="color:green">-v 256 -q 2</font> %source% -o %dest%
+AAC Constrained VBR mode (Maximum Quality):
+ --title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" <font style="color:green">-v 0 -q 2</font> %source% -o %dest%
+<!-- overcomplicated for general user, should be described as an advanced option with more detail on how to use %bitrate%
-  --title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" %source% -o %dest%
+  --title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" %islow%-a %bitrate%%islow% %ishigh%-v %bitrate%%ishigh% %source% -o %dest%
-* <font style="color:red">'''Note''': Remember that you cannot change the compression level.</font>
+* '''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 [https://github.com/nu774/qaac/wiki/Command-Line-Options Command Line Options]. -->
-===General Configuration for Encode Apple AAC===
+=== General Configuration for Encode Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) ===
 * Open EAC and insert a CD into the drive.
@@ Line 47: / Line 66: @@
 * 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''' or '''qaac64.exe''' that you unzipped earlier.
+* Click the '''Browse''' button and locate the '''refalac.exe''' or '''refalac64.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%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" %islow%-a %bitrate%%islow% %ishigh%-v %bitrate%%ishigh% %source% -o %dest%
+  --title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" %source% -o %dest%
-* '''High quality''' in EAC = Constrained VBR mode = VBR on in iTunes.
+* <font style="color:red">'''Note''': Remember that you cannot change the compression level for ALAC.</font>
-* '''Low quality''' in EAC = ABR mode = VBR off in iTunes.
+* refalac does not require QuickTime or other Apple components.
-* Note: for other encoding modes (such as CBR, True VBR, HE-AAC, etc.), edit the parameters between the %islow% and/or %ishigh% tags. See [https://github.com/nu774/qaac/wiki/Command-Line-Options Command Line Options].
+* refalac does not require a codec specifier option such as '''-A'''.
 [[Category:Guides]]
 [[Category:EAC Guides|QAAC & EAC]]
 [[Category:EAC Compression Guides]]