The sox class

class audiomath.sox(destination, source=None, format=None, nChannels=None, fs=None, transform=None, effects='', verbose=None)

Bases: AuxiliaryBinaryInterface

This class manages the auxiliary command-line binary sox (https://sox.sourceforge.net ).

An instance of this class connects to the standalone sox executable, assuming that that IsInstalled(). The instance can then be used to transform audio data in a wide variety of ways, and encode it to disk in a variety of formats (although typically fewer formats than ffmpeg).

You may find the class method sox.Process() more useful than an instance.

You can also chain processing from one sox instance to another, or between a sox instance and a ffmpeg instance, by passing the other instance as this one’s destination instead of specifying a filename.

Here is an example of chaining. Let’s say we want to use a sox effect and save the result as in mp3 format, but sox does not support the mp3 format. So instead we write out, on a pipe, to an ffmpeg process, which can save to mp3:

import audiomath as am
s = am.TestSound('12')
am.sox.Process(
    s,
    destination=am.ffmpeg( 'output.mp3', source=s ),
    effects='loudness -10',
)

The sox binary is not included in the Python package by default. Installation is up to you. You can install it like any other application, somewhere on the system path. Alternatively, if you want to, you can put it directly inside the audiomath package directory, or inside a subdirectory called aux-bin—the class method sox.Install() can help you do this. If you install it inside the audiomath package, then this has two advantages: (a) audiomath will find it there when it attempts to launch it, and (b) it will be included in the output of Manifest('pyinstaller') which you can use to help you freeze your application.

Parameters:
  • destination (str, ffmpeg, sox) – output filename—be sure to include the file extension so that ffmpeg can infer the desired output format; can alternatively use another instance of ffmpeg or sox as the destination (in that case, format, nChannels and fs will also be intelligently inferred from that instance if they are not otherwise specified);

  • source (Sound, Recorder, Player, Stream) – optional instance that can intelligently specify format, nChannels and fs all in one go;

  • format (str) – format of the raw data—should be either a valid ffmpeg PCM format string (e.g. 'f32le') or a construction argument for numpy.dtype() (e.g. 'float32', '<f4');

  • nChannels (int) – number of channels to expect in each raw data packet;

  • fs (int, float) – sampling frequency, in Hz;

  • effects (str, list, tuple) – a string, or sequence of strings, specifying the effect names and effect options to be passed to sox on the command line;

  • transform (None, function) – an optional callable that can receive each data packet, along with the sample number and sampling frequency, and return a transformed version of the data packet to be send to sox in place of the original;

  • verbose (bool) – whether or not to print the standard output and standard error content produced by the binary.

exception NotInstalled(message='')

Bases: NotInstalled

add_note()

Exception.add_note(note) – add a note to the exception

with_traceback()

Exception.with_traceback(tb) – set self.__traceback__ to tb and return self.

static GrokFormat(format)

Convert a format specifier (anything that is accepted as an input to numpy.dtype()) into a string that specifies sample format in ffmpeg style (e.g. 'f32le').

classmethod Install(pathToDownloadedExecutable, deleteOriginal=False, preview=False)

Auxiliary command-line binaries (like ffmpeg or sox) can be large relative to the rest of audiomath. Therefore, they are not included in the package by default. You should download what you need from the respective project websites (e.g. https://ffmpeg.org or http://sox.sourceforge.net )

If the binary managed by this class is already installed somewhere on the operating-system’s search path, audiomath will be able to find it, so then you probably do not need this helper function. However, if you have just downloaded, say, a statically-linked build of ffmpeg.exe, are looking for somewhere to put it, and want to put it inside the audiomath package directory itself, then this function will do it for you (it will actually put it inside an automatically-created sub-directory called aux-bin). audiomath will find it there, and it will also be included in the output of Manifest('pyinstaller') which helps if you want to use pyinstaller to freeze your application.

NB: if the utility consists of multiple files (e.g. sox.exe and its many associated dll files on Windows) then pathToDownloadedExecutable should be a path to the directory that contains them all.

classmethod IsInstalled()

Return True or False depending on whether the auxiliary binary executable managed by this class (ffmpeg or sox) is accessible and executable, either inside the audiomath package (see Install()) or on the operating system’s search path.

See also: Install()

classmethod Process(snd, destination=None, **kwargs)

Whereas instances of AuxiliaryBinaryInterface subclasses are good for processing chunks of sound data sequentially, if you simply want to process a whole Sound instance in one go, it is easier to use this class method. Under the hood, it will create a temporary instance, using any specified **kwargs.

You can direct its output to the file specified by destination. Alternatively you can leave destination=None and thereby receive the output (actually written to and read back from a temporary uncompressed wav file) as a new Sound instance returned by this function.

Example, using the sox subclass:

import audiomath as am
s = am.TestSound('12')
s2 = am.sox.Process(s, effects='loudness -10')

# or, to take that example one stage further,
# the following will generally equalize the
# perceived loudness (according to ISO 226)
# across all channels of a Sound `s`:

s = am.TestSound().AutoScale()
s2 = am.Stack(
    am.sox.Process(eachChannel, effects='loudness -10')
    for eachChannel in s.SplitChannels()
).AutoScale() # finally rescale all channels together
              # according to their collective maximum