Create a Voice Recorder using Python
Python can be used to perform a variety of tasks.
One of them is creating a voice recorder. We can use
python’s sounddevice module to record and play
audio. This module along with the wavio or the scipy
module provides a way to save recorded audio.
Installation:
sounddevice: This module provides functions to
play and record NumPy arrays containing audio
signals. Let’s install it by running the following
commapip3 install sounddevice.
We can use either wavio and scipy to save the
recorded audio in file format. We will see both of
them here.
To install wavio:
pip install wavio
To install scipy:
pip install scipy
Now, we are done with installing the required
modules. So, let’s write the code.
Getting Started
First, import the required libraries.
# import required libraries
import sounddevice as sd
from scipy.io.wavfile import write
import wavio as wv
Now, before starting the recorder, we have to declare
a few variables. The first one is the sampling
frequency of the audio (in most cases this will be
44100 or 48000 frames per second) and the second is
recording duration. We have to specify the duration in
seconds so that it stops recording after that duration.
So, let’s declare them too.
# Sampling frequency
freq = 44100
# Recording duration
duration = 5
Now, we are ready to start the recorder. It will create a
NumPy array of the recorded audio.
Channels – The position of each audio source within
the audio signal is known a channel.
Here number of channels can be 1 or 2 only.
# Start recorder with the given values of
# duration and sample frequency
recording = sd.rec(int(duration * freq),
samplerate=freq, channels=2)
# Record audio for the given number of seconds
sd.wait()
Now, we are done with recording the audio. So, let’s
save it. To save the audio file, we can either use the
scipy module or the wavio module. Let’s go through
them one by one.
Using Scipy:
We will use the write function from scipy.io.wavfile to
convert the NumPy array to an audio file.
# This will convert the NumPy array to an audio
# file with the given sampling frequency
write("recording0.wav", freq, recording)
Using wavio:
We can also use the write function from the wavio
library.
# Convert the NumPy array to audio file
wv.write("recording1.wav", recording, freq,
sampwidth=2)
Complete Code:
# import required libraries
import sounddevice as sd
from scipy.io.wavfile import write
import wavio as wv
# Sampling frequency
freq = 44100
# Recording duration
duration = 5
# Start recorder with the given values
# of duration and sample frequency
recording = sd.rec(int(duration * freq),
samplerate=freq, channels=2)
# Record audio for the given number of seconds
sd.wait()
# This will convert the NumPy array to an audio
# file with the given sampling frequency
write("recording0.wav", freq, recording)
# Convert the NumPy array to audio file
wv.write("recording1.wav", recording, freq, sampwidth=2)
