soundmeter 0.1.5
Simple real-time sound meter.
License: BSD
Keywords: soundmeter

SoundMeter
==========

.. image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/soundmeter.png
        :target: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/soundmeter

SoundMeter is a command-line tool to obtain sound power in real time. It basically turns the audio recording functionality into a sound meter for machines that ship with audio input devices (e.g. microphone). It currently reveals the `root-mean-square (RMS) of sound fragments <http://docs.python.org/2/library/audioop.html#audioop.rms>`_, which is a measure of the power in an audio signal. The actual values also depend on the system settings of sound input.

.. image:: https://asciinema.org/a/RdNCvGdsdvxdu8O9nLqkhhgaT.png
        :target: https://asciinema.org/a/RdNCvGdsdvxdu8O9nLqkhhgaT

Features
--------

- A command-line meter that supports triggering upon events
- Monitor API for backend module programming

Dependencies
------------
System packages
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On Debian/Ubuntu::

    $ sudo apt-get install portaudio19-dev python-dev alsa-utils

On Fedora/RHEL::

    $ sudo yum install portaudio-devel python-devel alsa-utils

On OS X::

    $ brew install portaudio

PyPI packages
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- argparse
- pyaudio
- pydub
- python-daemon


Installation
------------

You can install the package with pip using the following command to allow externally hosted packages::

  $ pip install soundmeter --allow-all-external --allow-unverified pyaudio

Or, you can download a source distribution and install with these commands::

  $ python setup.py install


Usage
-----
The simplest usage is to run "soundmeter" from command-line without any options::

    $ soundmeter

Collect RMS values for 10 seconds so that you will know the sound level in the current environment::

    $ soundmeter --collect --seconds 10
    Collecting RMS values...
       154  Timeout
    Collected result:
        min:        152
        max:        211
        avg:        156

You can set trigger and action for soundmeter.

Stop the soundmeter if RMS is greater than 211 consecutively for 3 times::

    $ soundmeter --trigger +211 3 --action stop

Execute ``trigger.sh`` if RMS is greater than 211::

    $ soundmeter --trigger +211 --action exec --exec trigger.sh

Execute ``trigger.sh`` and stop soundmeter if RMS is less than 152 consecutively for 3 times::

    $ soundmeter --trigger -152 3 --action exec-stop --exec trigger.sh

Run the soundmeter with trigger and action in the background::

    $ soundmeter --trigger +211 3 --action exec --exec trigger.sh --daemonize

Run the soundmeter for 2 minutes and log to ``meter.log``::

    $ soundmeter --seconds 120 --log meter.log

Command-line Options
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The "soundmeter" command accepts the following options:

  -p PROFILE, --profile PROFILE  config profile (section name)
  -c, --collect  collect RMS values to determine thresholds
  -s SECS, --seconds SECS  time in seconds to run the meter (default forever)
  -a ACTION_TYPE, --action ACTION_TYPE  triggered action (``stop``, ``exec-stop`` and ``exec``)
  -t THRESHOLD, --trigger THRESHOLD  trigger condition (threshold RMS and an optional number of consecutive triggering times, which defaults 1)
  -e FILE, --execute FILE  shell script to execute upon trigger (defaults to ``~/.soundmeter/trigger.sh``), can be configured to pass the "last triggering" RMS value as argument by setting ``rms_as_trigger_arg`` to ``True`` in ~/.soundmeter/config
  -d, --daemonize  run the meter in the background
  --log LOGFILE  log the meter (defaults to ``~/.soundmeter/log``)
  -v, --verbose         verbose mode
  --segment SECONDS  audio segment length recorded in seconds (defaults to 0.5); when specified, it overrides ``audio_segment_length`` in ~/.soundmeter/config

Config
~~~~~~
Some "dependency-required" parameters can be configured at ~/.soundmeter/config. The default configuration is::

    [soundmeter]
    frames_per_buffer = 2048
    format = 8
    channels = 2
    rate = 44100
    audio_segment_length = 0.5
    rms_as_trigger_arg = False

You can have multiple sections in the config file and specify the one to use with the ``--profile`` command-line options. The default profile name is ``soundmeter``. For example::

    [soundmeter]
    frames_per_buffer = 2048
    format = 8
    channels = 2

    [test]
    frames_per_buffer = 1024
    format = 8
    channels = 1

To use the ``test`` profile::

    $ soundmeter --profile test ...

There is also an ``input_device_index`` parameter, which specifies the index of input device to use. If unspecified, it uses the default input device.