I "upgraded" to the latest version of Exact Audio Copy and all of a sudden the software is
_terrible_ compared to earlier versions. Running on Windows XP, circa 2010 Dell Workstation, so
plenty of computing power.
Here are the problems:
1. the worst is all kinds of random "read error" problems, which are NOT problems with the CD or
drive. How do I know this? The track can be easily extracted into Sound Forge, playback and waveform
analysis shows no problems with the digital file, and it can then easily be saved to WAV. So how
come SoundForge can extract the tracks just fine? What is EAC doing to the drive to make it have
read errors, or is the software screwy and declaring false problems?
2. the new interface is user-hostile in many ways. You have to be an expert to set up simple
parameters like what kind of file do you want ripped.
3. the interface with freedb (and, apparently, other less-reliable online databases) is
time-consuming and sometimes doesn't find discs that show right up in iTunes or Roxio. Some of this
might be freedb vs. Gracenote errors, but none of these were obscure or long-out-of-print discs.
4. the program has become so bloated that it works sluggishly at best on anything but a very modern
computer. It used to be streamlined and work great on all XP machines.
I've decided to "downgrade" to their circa 2008 version, which had less of this "crowd-sourced"
error-checking stuff built-in but constantly, quickly and reliably ripped CDs to WAV and MP3 for me.
Has anyone else had these problems?
-- Tom Fine
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