Spotting Critical Mistakes in EAC Logs

What does it all mean?

Take, for example, the following log, checked with the Log Checker. First we'll show the log checker report, and then we'll discuss the problems identified.

Used drive : SAMSUNG CDRW/DVD SM-308B Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Burst
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : No
Make use of C2 pointers : Yes

Read offset correction : 0
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : No
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : Yes
Null samples used in CRC calculations : No
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Not detected, thus appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bit rate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : Yes
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\foobar2000\components\flac.exe

Track1
Filename C:\My Torrents\Lykathea Aflame - Elvenefris\01 - Lykathea Aflame - Land Where Sympathy Is Air.wav

Pre-gap length0:00:02.00

Peak level 99.9 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 0718DF52
Copy CRC 0718DF52
Copy OK

Track 5
Filename C:\Documents and Settings\Joe\My Documents\Downloads\z v0albums\Back to mine (mp3 v0)\Death in Vegas\05 - Death in Vegas - Songs-Ohia , Soul.wav

Suspicious position 0:02:46
Suspicious position 0:02:49

Missing samples
Peak level 0.0 %
Track quality 98.9 %

Copy finished

Track 7
Filename C:\Documents and Settings\Chriso\My Documents\Uploaded Torrent\Dreadzone - Sound\07 - Different Planets.wav

Peak level 97.9 %
Test CRC 2BB1DFB6
Copy CRC 103045EA

Copy OK


No tracks could be verified as accurate
You may have a different pressing from the one(s) in the database

There were errors

End of status report

Critical problems

The following points are the critical problems in this log:

• Read Mode: This should be secure, not burst. Extremely important!
• Read offset correction: You can check in an online database to see if this offset is correct for the drive that you have used.(Note that occasionally drives with the same name have different offsets.)
• Defeat audio cache: Most drives have a cache, so this should almost always be yes.
• Fill up missing offset samples with silence: Should be 'yes'.
• Delete leading and trailing silent blocks: Should be 'no'.
• Null samples used in CRC calculations: Should be 'yes'.
• Gap handling: Should be 'Appended to previous track'.
• Add ID3 tag: This should be 'no' for non-MP3 rips.
• Track 1: Should always have a line indicating pre-gap length. If that's not present, you did not detect gaps before ripping. The example above in green is how it should look.
• Track 5: Lines with Suspicious position are bad, just like the line Missing samples. And Copy finished is bad, too: it would say 'Copy OK' if the track was copied without errors.
• Track 7: The CRCs don't match - this is bad.

Minor problems

Things that aren't definitely issues and would require investigating in some cases, but are possibly not good:

• Make use of C2 pointers: Very few drives fully support C2, so this should usually be no.
• Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out:This should be supported by the drive, particularly if it has an offset. If this is 'yes' and no errors occur, then that's better than it being no.
• Summary: No tracks could be verified as accurate:You may have a different pressing from the one(s) in the AccurateRip database, but if the summary states 'All tracks accurately ripped', then you can be almost certain that the rip went absolutely fine as far as getting the correct audio data goes. If it doesn't say 'All tracks accurately ripped', you can't be sure of anything. Maybe the rip went wrong, maybe you have a different pressing.

What is a non-audio deduction?

A non-audio deduction is a deduction for any setting which, while required for a 100% log score, does not affect the resulting audio data.

These are the non-audio log checker deductions

• Ripped with EAC 0.95 or earlier (-30 points)
• Ripped with EAC 0.99 during or after 2017 (-1 point)
• Log checksum not used with EAC 1.0 and newer (-15 points)
• XLD signature not appended with XLD 20121222 or newer
• Not using null samples in CRC calculations (-1 point)
• No "Scan ReplayGain" info (-1 point)
• Adding ID3 tags (-1 point)
• AccurateRip is not used (-5 points)
• XLDversion 2010/01/23 - 2010/07/04 log with AccurateRip enabled but cannot verify gaps detected, (-1 point)

Additionally, range rips which can be rescored according to 2.2.10.6. count as having a non-audio deduction.

What does this mean?

FLAC/Log rips with only non-audio deductions can trump those rips which have audio deductions. This means that, for example, a rip which scores 99% due to being ripped in EAC 0.99 can trump a rip with a CRC mismatch, and an EAC 1.0+ rip without the checksum can trump a rip made with the wrong offset correction.

Only a 100% rip can trump a rip with exclusively non-audio deductions.