Info

Python script to read sound from the computers output and process it for a variety of visualization effects.

Demonstration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z6rRS_tOmw

Steps to get going on Linux machine

Note: specifically debian, but can be used as a guide for other distros

Install useful tools and dependencies

sudo apt-get install python-pip python-dev portaudio19-dev python-tk

sudo pip install -r requirements.txt

(You may need to run this too) sudo easy_install -U distribute

Try to run script

python audioprocessing.py This should open a little dialog window with a couple controls on it. The important one to fill out is Serial Port. I have this in here as I was using the application to send color values to an arduino, but you may just be able to enter null (to pipe it to /dev/null).

Linux Sound Configuration

Now the difficulty I encountered during this implementation is attempting to capture the sound output from the sound card. The purpose of the application is to process all sound data coming out of the machine. The solution I have currently involves performing a configuration in pavucontrol to redirect the audio out to the microphone. It is super simple to do, and is pretty well covered in this article https://www.kirsle.net/blog/entry/redirect-audio-out-to-mic-in--linux-.