Example: Blocking Mode Audio I/O

"""PyAudio Example: Play a wave file."""

import pyaudio
import wave
import sys

CHUNK = 1024

if len(sys.argv) < 2:
    print("Plays a wave file.\n\nUsage: %s filename.wav" % sys.argv[0])
    sys.exit(-1)

wf = wave.open(sys.argv[1], 'rb')

# instantiate PyAudio (1)
p = pyaudio.PyAudio()

# open stream (2)
stream = p.open(format=p.get_format_from_width(wf.getsampwidth()),
                channels=wf.getnchannels(),
                rate=wf.getframerate(),
                output=True)

# read data
data = wf.readframes(CHUNK)

# play stream (3)
while len(data) > 0:
    stream.write(data)
    data = wf.readframes(CHUNK)

# stop stream (4)
stream.stop_stream()
stream.close()

# close PyAudio (5)
p.terminate()

To use PyAudio, first instantiate PyAudio using pyaudio.PyAudio() (1), which sets up the portaudio system.

To record or play audio, open a stream on the desired device with the desired audio parameters using pyaudio.PyAudio.open() (2). This sets up a pyaudio.Stream to play or record audio.

Play audio by writing audio data to the stream using pyaudio.Stream.write(), or read audio data from the stream using pyaudio.Stream.read(). (3)

Note that in “blocking mode”, each pyaudio.Stream.write() or pyaudio.Stream.read() blocks until all the given/requested frames have been played/recorded. Alternatively, to generate audio data on the fly or immediately process recorded audio data, use the “callback mode” outlined below.

Use pyaudio.Stream.stop_stream() to pause playing/recording, and pyaudio.Stream.close() to terminate the stream. (4)

Finally, terminate the portaudio session using pyaudio.PyAudio.terminate() (5)

Example: Callback Mode Audio I/O

"""PyAudio Example: Play a wave file (callback version)."""

import pyaudio
import wave
import time
import sys

if len(sys.argv) < 2:
    print("Plays a wave file.\n\nUsage: %s filename.wav" % sys.argv[0])
    sys.exit(-1)

wf = wave.open(sys.argv[1], 'rb')

# instantiate PyAudio (1)
p = pyaudio.PyAudio()

# define callback (2)
def callback(in_data, frame_count, time_info, status):
    data = wf.readframes(frame_count)
    return (data, pyaudio.paContinue)

# open stream using callback (3)
stream = p.open(format=p.get_format_from_width(wf.getsampwidth()),
                channels=wf.getnchannels(),
                rate=wf.getframerate(),
                output=True,
                stream_callback=callback)

# start the stream (4)
stream.start_stream()

# wait for stream to finish (5)
while stream.is_active():
    time.sleep(0.1)

# stop stream (6)
stream.stop_stream()
stream.close()
wf.close()

# close PyAudio (7)
p.terminate()

In callback mode, PyAudio will call a specified callback function (2) whenever it needs new audio data (to play) and/or when there is new (recorded) audio data available. Note that PyAudio calls the callback function in a separate thread. The function has the following signature callback(<input_data>, <frame_count>, <time_info>, <status_flag>) and must return a tuple containing frame_count frames of audio data and a flag signifying whether there are more frames to play/record.

Start processing the audio stream using pyaudio.Stream.start_stream() (4), which will call the callback function repeatedly until that function returns pyaudio.paComplete.

To keep the stream active, the main thread must not terminate, e.g., by sleeping (5).