FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

If you cannot find an answer to your question here, check the Official Exact Audio Copy Frequently Asked Questions.

What is the official Exact Audio Copy website?

The official website where you can get the latest versions is http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ and is maintained by EAC author Andre Wiethoff.

Is there a support forum for EAC?

Yes there is! Digital-Inn hosts the Official Exact Audio Copy Forum. However, this forum has rather low traffic and therefore it's recommended to subscribe to the Exact Audio Copy Mailing List if you have problems with EAC. Subscription is free!

Where does EAC store its settings?

Since EAC version 0.9 prebeta 9 the settings are stored in the Windows registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AWSoftware. Up to version 0.9 prebeta 8 the settings were stored in the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\AWSoftware.

Do I have to uninstall an older version of EAC before upgrading to the latest?

Unless otherwise specified, the answer is no. Just replace the old eac.exe with the newer one and you are set.

Error: The DLL WNASPI32.DLL could not be found in the specified path?

EAC needs an ASPI layer to operate. Operating systems like Windows NT or 2000 do not have an ASPI layer installed by default. Windows 95/98/ME do have one, but it is usually totally obsolete so EAC requires a newer version. The latest ASPI layer can be downloaded here.

Extraction

I installed a new drive and now EAC ceases to function correctly?

Delete EAC entry in the Windows registry. See Where does EAC store its settings for details on where you can find the EAC registry key. Note that you may want to write down EAC's settings as you will have to configure EAC all over again after deleting this key.

Compression

When I try to decode MP3 files to WAV with EAC I get a Can't open selected codec error?

EAC uses the installed Fraunhofer codec for MP3 play to decode those files. However on some systems no codec is installed. In this case you will have to download a codec. The easiest way is by installing Microsoft Windows Media Player which installs the Fraunhofer codec.

When trying to determine the compressor offset in the compression options I get a Can't open selected codec error?

See When I try to decode MP3 files to WAV with EAC I get a Can't open selected codec error.

I tried to compress with the Fraunhofer MP3 codec, but I am only able to compress audio with only very low bitrates?

Make sure that you do not use the Fraunhofer advanced codec, as that is the free version which will only allow compression up to 56 kbit/s. To compress with higher bitrates, use the professional version of the codec, or use any of the supported encoder DLL or any of the supported external command-line encoders. 

Shorten is an audio compression scheme that is used to compress WAV audio files losslessly. Contrary to MP3 this means that after you decompress a Shorten (.shn) file, everything that was in the original .wav is there. That makes the Shorten audio compressor ideal for music traders working over the Internet. For distribution and archiving purposes, the Shorten files themselves can also be burned onto a CD-R as data. One big advantage to archiving Shorten files is that you'll never have to deal with digital audio extraction (DAE) from an audio disc, which can sometimes produce clicks and other undesired artifacts.

Obtain the Shorten external encoder

At the moment of writing Shorten 3.1 is the latest version. Download Shorten 3.1. Check the official distribution site etree.org for new updates of the encoder! It's recommended to put shortn32.exe in the c:\windows\command folder on a Windows 95/98/ME system, and c:\winnt\system32 on Windows NT/2000 systems. Why? Files put in these directories can be accessed from every directory on your system. Thus you don't have to change the path to Shorten's location every time you want to use it from the command prompt.

If you already had installed the Shorten executable and want to find out its version, open a command prompt and type shortn32 -h, followed by a press on the Enter key. Note that if you did not put Shorten in the above mentioned folders you'll have to set the path to shortn32.exe first! The output of Shorten should look like the screenshot below.

The version used in this example is thus Shorten version 3.1.

Configuring EAC for the Shorten external encoder

Make sure you have Configured The Compression Options in Exact Audio Copy.

From The EAC menu select Compression Options... or press F11. This opens the Compression options window.

On the External Compression tab, check Use external program for compression. The settings on the Waveform tab have no influence and may thus be ignored. From the Parameter passing scheme dropdown box choose Shorten Lossless Encoder.

In the Program, including path, used for compression field enter the path to the Shorten executable or use the Browse... button to locate shortn32.exe on your harddisk.

Enable the Delete WAV after compression checkbox. Exact Audio Copy always extracts to WAV first when using an external compressor. Enabling this option deletes this WAV file after it is compressed. It does not make much sense to keep the WAV files after compression.

Disable Add ID3 tag since Shorten does not support ID3 tag features. If you enable this option and have enabled the newer ID3v2 tag (see Configuring The Compression Options) Shorten is no longer able to decompress the files correctly! Thus if you don't want to render your compressed files useless uncheck Add ID3 tag.

No other options need to be set to use Shorten.

When you are sure the settings are correct for your needs click the OK button. EAC is now configured to extract to loss less SHN files. See Extracting Tracks To Your Harddisk for more information about this.