EAC and AAC (qaac)

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

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This article will be updated for AAC options only. ALAC options will move to a new article.

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Software Needed

• Exact Audio Copy
• qaac - CLI QuickTime AAC/ALAC encoder
• Apple Application Support (e.g. iTunes)

Installation

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

• Download the latest version of qaac - CLI QuickTime AAC/ALAC encoder
• Uncompress the zip archive into a directory (e.g. C:\qaac). Alternatively you can uncompress just the files from the x64 directory (64-bit) or just the files from the x86 directory (32-bit) into a directory (e.g. C:\qaac).
• Check for Apple Application Support

  If you believe that you already have the required Apple Application Support (e.g. iTunes installed) you can run this check:

  1. Open a command prompt window (press ⊞ Win+R, then type cmd and press ↵ Enter).
  2. Change directory to where the qaac or qaac64 file is located (e.g. type cd\qaac and press ↵ Enter).
  3. Type qaac64.exe --check (for 64-bit) or type qaac.exe --check (for 32-bit) and press ↵ Enter.
     A version number should be displayed.

• If you do not already have the required Apple Application Support

  You can install iTunes.

  1. Download iTunes64Setup.exe (64-bit) or iTunesSetup.exe (32-bit) and install.
  2. Run the check for Apple Application Support above.

• Alternative to installing iTunes

  It is possible to extract the necessary Apple Application Support files without installing iTunes.

  1. Install 7-zip, if not already installed (the script used below requires it).
  2. Download iTunes64Setup.exe (64-bit) or iTunesSetup.exe (32-bit) and move to the directory where you extracted the x64 (64-bit) or the x86 (32-bit) qaac files above.
  3. Download makeportable2.cmd and move to the same directory.
  4. Double-click on the makeportable2.cmd file.
  5. The script will create a new subdirectory (\QTfiles64 or \QTfiles) in the same directory.
  6. Run the check for Apple Application Support above.

     If all is working as expected, makeportable2.cmd, iTunesSetup.exe, and/or iTunes64Setup.exe are no longer needed.

Configuration

• 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 (alternately you can use .mp4).
• 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 from the following example(s):‎

AAC ABR (Small file size):

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

AAC ABR (iTunes High Quality):

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

AAC True VBR mode (90):

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

AAC Constrained VBR mode (iTunes Plus):

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

AAC Constrained VBR mode (Maximum Quality):

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

AAC Constrained VBR mode (Maximum Quality) with cover:

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

Note: The green portion is where you would change the compression level.

QAAC configured for AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)

• Do not worry about the bit rate is shown in the bit rate drop down box; this will be ignored, as will the quality setting below it.

Copy Image & Create CUE Sheet

When extracting to an Image & CUE Sheet, the Tags (artist, album, track titles, etc.) are located in the CUE Sheet so you don't need to tag the Image. Note: There is also a BUG in EAC where Track#2 information is used for all track related placeholders when you Copy Image & Create CUE Sheet.

AAC Constrained VBR mode (Maximum Quality) with No Tags:

-v 0 -q 2 -o %dest% %source%

AAC Constrained VBR mode (Maximum Quality) with No Tags (except for the cover):

-v 0 -q 2 %hascover%--artwork "%coverfile%"%hascover% -o %dest% %source%

qaac command line usage

• Command Line Options