CUERipper is an open source alternative to Exact Audio Copy (EAC) and you could say easier to use as there is less to configure which means you can be up and running in no time.
First off download and install CUERipper. It comes with CUETools and both applications can be installed or run as a portable application. Download from HERE.
Once you have downloaded the .zip file just extract and run “CUERipper.exe” to start the application. If you want to run the application as portable then simply delete the file called “user_profiles_enabled“. This will make save the settings in the same folder rather than the user profile folder (%appdata%).
Now launch CUERipper you will see the screen as below.
Next click on “Options” in the top right and a window like the one below will appear.
The options are explained in more detail here: http://cue.tools/wiki/CUERipper_Options
For this guide the options were configured as the screenshot below. The settings that have been changed from default are in bold. These are optional settings so choose as you see fit.
The most important options would be:
Preserve HTOA: This preserves any hidden tracks that might be found at the start of the CD.
Detect Indexes: Attempts to find the INDEX 00 position (start of silence or pregap) for each track.
Track filename: To set the template for the filenames of ripped tracks. See HERE for more details.
By default the filenames will be “01. TRACK TITLE.flac” but as you can see in the screenshot above “Artist” (%artist%) has also been added so the file will look like this: “01. ARTIST – TRACK TITLE.flac”
Back at the main CUERipper window check that the options match the screenshot below.
When you are happy with the options you can being ripping. Click the “Go” button on the right.
CUERipper will now detect the CD drive features as shown in the screenshot below. The features it can detect automatically are:
- read command
- read offset correction
- gap detection method
- support for C2 error reporting
Once all the drive features have been configured the ripping process begins. The progress can be seen on the right hand side of the application as shown below.
Once CUERipper has finished the “Done ripping” box will appear showing (hopefully) that everything was verified OK.
