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python-soundfile
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The soundfile module is an audio library based on libsndfile, CFFI and NumPy. Full
documentation is available on https://python-soundfile.readthedocs.io/.

The soundfile module can read and write sound files. File reading/writing is supported through
libsndfile, which is a free, cross-platform, open-source (LGPL) library for reading and writing
many different sampled sound file formats that runs on many platforms including Windows, OS
X, and Unix. It is accessed through CFFI, which is a foreign function interface for Python calling
C code. CFFI is supported for CPython 2.6+, 3.x and PyPy 2.0+. The soundfile module
represents audio data as NumPy arrays.

python-soundfile is BSD licensed (BSD 3-Clause License).

(c) 2013, Bastian Bechtold

issues 115 open issues 140 closed pull requests 9 open pull requests 194 closed

Breaking Changes
The soundfile module has evolved rapidly during the last few releases. Most notably, we
changed the import name from import pysoundfile to import soundfile in 0.7. In 0.6, we cleaned
up many small inconsistencies, particularly in the the ordering and naming of function arguments
and the removal of the indexing interface.

In 0.8.0, we changed the default value of always_2d from True to False . Also, the order of
arguments of the write function changed from write(data, file, ...) to
write(file, data, ...) .

In 0.9.0, we changed the ctype arguments of the buffer_* methods to dtype , using the Numpy
dtype notation. The old ctype arguments still work, but are now officially deprecated.
0.11.0
Installation
The soundfile module depends on the Python packages CFFI and NumPy, and the system
library libsndfile.

In a modern Python, you can use pip install soundfile to download and install the latest release
of the soundfile module and its dependencies. On Windows and OS X, this will also install the
library libsndfile. On Linux, you need to install libsndfile using your distribution’s package
manager, for example sudo apt-get install libsndfile1 .

If you are running on an unusual platform or if you are using an older version of Python, you
might need to install NumPy and CFFI separately, for example using the Anaconda package
manager or the Unofficial Windows Binaries for Python Extension Packages.

Error Reporting
In case of API usage errors the soundfile module raises the usual ValueError or TypeError .

For other errors SoundFileError is raised (used to be RuntimeError ). Particularly, a

LibsndfileError subclass of this exception is raised on errors reported by the libsndfile library. In
that case the exception object provides the libsndfile internal error code in the
LibsndfileError.code attribute and the raw libsndfile error message in the

LibsndfileError.error_string attribute.

Read/Write Functions
Data can be written to the file using soundfile.write() , or read from the file using
soundfile.read() . The soundfile module can open all file formats that libsndfile supports, for
example WAV, FLAC, OGG and MAT files (see Known Issues below about writing OGG files).

Here is an example for a program that reads a wave file and copies it into an FLAC file:

import soundfile as sf

data, samplerate = sf.read('existing_file.wav')

sf.write('new_file.flac', data, samplerate)

Block Processing
0.11.0
Sound files can also be read in short, optionally overlapping blocks with soundfile.blocks() . For
example, this calculates the signal level for each block of a long file:
 import numpy as np
import soundfile as sf

rms = [np.sqrt(np.mean(block**2)) for block in

sf.blocks('myfile.wav', blocksize=1024, overlap=512)]

SoundFile Objects
Sound files can also be opened as SoundFile objects. Every SoundFile has a specific sample rate,
data format and a set number of channels.

If a file is opened, it is kept open for as long as the SoundFile object exists. The file closes when
the object is garbage collected, but you should use the SoundFile.close() method or the context
manager to close the file explicitly:

import soundfile as sf

with sf.SoundFile('myfile.wav', 'r+') as f:

while f.tell() < f.frames:
pos = f.tell()
data = f.read(1024)
f.seek(pos)
f.write(data*2)

All data access uses frames as index. A frame is one discrete time-step in the sound file. Every
frame contains as many samples as there are channels in the file.

RAW Files
soundfile.read() can usually auto-detect the file type of sound files. This is not possible for
RAW files, though:

import soundfile as sf

data, samplerate = sf.read('myfile.raw', channels=1, samplerate=44100,

subtype='FLOAT')

Note that on x86, this defaults to endian='LITTLE' . If you are reading big endian data (mostly old
PowerPC/6800-based files), you have to set endian='BIG' accordingly.

You can write RAW files in a similar way, but be advised that in most cases, a more expressive
format is better and should be used instead. 0.11.0
Virtual IO
If you have an open file-like object, soundfile.read() can open it just like regular files:

import soundfile as sf
with open('filename.flac', 'rb') as f:
data, samplerate = sf.read(f)

Here is an example using an HTTP request:

import io
import soundfile as sf
from urllib.request import urlopen

url = "http://tinyurl.com/shepard-risset"
data, samplerate = sf.read(io.BytesIO(urlopen(url).read()))

Note that the above example only works with Python 3.x. For Python 2.x support, replace the
third line with:

from urllib2 import urlopen

Known Issues
Writing to OGG files can result in empty files with certain versions of libsndfile. See #130 for
news on this issue.

If using a Buildroot style system, Python has trouble locating libsndfile.so file, which causes
python-soundfile to not be loaded. This is apparently a bug in python. For the time being, in
soundfile.py , you can remove the call to _find_library and hardcode the location of the
libsndfile.so in _ffi.dlopen . See #258 for discussion on this issue.

News
2013-08-27 V0.1.0 Bastian Bechtold:

Initial prototype. A simple wrapper for libsndfile in Python

2013-08-30 V0.2.0 Bastian Bechtold:

Bugfixes and more consistency with PySoundCard 0.11.0

2013-08-30 V0.2.1 Bastian Bechtold:

 Bugfixes

2013-09-27 V0.3.0 Bastian Bechtold:

Added binary installer for Windows, and context manager

2013-11-06 V0.3.1 Bastian Bechtold:

Switched from distutils to setuptools for easier installation

2013-11-29 V0.4.0 Bastian Bechtold:

Thanks to David Blewett, now with Virtual IO!

2013-12-08 V0.4.1 Bastian Bechtold:

Thanks to Xidorn Quan, FLAC files are not float32 any more.

2014-02-26 V0.5.0 Bastian Bechtold:

Thanks to Matthias Geier, improved seeking and a flush() method.

2015-01-19 V0.6.0 Bastian Bechtold:

A big, big thank you to Matthias Geier, who did most of the work!

Switched to float64 as default data type.

Function arguments changed for consistency.
Added unit tests.
Added global read() , write() , blocks() convenience functions.
Documentation overhaul and hosting on readthedocs.
Added 'x' open mode.
Added tell() method.
Added __repr__() method.

2015-04-12 V0.7.0 Bastian Bechtold:

Again, thanks to Matthias Geier for all of his hard work, but also Nils Werner and Whistler7
for their many suggestions and help.

Renamed import pysoundfile to import soundfile .

Installation through pip wheels that contain the necessary libraries for OS X and
Windows.
Removed exclusive_creation argument to write() .
Added truncate() method.

2015-10-20 V0.8.0 Bastian Bechtold:

Again, Matthias Geier contributed a whole lot of hard work to this release.

Changed the default value of always_2d from True to False . 0.11.0

Numpy is now optional, and only loaded for read and write .
 Added SoundFile.buffer_read() and SoundFile.buffer_read_into() and
SoundFile.buffer_write() , which read/write raw data without involving Numpy.
Added info() function that returns metadata of a sound file.
Changed the argument order of the write() function from write(data, file, ...) to
write(file, data, ...)

And many more minor bug fixes.

2017-02-02 V0.9.0 Bastian Bechtold:

Thank you, Matthias Geier, Tomas Garcia, and Todd, for contributions for this release.

Adds support for ALAC files.

Adds new member __libsndfile_version__
Adds number of frames to info class
Adds dtype argument to buffer_* methods
Deprecates ctype argument to buffer_* methods
Adds official support for Python 3.6

And some minor bug fixes.

2017-11-12 V0.10.0 Bastian Bechtold:

Thank you, Matthias Geier, Toni Barth, Jon Peirce, Till Hoffmann, and Tomas Garcia, for
contributions to this release.

Should now work with cx_freeze.

Several documentation fixes in the README.
Removes deprecated ctype argument in favor of dtype in buffer_*() .
Adds SoundFile.frames in favor of now-deprecated __len__() .
Improves performance of blocks() and SoundFile.blocks() .
Improves import time by using CFFI’s out of line mode.
Adds a build script for building distributions.

2022-06-02 V0.11.0 Bastian Bechtold:

Thank you, tennies, Hannes Helmholz, Christoph Boeddeker, Matt Vollrath, Matthias Geier,
Jacek Konieczny, Boris Verkhovskiy, Jonas Haag, Eduardo Moguillansky, Panos Laganakos,
Jarvy Jarvison, Domingo Ramirez, Tim Chagnon, Kyle Benesch, Fabian-Robert Stöter, Joe
Todd

MP3 support
Adds binary wheels for macOS M1
Improves compatibility with macOS, specifically for M1 machines
Fixes file descriptor open for binary wheels on Windows and Python 3.5+
0.11.0
Updates libsndfile to v1.1.0
Adds get_strings method for retrieving all metadata at once
Improves documentation, error messages and tests
 Displays length of very short files in samples
Supports the file system path protocol (pathlib et al)
Contributing
If you find bugs, errors, omissions or other things that need improvement, please create an issue
or a pull request at https://github.com/bastibe/python-soundfile/. Contributions are always
welcome!

Testing

If you fix a bug, you should add a test that exposes the bug (to avoid future regressions), if you
add a feature, you should add tests for it as well.

To run the tests, use:

python setup.py test

This uses py.test; if you haven’t installed it already, it will be downloaded and installed for you.

 Note

There is a known problem that prohibits the use of file descriptors on Windows if the
libsndfile DLL was compiled with a different compiler than the Python interpreter.
Unfortunately, this is typically the case if the packaged DLLs are used. To skip the tests which
utilize file descriptors, use:

python setup.py test --pytest-args="-knot\ fd"

Coverage

If you want to measure code coverage, you can use coverage.py. Just install it with:

pip install coverage --user

… and run it with: 0.11.0

 coverage run --source soundfile.py -m py.test
coverage html

The resulting HTML files will be written to the htmlcov/ directory.

You can even check branch coverage:

coverage run --branch --source soundfile.py -m py.test

coverage html

Documentation

If you make changes to the documentation, you can re-create the HTML pages on your local
system using Sphinx.

You can install it and a few other necessary packages with:

pip install -r doc/requirements.txt --user

To create the HTML pages, use:

python setup.py build_sphinx

The generated files will be available in the directory build/sphinx/html/ .

API Documentation
python-soundfile is an audio library based on libsndfile, CFFI and NumPy.

Sound files can be read or written directly using the functions read() and write() . To read a
sound file in a block-wise fashion, use blocks() . Alternatively, sound files can be opened as
SoundFile objects.

For further information, see https://python-soundfile.readthedocs.io/.

0.11.0
soundfile.read(file, frames=-1, start=0, stop=None, dtype='float64', always_2d=False, fill_value=None,
out=None, samplerate=None, channels=None, format=None, subtype=None, endian=None, closefd=True)
[source]
Provide audio data from a sound file as NumPy array.

By default, the whole file is read from the beginning, but the position to start reading can be
specified with start and the number of frames to read can be specified with frames.
Alternatively, a range can be specified with start and stop.

If there is less data left in the file than requested, the rest of the frames are filled with
fill_value. If no fill_value is specified, a smaller array is returned.

Parameters: file (str or int or file-like object) – The file to read from. See SoundFile for
details.
frames (int, optional) – The number of frames to read. If frames is negative, the
whole rest of the file is read. Not allowed if stop is given.
start (int, optional) – Where to start reading. A negative value counts from the
end.
stop (int, optional) – The index after the last frame to be read. A negative value
counts from the end. Not allowed if frames is given.
dtype ({'float64', 'float32', 'int32', 'int16'}, optional) –
Data type of the returned array, by default 'float64' . Floating point audio
data is typically in the range from -1.0 to 1.0 . Integer data is in the range
from -2**15 to 2**15-1 for 'int16' and from -2**31 to 2**31-1 for
'int32' .

 Note

Reading int values from a float file will not scale the data to [-1.0, 1.0). If
the file contains np.array([42.6], dtype='float32') , you will read
np.array([43], dtype='int32') for dtype='int32' .

Returns:
audiodata ( numpy.ndarray or type(out)) – A two-dimensional (frames x
channels) NumPy array is returned. If the sound file has only one channel, a
one-dimensional array is returned. Use always_2d=True to return a two-
dimensional array anyway.

If out was specified, it is returned. If out has more frames than available in the
file (or if frames is smaller than the length of out) and no fill_value is given, then
only a part of out is overwritten and a view containing all valid frames is
returned.

samplerate (int) – The sample rate of the audio file. 0.11.0

Other Parameters:
 always_2d (bool, optional) – By default, reading a mono sound file will return a
one-dimensional array. With always_2d=True , audio data is always returned as
a two-dimensional array, even if the audio file has only one channel.
fill_value (float, optional) – If more frames are requested than available in the
file, the rest of the output is be filled with fill_value. If fill_value is not specified,
a smaller array is returned.
out ( numpy.ndarray or subclass, optional) – If out is specified, the data is
written into the given array instead of creating a new array. In this case, the
arguments dtype and always_2d are silently ignored! If frames is not given, it is
obtained from the length of out.
samplerate, channels, format, subtype, endian, closefd – See SoundFile .

Examples

>>> import soundfile as sf

>>> data, samplerate = sf.read('stereo_file.wav')
>>> data
array([[ 0.71329652, 0.06294799],
[-0.26450912, -0.38874483],
...
[ 0.67398441, -0.11516333]])
>>> samplerate
44100

soundfile.write(file, data, samplerate, subtype=None, endian=None, format=None, closefd=True)

[source]

Write data to a sound file.

 Note

If file exists, it will be truncated and overwritten!

0.11.0
 Parameters: file (str or int or file-like object) – The file to write to. See SoundFile for details.
data (array_like) –
The data to write. Usually two-dimensional (frames x channels), but one-
dimensional data can be used for mono files. Only the data types 'float64' ,
'float32' , 'int32' and 'int16' are supported.

 Note

The data type of data does not select the data type of the written file.
Audio data will be converted to the given subtype. Writing int values to a
float file will not scale the values to [-1.0, 1.0). If you write the value
np.array([42], dtype='int32') , to a subtype='FLOAT' file, the file will then
contain np.array([42.], dtype='float32') .

samplerate (int) – The sample rate of the audio data.

subtype (str, optional) – See default_subtype() for the default value and
available_subtypes() for all possible values.

Other Parameters:

format, endian, closefd – See SoundFile .

Examples

Write 10 frames of random data to a new file:

>>> import numpy as np

>>> import soundfile as sf
>>> sf.write('stereo_file.wav', np.random.randn(10, 2), 44100, 'PCM_24')

soundfile.blocks(file, blocksize=None, overlap=0, frames=-1, start=0, stop=None, dtype='float64',

always_2d=False, fill_value=None, out=None, samplerate=None, channels=None, format=None,
subtype=None, endian=None, closefd=True) [source]

Return a generator for block-wise reading.

By default, iteration starts at the beginning and stops at the end of the file. Use start to start
at a later position and frames or stop to stop earlier.

If you stop iterating over the generator before it’s exhausted, the sound file is not closed.
0.11.0
This is normally not a problem because the file is opened in read-only mode. To close the file
properly, the generator’s close() method can be called.
 Parameters: file (str or int or file-like object) – The file to read from. See SoundFile for
details.
blocksize (int) – The number of frames to read per block. Either this or out
must be given.
overlap (int, optional) – The number of frames to rewind between each block.

Yields: numpy.ndarray or type(out) – Blocks of audio data. If out was given, and the
requested frames are not an integer multiple of the length of out, and no fill_value
was given, the last block will be a smaller view into out.

Other Parameters:

frames, start, stop – See read() .

dtype ({‘float64’, ‘float32’, ‘int32’, ‘int16’}, optional) – See read() .
always_2d, fill_value, out – See read() .
samplerate, channels, format, subtype, endian, closefd – See SoundFile .

Examples

>>> import soundfile as sf

>>> for block in sf.blocks('stereo_file.wav', blocksize=1024):
>>> pass # do something with 'block'

soundfile.info(file, verbose=False) [source]

Returns an object with information about a SoundFile .

Parameters: verbose (bool) – Whether to print additional information.

soundfile.available_formats() [source]

Return a dictionary of available major formats.

Examples

0.11.0
 >>> import soundfile as sf
>>> sf.available_formats()
{'FLAC': 'FLAC (FLAC Lossless Audio Codec)',
'OGG': 'OGG (OGG Container format)',
'WAV': 'WAV (Microsoft)',
'AIFF': 'AIFF (Apple/SGI)',
...
'WAVEX': 'WAVEX (Microsoft)',
'RAW': 'RAW (header-less)',
'MAT5': 'MAT5 (GNU Octave 2.1 / Matlab 5.0)'}

soundfile.available_subtypes(format=None) [source]

Return a dictionary of available subtypes.

Parameters: format (str) – If given, only compatible subtypes are returned.

Examples

>>> import soundfile as sf

>>> sf.available_subtypes('FLAC')
{'PCM_24': 'Signed 24 bit PCM',
'PCM_16': 'Signed 16 bit PCM',
'PCM_S8': 'Signed 8 bit PCM'}

soundfile.check_format(format, subtype=None, endian=None) [source]

Check if the combination of format/subtype/endian is valid.

Examples

>>> import soundfile as sf

>>> sf.check_format('WAV', 'PCM_24')
True
>>> sf.check_format('FLAC', 'VORBIS')
False

soundfile.default_subtype(format) [source]

Return the default subtype for a given format.

Examples
0.11.0
 >>> import soundfile as sf
>>> sf.default_subtype('WAV')
'PCM_16'
>>> sf.default_subtype('MAT5')
'DOUBLE'

class soundfile.SoundFile(file, mode='r', samplerate=None, channels=None, subtype=None,

endian=None, format=None, closefd=True) [source]

Open a sound file.

If a file is opened with mode 'r' (the default) or 'r+' , no sample rate, channels or file
format need to be given because the information is obtained from the file. An exception is
the 'RAW' data format, which always requires these data points.

File formats consist of three case-insensitive strings:

a major format which is by default obtained from the extension of the file name (if known)
and which can be forced with the format argument (e.g. format='WAVEX' ).
a subtype, e.g. 'PCM_24' . Most major formats have a default subtype which is used if no
subtype is specified.
an endian-ness, which doesn’t have to be specified at all in most cases.

A SoundFile object is a context manager, which means if used in a “with” statement, close()

is automatically called when reaching the end of the code block inside the “with” statement.

0.11.0
 Parameters: file (str or int or file-like object) – The file to open. This can be a file name, a file
descriptor or a Python file object (or a similar object with the methods
read() / readinto() , write() , seek() and tell() ).
mode ({'r', 'r+', 'w', 'w+', 'x', 'x+'}, optional) – Open mode. Has to begin with one
of these three characters: 'r' for reading, 'w' for writing (truncates file) or
'x' for writing (raises an error if file already exists). Additionally, it may
contain '+' to open file for both reading and writing. The character 'b' for
binary mode is implied because all sound files have to be opened in this mode.
If file is a file descriptor or a file-like object, 'w' doesn’t truncate and 'x'

doesn’t raise an error.

samplerate (int) – The sample rate of the file. If mode contains 'r' , this is
obtained from the file (except for 'RAW' files).
channels (int) – The number of channels of the file. If mode contains 'r' , this
is obtained from the file (except for 'RAW' files).
subtype (str, sometimes optional) – The subtype of the sound file. If mode

contains 'r' , this is obtained from the file (except for 'RAW' files), if not, the
default value depends on the selected format (see default_subtype() ). See
available_subtypes() for all possible subtypes for a given format .
endian ({'FILE', 'LITTLE', 'BIG', 'CPU'}, sometimes optional) – The endian-ness of
the sound file. If mode contains 'r' , this is obtained from the file (except for
'RAW' files), if not, the default value is 'FILE' , which is correct in most cases.
format (str, sometimes optional) – The major format of the sound file. If mode

contains 'r' , this is obtained from the file (except for 'RAW' files), if not, the
default value is determined from the file extension. See available_formats()

for all possible values.

closefd (bool, optional) – Whether to close the file descriptor on close() .
Only applicable if the file argument is a file descriptor.

Examples

>>> from soundfile import SoundFile

Open an existing file for reading:

>>> myfile = SoundFile('existing_file.wav')

>>> # do something with myfile
>>> myfile.close()
0.11.0

Create a new sound file for reading and writing using a with statement:
>>> with SoundFile('new_file.wav', 'x+', 44100, 2) as myfile:
>>> # do something with myfile
>>> # ...
>>> assert not myfile.closed
>>> # myfile.close() is called automatically at the end
>>> assert myfile.closed

name

The file name of the sound file.

mode

The open mode the sound file was opened with.

samplerate

The sample rate of the sound file.

frames

The number of frames in the sound file.

channels

The number of channels in the sound file.

format

The major format of the sound file.

subtype

The subtype of data in the the sound file.

endian

The endian-ness of the data in the sound file.

format_info

A description of the major format of the sound file.

subtype_info 0.11.0

A description of the subtype of the sound file.

sections

The number of sections of the sound file.

closed

Whether the sound file is closed or not.

extra_info

Retrieve the log string generated when opening the file.

seekable() [source]

Return True if the file supports seeking.

seek(frames, whence=0) [source]

Set the read/write position.

Parameters: frames (int) – The frame index or offset to seek.

whence ({SEEK_SET, SEEK_CUR, SEEK_END}, optional) – By default
( whence=SEEK_SET ), frames are counted from the beginning of the file.
whence=SEEK_CUR seeks from the current position (positive and negative
values are allowed for frames). whence=SEEK_END seeks from the end (use
negative value for frames).

Returns: int – The new absolute read/write position in frames.

Examples

>>> from soundfile import SoundFile, SEEK_END

>>> myfile = SoundFile('stereo_file.wav')

Seek to the beginning of the file:

>>> myfile.seek(0)
0

Seek to the end of the file: 0.11.0

 >>> myfile.seek(0, SEEK_END)
44100 # this is the file length

tell() [source]

Return the current read/write position.

read(frames=-1, dtype='float64', always_2d=False, fill_value=None, out=None) [source]

Read from the file and return data as NumPy array.

Reads the given number of frames in the given data format starting at the current
read/write position. This advances the read/write position by the same number of
frames. By default, all frames from the current read/write position to the end of the file
are returned. Use seek() to move the current read/write position.

Parameters: frames (int, optional) – The number of frames to read. If frames < 0 , the
whole rest of the file is read.
dtype ({'float64', 'float32', 'int32', 'int16'}, optional) –
Data type of the returned array, by default 'float64' . Floating point
audio data is typically in the range from -1.0 to 1.0 . Integer data is in
the range from -2**15 to 2**15-1 for 'int16' and from -2**31 to
2**31-1 for 'int32' .

 Note

Reading int values from a float file will not scale the data to [-1.0, 1.0).
If the file contains np.array([42.6], dtype='float32') , you will read
np.array([43], dtype='int32') for dtype='int32' .

Returns:
audiodata ( numpy.ndarray or type(out)) – A two-dimensional NumPy (frames x
channels) array is returned. If the sound file has only one channel, a one-
dimensional array is returned. Use always_2d=True to return a two-
dimensional array anyway.

If out was specified, it is returned. If out has more frames than available in the
file (or if frames is smaller than the length of out) and no fill_value is given, then
only a part of out is overwritten and a view containing all valid frames is
0.11.0
returned.
 Other Parameters:

always_2d (bool, optional) – By default, reading a mono sound file will

return a one-dimensional array. With always_2d=True , audio data is always
returned as a two-dimensional array, even if the audio file has only one
channel.
fill_value (float, optional) – If more frames are requested than available in
the file, the rest of the output is be filled with fill_value. If fill_value is not
specified, a smaller array is returned.
out ( numpy.ndarray or subclass, optional) – If out is specified, the data is
written into the given array instead of creating a new array. In this case,
the arguments dtype and always_2d are silently ignored! If frames is not
given, it is obtained from the length of out.

Examples

>>> from soundfile import SoundFile

>>> myfile = SoundFile('stereo_file.wav')

Reading 3 frames from a stereo file:

>>> myfile.read(3)
array([[ 0.71329652, 0.06294799],
[-0.26450912, -0.38874483],
[ 0.67398441, -0.11516333]])
>>> myfile.close()

 See also

buffer_read() , write()

buffer_read(frames=-1, dtype=None) [source]

Read from the file and return data as buffer object.

Reads the given number of frames in the given data format starting at the current
read/write position. This advances the read/write position by the same number of
frames. By default, all frames from the current read/write position to the end of the file
are returned. Use seek() to move the current read/write position. 0.11.0
 Parameters: frames (int, optional) – The number of frames to read. If frames < 0 , the
whole rest of the file is read.
dtype ({'float64', 'float32', 'int32', 'int16'}) – Audio data will be converted to
the given data type.

Returns: buffer – A buffer containing the read data.

 See also

buffer_read_into() , read() , buffer_write()

buffer_read_into(buffer, dtype) [source]

Read from the file into a given buffer object.

Fills the given buffer with frames in the given data format starting at the current
read/write position (which can be changed with seek() ) until the buffer is full or the end
of the file is reached. This advances the read/write position by the number of frames that
were read.

Parameters: buffer (writable buffer) – Audio frames from the file are written to this
buffer.
dtype ({'float64', 'float32', 'int32', 'int16'}) – The data type of buffer.

Returns: int – The number of frames that were read from the file. This can be less than
the size of buffer. The rest of the buffer is not filled with meaningful data.

 See also

buffer_read() , read()

write(data) [source]

Write audio data from a NumPy array to the file.

Writes a number of frames at the read/write position to the file. This also advances the
read/write position by the same number of frames and enlarges the file if necessary.

Note that writing int values to a float file will not scale the values to [-1.0, 1.0). If you
write the value np.array([42], dtype='int32') , to a subtype='FLOAT' file, the file will 0.11.0
then
contain np.array([42.], dtype='float32') .
 Parameters: data (array_like) –
The data to write. Usually two-dimensional (frames x channels), but one-
dimensional data can be used for mono files. Only the data types 'float64' ,
'float32' , 'int32' and 'int16' are supported.

 Note

The data type of data does not select the data type of the written file.
Audio data will be converted to the given subtype. Writing int values to a
float file will not scale the values to [-1.0, 1.0). If you write the value
np.array([42], dtype='int32') , to a subtype='FLOAT' file, the file will then
contain np.array([42.], dtype='float32') .

Examples

>>> import numpy as np

>>> from soundfile import SoundFile
>>> myfile = SoundFile('stereo_file.wav')

Write 10 frames of random data to a new file:

>>> with SoundFile('stereo_file.wav', 'w', 44100, 2, 'PCM_24') as f:

>>> f.write(np.random.randn(10, 2))

 See also

buffer_write() , read()

buffer_write(data, dtype) [source]

Write audio data from a buffer/bytes object to the file.

Writes the contents of data to the file at the current read/write position. This also
advances the read/write position by the number of frames that were written and enlarges
the file if necessary.

0.11.0
 Parameters: data (buffer or bytes) – A buffer or bytes object containing the audio data
to be written.
dtype ({'float64', 'float32', 'int32', 'int16'}) – The data type of the audio data
stored in data.

 See also

write() , buffer_read()

blocks(blocksize=None, overlap=0, frames=-1, dtype='float64', always_2d=False, fill_value=None,

out=None) [source]

Return a generator for block-wise reading.

By default, the generator yields blocks of the given blocksize (using a given overlap) until
the end of the file is reached; frames can be used to stop earlier.

Parameters: blocksize (int) – The number of frames to read per block. Either this or out
must be given.
overlap (int, optional) – The number of frames to rewind between each
block.
frames (int, optional) – The number of frames to read. If frames < 0 , the
file is read until the end.
dtype ({'float64', 'float32', 'int32', 'int16'}, optional) – See read() .

Yields: numpy.ndarray or type(out) – Blocks of audio data. If out was given, and the
requested frames are not an integer multiple of the length of out, and no
fill_value was given, the last block will be a smaller view into out.

Other Parameters:

always_2d, fill_value, out – See read() .

fill_value (float, optional) – See read() .
out ( numpy.ndarray or subclass, optional) – If out is specified, the data is
written into the given array instead of creating a new array. In this case,
the arguments dtype and always_2d are silently ignored!

Examples

0.11.0
 >>> from soundfile import SoundFile
>>> with SoundFile('stereo_file.wav') as f:
>>> for block in f.blocks(blocksize=1024):
>>> pass # do something with 'block'

truncate(frames=None) [source]

Truncate the file to a given number of frames.

After this command, the read/write position will be at the new end of the file.

Parameters: frames (int, optional) – Only the data before frames is kept, the rest is deleted.
If not specified, the current read/write position is used.

flush() [source]

Write unwritten data to the file system.

Data written with write() is not immediately written to the file system but buffered in
memory to be written at a later time. Calling flush() makes sure that all changes are
actually written to the file system.

This has no effect on files opened in read-only mode.

close() [source]

Close the file. Can be called multiple times.

copy_metadata() [source]

Get all metadata present in this SoundFile

Returns: metadata (dict[str, str]) – A dict with all metadata. Possible keys are: ‘title’,
‘copyright’, ‘software’, ‘artist’, ‘comment’, ‘date’, ‘album’, ‘license’, ‘tracknumber’ and
‘genre’.

exception soundfile.SoundFileError [source]

Base class for all soundfile-specific errors.

exception soundfile.SoundFileRuntimeError [source]

soundfile module runtime error. 0.11.0

Errors that used to be RuntimeError .

exception soundfile.LibsndfileError(code, prefix='') [source]

libsndfile errors.

code

libsndfile internal error number.

error_string

Raw libsndfile error message.

Index
Index

0.11.0