umik-base-app 0.5

Base utilities for working with the Umik-1 microphone in Python applications.

🎤 audio-tools — Audio Measurement CLI

A modular Python CLI for real-time audio measurement with USB microphones.

Supports UMIK-1, UMIK-2, Dayton UMM-6, Earthworks M23/M30, and other USB measurement mics. Auto-detects known devices, validates sample rate support, and applies per-unit calibration files.

📦 Installation

APT — Linux (Recommended for Raspberry Pi and Ubuntu)

BASE_URL="https://<your-endpoint>/audio-tools"
curl -fsSL "$BASE_URL/pubkey.gpg" | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/audio-tools.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/audio-tools.gpg] $BASE_URL noble main" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/audio-tools.list
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install audio-tools

System dependencies (libportaudio2, libsndfile1, ffmpeg, libzmq3-dev) are installed automatically.

🍓 Raspberry Pi 4B verified. Perfect headless acoustic monitoring box.

pip

pip install umik-base-app

Requires system libraries:

# Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)
sudo apt install libportaudio2 libsndfile1 ffmpeg libzmq3-dev -y

# macOS
brew install portaudio libsndfile zeromq ffmpeg

🕹️ CLI Reference

audio-tools --<command> [options]

Command	Description
audio-tools --devices	🔍 List available audio input devices
audio-tools --meter	📊 Real-time SPL / LUFS / dBFS meter
audio-tools --record	🎙️ Calibrated audio recorder (WAV)
audio-tools --calibrate	🔧 Generate FIR filter from a calibration file
audio-tools --analyze	🔬 Analyze a WAV file and export metrics to CSV
audio-tools --plot	📈 Plot a metrics CSV as a chart
audio-tools --batch	📁 Batch-analyze a directory of WAV files
audio-tools --enhance	✨ Filter and enhance voice audio
audio-tools --convert	🔄 Convert WAV recordings to OGG / MP3 / AAC

Pass --help after any command for full options:

audio-tools --meter --help
audio-tools --convert --help

⚡ Quick Start

# 1. Find your microphone's device ID
audio-tools --devices

# 2. Run the SPL meter (system default mic)
audio-tools --meter

# 3. Run with UMIK-1 calibration file
audio-tools --meter --calibration-file "umik-1/7175488.txt"

# 4. Record calibrated audio
audio-tools --record --calibration-file "umik-1/7175488.txt" --output-dir recordings/

🏃 Run Modes

Monolithic (Default)

Single process — simplest for desktop and testing.

audio-tools --meter --calibration-file "umik-1/7175488.txt"

👹 Daemon Mode — Unstoppable Ear

Run capture at high priority. Processing crashes never interrupt the audio stream.

# Terminal 1: high-priority capture process
sudo nice -n -20 audio-tools --meter --producer \
  --calibration-file "umik-1/7175488.txt" --zmq-port 5555

# Terminal 2: connect consumer (safe to open/close/crash)
audio-tools --meter --consumer --zmq-host localhost --zmq-port 5555

🌐 Distributed Mode — Remote Sentry

Capture on a Raspberry Pi, visualize on your laptop.

# On the Raspberry Pi
audio-tools --meter --producer \
  --calibration-file "umik-1/7175488.txt" --zmq-port 5555

# On your laptop
audio-tools --meter --consumer --zmq-host 192.168.1.50 --zmq-port 5555

🎛️ Calibration Files

Download the per-unit calibration file for your UMIK from miniDSP. Place it in your project:

umik-1/
├── 7175488.txt           ← 0° on-axis. Use when pointing at a speaker.
├── 7175488_90deg.txt     ← 90° ambient. Use when pointing at the ceiling.
└── 7175488_fir_*.npy     ← [Generated] FIR filter cache (created on first run).

Generate or verify the FIR filter cache:

audio-tools --calibrate "umik-1/7175488.txt"

🖥️ Real-Time Dashboard (TUI)

Add --tui to get a live terminal dashboard instead of scrolling log output:

audio-tools --meter --tui
audio-tools --meter --tui --calibration-file "umik-1/7175488.txt"

Built with Textual:

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  audio-tools --meter          Calibration: FULL (FIR) │
├──────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────┤
│  dBFS  ████████░░░░  │  dBSPL   72.4 dB               │
│ -24.3  ████████░░░░  │  LUFS   -28.1 LUFS             │
│        ████████░░░░  │  RMS     0.0241                │
│                      │  Flux    38.6                  │
├──────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────┤
│  Mode: MONOLITHIC    SR: 48000 Hz   ● REC   [R] Stop  │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Key	Action
R	🔴 Toggle recording on/off
Q	❌ Quit

Press R to start recording — audio is saved to recordings/ as a timestamped WAV. Press R again to stop; a notification pops with the filename.

🔬 Analysis & Visualization

# Analyze one file → CSV
audio-tools --analyze "recording.wav" --calibration-file "umik-1/7175488.txt"

# Batch analyze a directory → CSV per file
audio-tools --batch recordings/ --calibration-file "umik-1/7175488.txt"

# View chart (popup window)
audio-tools --plot "recording_metrics.csv"

# Save chart to PNG
audio-tools --plot "recording_metrics.csv" --save

🔄 Convert Audio

Convert WAV recordings to share-friendly formats. Requires ffmpeg.

# OGG/Opus — smallest, WhatsApp-compatible
audio-tools --convert recordings/ --format ogg

# Multiple formats in one pass
audio-tools --convert recordings/session.wav --format ogg mp3

# Output to a different directory
audio-tools --convert recordings/ --format ogg --out converted/

# Overwrite existing files
audio-tools --convert recordings/ --format ogg --overwrite

Format	Use Case
ogg	📱 WhatsApp voice notes (smallest)
mp3	🎵 Universal
aac	🍎 Apple-friendly (.m4a)

🔗 Related Projects

AI Acoustic Monitor — adds ML sound classification (chainsaws, glass breaking, birds) on embedded devices, built on this framework: py-edge-ai-acoustic-monitoring-app

🛠️ For Developers

Building a custom app on this framework? See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Full technical documentation: docs/

• Architecture — Producer-Consumer design, pipeline internals
• Audio Metrics — RMS, LUFS, dBFS, dBSPL explained
• UMIK Series Guide — Hardware-specific details