Now we move onto Extraction Method:

• Secure Mode: Checked.

Since this is a radio button selection, it follows that “Paranoid Mode”, “Synchronized Modes” and “Burst Modes” need to all be left unchecked.

• Then you click Detect Read Features so that EAC will check if your drive caches audio data, also if it has Accurate Stream (then case EAC has no need to perform additional synchronization). It will also check for C2 error info, but we will leave this option unchecked no matter what EAC says about it.

We will trust what EAC says about the Accurate Stream feature. We will also trust EAC if it says that the drive caches audio data, like this:

• After the detection is done, click on Apply and have the detected features automatically applied as settings. In most cases you will change the settings that were detected so do not leave it like this.

• Uncheck Drive is capable of retrieving C2 error information- if you were to leave this enabled, some errors may not be found and go undetected.

EAC may show that your drive does not cache audio data, like this:

You can still choose to have Drive caches audio data checked as shown below. It will not screw up your rip quality, but the rip may take quite awhile longer, so:

• Check Drive caches audio data if it did not get automatically checked after detecting drive features.

It is very important that Drive caches audio data is checked if your drive does cache the data. EAC needs to read from the disc, not from a cache, each and every time. This is the basis for error detection and correction, and thus for establishing that the rip is a (near) perfect copy of the disc: it is almost impossible that the data would read the same more than once if the drive did not read it correctly from the disc. However, if the data is cached it is no surprise that it reads the same the next time it is accessed.

This is how your settings should be, if it doesn’t look this way, fix it!

If you wish, you can return and read the following sections about testing the cache, and perhaps ripping in burst mode, some other time…

So, a drive that caches audio data defeats the purpose of making secure rips, unless you tell EAC that the drive caches audio data. If EAC “knows” that a drive caches audio data, it will flush the drive’s cache in order to be able to read from the disc again.

There are doubts about whether EAC really detects drive caching properly. This is why many guides recommend (or even demand) that you always disable/defeat cache (that is, check Drive caches audio data). As far as rip quality is concerned, it is never wrong to have “Drive caches audio data” checked.

The Gap Detection tab:

• Gap/Index retrieval method: Try method A, change to B or C if detection is slow, or is not working at all. You will also need to change method if the gap lengths are obviously wrong.

• Detection accuracy: Secure.

That concludes the fifth part of our crazy long guide for ripping CD’s at a near professional level. You’ve got them laying around, digitize them now, and do so at the quality they deserve! The next portion we will be covering how to save the profile that you have been working on setting up. You surely want to save it to not have to read through all this stuff again and do it over, don’t you? Then we’ll move into the actual ripping portion. After that we’ll get you hooked up on a profile to rip to MP3 also. Til next time.