Audio in python

This page tries to provide a starting point for those who want to work with audio in combination with python. If you are looking for podcast and such on Python you are not at the right place here, but PythonAudioMaterial is.

Built in modules

The [http://docs.python.org/lib/mmedia.html Multimedia Services] allow for some basic audio functionality in python. It consists of the following modules:

• [http://docs.python.org/lib/module-audioop.html audioop] Manipulate raw audio data.

• [http://docs.python.org/lib/module-aifc.html aifc] Read and write audio files in AIFF or AIFC format.

• [http://docs.python.org/lib/module-sunau.html sunau] Provide an interface to the Sun AU sound format.

• [http://docs.python.org/lib/module-wave.html wave] Provide an interface to the WAV sound format.

• [http://docs.python.org/lib/module-chunk.html chunk] Module to read IFF (e.g. AIFF) chunks.

• [http://docs.python.org/lib/module-sndhdr.html sndhdr] Determine type of a sound file.

• [http://docs.python.org/lib/module-ossaudiodev.html ossaudiodev] Access to OSS-compatible audio devices (mainly important for Linux / FreeBSD)

Beyond the default modules

Alternatively, you might want to learn about audio programming in Python. There is a veritable forest of stuff out there, but here are some good starting points.

For a complete overview have a look at PythonInMusic.

Platform independent

• [http://people.csail.mit.edu/hubert/pyaudio/ pyAudio] pyAudio provides Python bindings for PortAudio, the cross-platform audio I/O library. Only for audio input and output, other operations can be done using e.g. python's built in wave module.

• [http://www.speech.kth.se/snack/ Snack] Snack has commands for basic sound handling, such as playback, recording, file and socket I/O. Snack also provides primitives for sound visualization, e.g. waveforms and spectrograms.

• [http://sourceforge.net/projects/audiotools/ Python Audio Tools] Python Audio Tools

Platform dependent

• [http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/modules/gst-python.html]

Modules relying on closed source

• [http://pysonic.sourceforge.net/index.html pysonic] A wrapper around the [http://www.fmod.org FMOD]-library offering plenty of options including 3D sound and effects. FMOD is a popular closed, but free for own use, that is used in many commercial game titles.

CategoryDocumentation