Exact Audio Copy is a CD ripping tool that reads audio discs in a secure mode with repeated passes and error detection, then encodes the result to lossless or compressed formats. It verifies rips against community checksum databases.
Exact Audio Copy is a disc ripping application built around one goal: getting audio off a CD with the bits intact. Instead of reading each track once, it can use a secure mode that rereads problem areas, checks the results against each other, and reports every position where the data did not match. Drive features such as caching and accurate streaming are detected automatically, offsets are corrected, and the finished tracks are handed to an encoder of your choice, whether that is FLAC, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, or WMA. CUE sheets capturing gaps, indices, and disc metadata are generated alongside the audio.
AccurateRip is the feature most people install Exact Audio Copy for. The plugin calibrates your drive's read offset once, then compares the checksums of each ripped track against a database built from other listeners' results, showing a confidence figure for every match. A rip that agrees with dozens of unrelated drives is very hard to get wrong. Logs record the settings, offsets, and checksum results so a finished rip can be audited later. The application also plays discs, detects pre-track gaps, records from analogue sources, and includes a small waveform editor for trimming and click repair. For decoding and playing the resulting files, LAV Filters covers the playback side.
The payoff from Exact Audio Copy is confidence. Most rippers read a disc once and move on, so a scratch, a dusty lens, or a drive that caches data silently corrupts the output and you only notice it years later through an audible click. Secure mode rereads suspect sectors, compares the results, slows the drive when errors appear, and tells you exactly where the remaining problems are so you can listen to those seconds yourself. AccurateRip adds independent proof by matching your checksums against other people's rips of the same pressing. Because the tool also writes detailed logs, handles gaps, indices, and CD-Text correctly, and drives external encoders for lossless archiving, the result is a collection that can be rebuilt, verified, or converted later without going back to the discs. For anyone archiving a CD library once and wanting it done properly, that reliability is the whole point.
Key capabilities and highlights.
Secure mode rereads difficult sections of a disc several times and compares the results before accepting them, so scratches and drive quirks do not quietly end up in the output. Every non-exact correction is logged with its time position, and you can listen to those positions to judge them yourself.
Exact Audio Copy calibrates the drive's read offset and then compares each track's checksum against a database of rips contributed by other users. A confidence rating tells you how many independent submissions agree, which turns a subjective judgement about rip quality into a measurable one.
Secure, fast, and burst modes let you trade time against certainty. Secure is the default for archiving, fast suits discs in good condition, and burst reads straight through when you only need a rough copy. The drive's caching and accurate-stream behaviour is tested so the chosen mode actually behaves as expected.
Tracks can be compressed on the fly through external encoders for lossless and lossy formats, and encoder parameters are configurable per profile. Existing WAV files can be batch compressed and encoded files decompressed back to WAV, with compression offsets handled so decoded audio lines up sample for sample.
Pre-track gaps, hidden audio before track one, and silence at the start of a track are detected rather than guessed. The CUE sheets Exact Audio Copy generates can carry gap lengths, indices, UPC and ISRC codes, and CD-Text, which is what allows a burned copy or a player to reproduce the disc's original layout.
A compact waveform editor handles delete, trim, normalise, pad, fade in and out, interpolation, and undo. Dedicated glitch removal and pop detection tools can repair clicks that survived extraction, which saves re-ripping a damaged disc and rescues recordings made from vinyl or radio.
Disc and track names can be pulled from online CD databases or entered once and browsed locally, and ID3 tags are written as part of the rip. Files can also be renamed automatically to match their tags, so a folder of extracted tracks arrives properly labelled.
The same window plays CDs, lets you audition a selected range before committing to a rip, and supports multisession discs. Analogue inputs can be recorded and loop-recorded from a turntable or radio, which means digitising a vinyl collection and archiving a CD library can be handled with one tool.
Browse historical releases and previous builds.
Common questions about Exact Audio Copy.
Ordinary rippers read each track once and trust whatever comes back. Exact Audio Copy rereads difficult sections, compares the results, and reports any position where the data disagreed, so a scratch does not become a permanent defect in your archive. It also keeps a detailed log for later verification.
It is a community database of track checksums. Once your drive's offset is calibrated, each rip is compared with other people's results for the same pressing and a confidence score is reported. It is not mandatory, but it gives independent evidence that a rip matches everyone else's.
Exact Audio Copy writes uncompressed WAV and can hand tracks to external encoders covering lossless formats such as FLAC, WavPack, and Monkey's Audio as well as MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, and AAC. Encoding happens automatically after extraction, so the archive and the portable copy can be produced in one pass.
Yes, if you configure it to. Gap detection identifies the silent or hidden audio between tracks and can include it in the extracted files or store it in the CUE sheet, so a later burn reproduces the disc layout. Stripping that data can break checksum verification for the affected tracks.
Exact Audio Copy includes a detection step that tests whether the drive caches audio and whether it delivers an accurate stream, then recommends the right extraction settings. AccurateRip calibration determines the read offset. Doing this once per drive takes a few minutes and saves a lot of guesswork afterwards.
Yes. The waveform editor built into Exact Audio Copy removes glitches, detects pops, interpolates over damaged ranges, applies noise reduction, and normalises level, with undo available. It is a repair tool rather than a full editor, but it is enough to salvage a rip that would otherwise be discarded.
Exact Audio Copy is a CD ripping tool that reads audio discs in a secure mode with repeated passes and error detection, then encodes the result to lossless or compressed formats. It verifies rips against community checksum databases.
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