Complete Control of EAC

Somebody once said:
'What FIH is trying to say: he likes to have the "DNA" of a wav file. I am however unsure what good it will do.'
'one long an boring shoutpage in 1 sentence'

I say: We'll see....

I'm writing a utility to automate EAC rips, to ensure that **ONLY** secure rips can be done in the correct way and to make things as simple as possible. Imagine it as a front-end to EAC (you won't even see EAC) with everything a lossless file sharer could possibly need and with all the EAC pointless and complicated options (in the lossless/secure world) completely invisible. That's right, the emphasis will be on lossless and sharing - not on ripping personal copies for personal use which is pretty much what EAC is designed for.

Quick feature list....

• Protection from tampering from all but the most determined - this means that other than in the realms of disassembling the program, lamers armed even with a hex-editor will not be able to fake stuff.
  
  
• Protected embedded cuesheets/logiles/tags (encoded to avoid tampering by phoney-rippers). From the encoded version these can be generated into XML/txt format and it's anticipated these "extracted" versions would be distributed alongside the original for human-readable information.
  
  
• Start the rip & then tag/name files whilst it's ripping (you're bored, right? Isn't this the logical time to do it)
  
  
• Generate a EAC-style logfile and any type of cuesheet you want at any time - it's anticipated generating EAC style logfiles will soon become redundant.
  
  
• Discs organised into collections.
  
  
• Quick generation of Image WAV or split back into track-based WAVs. Also perform this process on lossless encoded files (FLAC/WV/APE)
  
  
• Detection of stereo/mono.
  
  
• Intelligent handling of pregap tracks/bonus tracks/blank tracks/tracks with long gaps in the middle (e.g. last track on Nirvana's Nevermind). Pointless digital (e.g. total) silence "they" put on CD's can be taken out of lossless, as long as it is held somewhere and as long as somebody who wants to burn an exact-duplicate CD can put it back - why not have a standard way of "fixing it"?
  
  
• More details logged such as CD Drive firmware version, specific ASAPI adaptor used etc..
  
  
• Fingerprint analysed before the WAV is even encoded
  
  
• Fingerprint of noise-only (trimming leading/trailing silence) - very useful to detect a incorrect drive offset of your or their rip.
  
  
• Replaygain analysis (a useful audio signature if nothing else)
  
  
• Silence analysis
  
  
• Frequency analysis
  
  
• Waveform preview
  
  
• Encoding into FLAC (of course), but to be followed by WAVPack support and APE support if anyone's still using it.
  
  
• Audio analysis/offset correction information - by way of audio 'DNA' - a custom spec I've drawn up which makes a fingerprint seem like a blood type. Fingerprint...DNA...get it ;) ?
  
  
• Shit loads more...
  

OK, people will still be able to "fake it" by ripping from a CDR, but trying to rip from images etc.. will proove difficult (I won't go into the technical details) and at least if you own the original and suspect a rip to be faulty there will be a wealth of information at your disposal.

Low priority features that maybe someday will be added...

• Secondary encoding option - for lossy etc... (very low priority)
  
  
• Automatic creation of torrent files
  
  
• Automatic posting of torrents to your favourite site (e.g. Oink)
  
  
• Automatic HTML/PHPBB style tracklist formatting etc... (for presentation pages)
  
  
• Messaging/Emails etc.. when rip complete
  

I expect to have a alpha* version out in a few days so stay tuned.
*which to not dissapoint will largely be proof-of-concept/bug-busting excercise I will distribute to a few EAC-heads for testing.

FAQ
Q) Why am I not writing my own ripping tool?
A) Because I'm lazy. Also because it's f**king hard work. And also because EAC is a great and well-trusted proven program.

Q) Have I not heard of Accurip?
A) Yes, but Accurip is again designed for personal use - not for ripping CD's and distributing them, not for my Mother or anyone else who can still make mistakes with EAC configuration - at best the mistakes get spotted, at worst they never do.

Q) Is this legal?
A) I will not be distributing the code with EAC - you will download EAC. It is not a derirative work of EAC (merely a front-end) and in fact it pays nothing but homage to EAC. Also of course the music you rip/distribute should only be your own or where you have copyright permission ;)

Q) Will this be available on Mac/Linux?
A) The ripping/encoding routines will work on any platform the only trusted lossless ripper (EAC) can run on :P

Q) But what about if a Mac/Linux user recieved the files and cannot do anything with them?
A) In terms of a torrent file, the individual track-based FLAC files will still be distributed as normal - for instant playing. Once it's past beta stage on the Windows format I'll be welcome to talk to Mac/Linux heads about writing some tools on their side.

Q) Is it vaporware?
A) Yes and no. I've written a EAC Class. It's a messy affair right now all driven from a console/command prompt. This Class does a few naughty things such as spy on EAC and it's internal memory. These things are all possible and all working now. I can see all EAC options as they are changed. I can read a cuesheet before EAC even generates one. I can modify any EAC setting directly. I can find out/report more about drives than EAC does - such as firmware version etc... I can see exactly what ASPI layer and version of ASPI layer you are using. I can read the test/rip CRC32's, read errors, track quality etc... as and when they are being generated - you will not have time to change them. I can produce a EAC logfile before EAC does.

Q)How can I help?
A)Support me, just say "Sounds good" if nothing else. If you want to go a bit further then please post any features you'd like to see, or any questions and I will update this post as necessary.