audiolab
AudioLab
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. audiolab offers a clean, well-maintained interface to audio I/O and filtering with low install friction, permissive licensing, and no known vulnerabilities. It is suitable for audio preprocessing, format conversion, and real-time filtering tasks. Install it if you need to load and process audio files in Python without wrestling with FFmpeg directly; skip it only if you require lower-level control or have specific format constraints not listed in the documentation.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.8 or later.
- PyAV (FFmpeg bindings) and soundfile are runtime dependencies; system FFmpeg libraries may be needed depending on your platform.
- Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel.
License · maintenance · safety
permissive license (permissive) — Apache License 2.0 is permissive; you may use, modify, and distribute audiolab and derivative works freely provided you include the license and document changes. No restrictions on commercial use.
last release 2026-03-25 (142 days) · last repo commit 2026-03-31 · 39 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 137,076 downloads/mo, #11,376 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install audiolab
from audiolab import load_audio, save_audio
# Load audio from file with resampling
audio, rate = load_audio("audio.wav", rate=16000, to_mono=True)
# Save audio to file
save_audio("output.wav", audio, rate)- Whether PyAV and soundfile system dependencies are automatically resolved or require manual installation on all platforms.
- Performance characteristics when processing large audio files or streaming from remote URLs.
- Supported audio formats beyond the examples listed (WAV, MP3, FLAC, AAC).
What it is and what it does
audiolab is a Python library for audio file I/O and real-time processing built on top of soundfile and PyAV (FFmpeg bindings). It provides a unified interface for loading audio from local files, HTTP URLs, bytes, and streams; saving to multiple container formats; and applying filters and transformations like resampling, tempo adjustment, and pitch shifting. The library includes both a programmatic API with functions like load_audio(), save_audio(), and info(), plus classes for advanced streaming workflows (Reader, StreamReader, Writer, AudioPipe), and a command-line tool (audi) for inspecting audio file metadata.
Typical use cases include preprocessing audio for machine learning pipelines, converting between formats, extracting segments with time-based offsets, applying real-time effects during playback or batch processing, and quickly inspecting audio properties from the shell. The library abstracts away FFmpeg complexity while exposing filter chains for power users.
Use it for
- Preprocess audio datasets for speech recognition or audio classification by loading, resampling, and converting to mono in one call.
- Apply tempo or pitch perturbation to audio files during training data augmentation using filter chains.
- Stream large audio files with real-time filtering to avoid loading entire files into memory.
- Convert audio between formats (MP3 to WAV, AAC to FLAC) and inspect metadata from the command line.
- Extract time-windowed segments from audio files with automatic resampling to a target rate.
- Build audio processing pipelines that chain multiple filters (resample, tempo, pitch) during load.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
audiolab offers a clean, well-maintained interface to audio I/O and filtering with low install friction, permissive licensing, and no known vulnerabilities. It is suitable for audio preprocessing, format conversion, and real-time filtering tasks. Install it if you need to load and process audio files in Python without wrestling with FFmpeg directly; skip it only if you require lower-level control or have specific format constraints not listed in the documentation.
Install
audiolab on PyPI
Before you install
Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel. Active maintenance with recent commits and no known vulnerabilities. Repository is not archived and has been actively developed since its first release.
Requires Python 3.8 or later. PyAV (FFmpeg bindings) and soundfile are runtime dependencies; system FFmpeg libraries may be needed depending on your platform.
License in practice
Apache License 2.0 is permissive; you may use, modify, and distribute audiolab and derivative works freely provided you include the license and document changes. No restrictions on commercial use.
Quickstart
pip install audiolab
from audiolab import load_audio, save_audio
# Load audio from file with resampling
audio, rate = load_audio("audio.wav", rate=16000, to_mono=True)
# Save audio to file
save_audio("output.wav", audio, rate)Verify before relying
- Whether PyAV and soundfile system dependencies are automatically resolved or require manual installation on all platforms.
- Performance characteristics when processing large audio files or streaming from remote URLs.
- Supported audio formats beyond the examples listed (WAV, MP3, FLAC, AAC).
Package facts
| License | permissive license permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.8 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 7 packagesavclickhumanizejinja2requestssmart_opensoundfile |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 142 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 137,076 / month, #11,376 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Operating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: Python :: 3 |
Evidence: audiolab-0.5.1-py3-none-any.whl
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See also audiofile · miniaudio · soundfile · pedalboard · samplerate · soxr · tinytag · mutagen · audiomentations · audioread