{"categories":[{"label":"Players","url":"https://skillfed.io/packages/category/multimedia-sound-audio-players"},{"label":"Capture/Recording","url":"https://skillfed.io/packages/category/multimedia-sound-audio-capture-recording"}],"enrichment":{"capability":"SoundCard plays and records audio across Linux, macOS, and Windows using native OS audio libraries (PulseAudio, CoreAudio, WASAPI) without C extensions, exposing a unified Python interface for speaker and microphone access.","skillfed_tags":["audio-io","cross-platform","real-time-audio"],"use_cases":["Record audio from a microphone and play it back through speakers in real-time or batch mode.","Build a voice assistant or audio processing pipeline that captures input from a specific microphone by name.","Stream audio continuously from a multi-channel professional sound card using channel maps.","Implement low-latency audio applications by tuning blocksize and numframes parameters.","Discover and enumerate available audio devices on a user's system for dynamic device selection."],"what_it_does":"SoundCard is a Python library for audio input and output that wraps the native audio APIs of Linux (PulseAudio), macOS (CoreAudio), and Windows (WASAPI) without requiring compiled C extensions. It exposes a unified interface for discovering, selecting, and controlling speakers and microphones, and handles audio data as NumPy arrays scaled to 0dBFS (Full Scale). The library supports both one-shot recording and playback as well as continuous streaming via Recorder and Player context managers.\n\nThe package is designed for developers who need cross-platform audio I/O without the complexity of lower-level audio frameworks or the overhead of CPython extensions. It handles channel mapping, sample rate configuration, and latency tuning through blocksize parameters. The library is actively maintained, supports current Python versions, and carries no known security vulnerabilities, though it remains a hobby project and response times to issues may vary.","worth_installing":"Yes. SoundCard is a solid choice for cross-platform audio I/O in Python. It has low install friction (pure Python, two lightweight dependencies), active maintenance, permissive licensing, no known vulnerabilities, and a clear, documented API. Install it if you need speaker/microphone access without C extension overhead. Be aware that it is a hobby project\u2014response to issues is not guaranteed to be timely\u2014and that latency and device behavior can vary across platforms and hardware."},"id":"soundcard","links":{"html":"https://skillfed.io/packages/soundcard","md":"https://skillfed.io/packages/soundcard.md","pypi":"https://pypi.org/project/soundcard/"},"maintenance":{"status":"active"},"meta":{"latest_release":"2026-04-12","license_spdx":null,"license_treatment":"permissive","name":"SoundCard","python_support":"supports_current","summary":"Play and record audio without resorting to CPython extensions"},"popularity":{"monthly_downloads":126196,"position":11786,"tier":"top_15000"},"security":{"n_vulnerabilities":0},"version":"0.4.6"}