Command line utility for MAC to record from microphone

[Joe Papier]

Hi I'm looking for a command line utility (Audacity isn't scriptable as far as I know) to record from line-in or microphone to just raw audio (like .wav file). Does anyone know of any free tool that would do this?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

May we know what you want to achieve, in order to maybe give you alternatives?
Do you want to record in intervals or at specified times or for an exact duration or a combination of those?

 

[Joe Papier]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I want to record for a long period of time (hours). If I had a tool that I could record for a fixed duration and output to a file, that's all I need. After that I could write a simple script to call that utility as needed, and write snippets (like 15 minutes worth) at a time to different files.

My guess is if I leave Audacity or something else running in recording mode for very long periods of time, it will run out of memory.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Memory is synonymous for RAM, the recording does not get stored in the RAM, but on the HDD, which is often referred to as "space or "storage (capacity).
One hour of uncompressed audio (44.1kHz and 16-bit stereo) will take up less than 550MB.
You can set the Mac to sleep at a specified time, regardless of what is being done to the Mac. (System Preferences > Energy Saver >> Schedule...)
You could test, if that works for you.

Okay, did a bit of searching
1. http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mac schedule audio record&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
2. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
3. http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/TimedRecording

and found, that Audacity 1.3.1 (beta: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/beta_mac) can do a Timed Record (Menu Bar > Transport >> Timed Record), where you can set start and end times and dates. Though you can't create a list with different times and dates.

 

[Joe Papier]

Thanks for the details. I'd looked into that, but was looking for something command-line where I could script it/customize. Basically, the Mac equivalent for http://liveincode.rm.pp.ru/.

Here's some stuff I found, but nothing quite the same. Seems like the most promising is using PyAudio, and writing a basic Python script around it:
Amadeus: http://www.hairersoft.com/AmadeusPro/AmadeusProFeatures.html
EcaSound: http://www.eca.cx/ecasound/
PyAudio: http://people.csail.mit.edu/hubert/pyaudio/

 

[ruftytufty]

Take a look at sox:
http://sox.sourceforge.net/

Haven't used it, but the docs claim recording support, and it's supported on Mac OS.

 

[Joe Papier]

I built and used PortAudio.
I then installed the PyAudio. Python bindings for PortAudio.

Worked great.

I ran into one issue, but simple to workaround and I posted the solution there:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/...ning-snow-leopard-arch-issues/4498653#4498653