Importing sound files into Python as NumPy arrays (alternatives to audiolab)

Question

I've been using Audiolab to import sound files in the past, and it worked quite well. However:

• It doesn't support some formats, like mp3, because the underlying libsndfile refuses to support them
• It doesn't work in Python 2.6 under Windows, and the author is not around to fix it

-

In [2]: from scikits import audiolab
--------------------------------------------------------------------

ImportError                               Traceback (most recent call last)

C:\Python26\Scripts\<ipython console> in <module>()

C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\scikits\audiolab\__init__.py in <module>()
     23 __version__ = _version
     24
---> 25 from pysndfile import formatinfo, sndfile
     26 from pysndfile import supported_format, supported_endianness, \
     27                       supported_encoding, PyaudioException, \

C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\scikits\audiolab\pysndfile\__init__.py in <module>()
----> 1 from _sndfile import Sndfile, Format, available_file_formats, available_encodings
      2 from compat import formatinfo, sndfile, PyaudioException, PyaudioIOError
      3 from compat import supported_format, supported_endianness, supported_encoding

ImportError: DLL load failed: The specified module could not be found.``

So I would like to either:

• Figure out why it's not working in 2.6 (something wrong with _sndfile.pyd?) and maybe find a way to extend it to work with unsupported formats
• Find a complete replacement for audiolab

Answer 1

Audiolab is working for me on Ubuntu 9.04 with Python 2.6.2, so it might be a Windows problem. In your link to the forum, the author also suggests that it is a Windows error.

In the past, this option has worked for me, too:

from scipy.io import wavfile
fs, data = wavfile.read(filename)

Just beware that data may have int data type, so it is not scaled within [-1,1). For example, if data is int16, you must divide data by 2**15 to scale within [-1,1).