EAC and ALAC (refalac)

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Software Needed

Installation

Note: This guide assumes that EAC has been configured for secure ripping, if not please follow 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 refalac.exe for 32-bit or refalac64.exe for 64-bit into the EAC program directory.

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 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 from the following examples‎:
--title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" -o %dest% %source%

Includes disk, lyrics, and cover tags:

--title "%title%" --artist "%artist%" --band "%albumartist%" --album "%albumtitle%" --genre "%genre%" --date "%year%" --track "%tracknr%/%numtracks%" --disk "%cdnumber%/%totalcds%" %haslyrics%--lyrics "%lyrics%"%haslyrics% %hascover%--artwork "%coverfile%"%hascover% -o %dest% %source%
  • Note: Remember that you cannot change the compression level for ALAC.
  • refalac and refalac64 share much of the code and functionalities with QAAC and work very similar to QAAC -A.
  • Unlike QAAC, refalac and refalac64 DO NOT require Apple Application Support components.
  • Unlike QAAC, refalac and refalac64 DO NOT require a codec specifier option such as -A.
refalac
  • 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 title, track titles, track numbers, etc.) are located in the CUE Sheet so you don't need to tag the Image.

No Tags:

-o %dest% %source%

No Tags (except for the cover):

%hascover%--artwork "%coverfile%"%hascover% -o %dest% %source%

refalac command line usage