Mirrors_Framework/awesome-python
1
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://github.com/vinta/awesome-python.git synced 2026-10-02 08:23:10 +08:00
Code Issues Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity

docs: rewrite Audio & Video Processing category intro

Browse Source 
Covers librosa for audio analysis, MoviePy for scripted video editing, VidGear for real-time video, Mutagen vs tinytag for tag read/write and licensing, and beets as a CLI tag/organization tool.

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Vinta Chen
2026-09-27 00:27:20 +08:00
co-authored by Claude
parent 88cfcf6f4d
commit 3c2afa13bb
1 changed files with 17 additions and 15 deletions
Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files
website/data/category_intros/audio-video-processing.md
+17 -15
View File
@@ -1,25 +1,27 @@
For a Python audio processing library, use librosa to analyze audio and music. For video, use MoviePy to edit clips in code, or VidGear for live streams.
Each job has its own pick: librosa is the Python audio processing library for music analysis, MoviePy edits video from a script, and Mutagen tags audio files.
How to choose:
- Audio and music analysis, such as beat tracking or spectrograms: librosa
- Quick cuts, fades, and format conversion: pydub
- Editing video in code, such as cuts, titles, and compositing: MoviePy
- Webcams, live streams, and screen capture in real time: VidGear
- Reading tags, with one API for every format and an MIT license: tinytag
- Writing tags: Mutagen, which is GPL-licensed
- Organizing a whole music collection and fixing its tags from MusicBrainz: beets
- Cutting, joining, and fading audio files: pydub
- Music and audio analysis: librosa
- Editing video or making GIFs from a script: MoviePy
- Real-time video from cameras and network streams: VidGear
- Reading and writing tags across formats: Mutagen
- Reading tags only: tinytag
- Tagging and organizing your music collection: beets
With librosa, `librosa.load()` resamples everything to 22050 Hz by default. Pass `sr=None` to [keep the file's native sampling rate](https://librosa.org/doc/latest/api/generated/librosa.load.html), or `offset` and `duration` to load only part of a file.
pydub gives you a simple, high-level interface to cut, join, and fade audio. It opens and saves WAV files in pure Python, but [other formats like MP3 need FFmpeg](https://github.com/jiaaro/pydub#dependencies), so install FFmpeg with it. An AudioSegment is [immutable](https://github.com/jiaaro/pydub#quickstart): every operation returns a new one, so you can chain them, and every length and position is in milliseconds.
With pydub, load a file with `AudioSegment.from_file()`, slice it in milliseconds, and save it with `export()`. WAV works in pure Python, but every other format [needs FFmpeg](https://github.com/jiaaro/pydub#dependencies). The standard library dropped the `audioop` module pydub imports, so [install `audioop-lts`](https://github.com/jiaaro/pydub/issues/863) next to it.
librosa gives you [the foundational algorithms and tools for music information retrieval](https://librosa.org/doc/latest/index.html). By default, `librosa.load` resamples the signal and mixes stereo down to mono, and those defaults [suit most analysis tasks](https://librosa.org/doc/latest/auto_tutorials/01-intro/01-load.html); pass `sr=None` to keep the file's own sampling rate. When you need more control than `load` gives you, such as writing files, [its docs recommend using its audio I/O backend directly](https://librosa.org/doc/latest/ioformats.html).
A MoviePy script loads clips, changes them with `subclipped()` and the `with_*` methods, and calls `write_videofile()`. Open file clips in a `with` block, since each file clip [locks the file](https://zulko.github.io/moviepy/user_guide/loading.html) until it's closed. To only convert a video file, MoviePy's docs tell you to call FFmpeg directly: it's ["faster and more memory-efficient"](https://zulko.github.io/moviepy/getting_started/quick_presentation.html).
MoviePy is for [automating video editing](https://zulko.github.io/moviepy/getting_started/quick_presentation.html): processing many videos, composing them in complicated ways, or making videos and GIFs on a web server. A script loads clips, modifies them, puts them together, and writes the result. Modifying a clip [returns a new clip and leaves the original alone](https://zulko.github.io/moviepy/user_guide/modifying.html), and the computation happens at the final render. Open file clips in a `with` block, or [call `close()`](https://zulko.github.io/moviepy/user_guide/loading.html) when you're done, since each one holds a subprocess and a lock on the file. MoviePy can't stream video. For frame-by-frame analysis, its docs send you to a computer vision library.
MoviePy can't stream video, such as reading from a webcam, so use VidGear for that. It [needs OpenCV](https://abhitronix.github.io/vidgear/latest/installation/pip_install/) installed first. Its gears keep OpenCV's read loop: `CamGear(source=0).start()`, call `read()` until it returns `None`, then `stop()`.
VidGear is a framework for [real-time media applications](https://abhitronix.github.io/vidgear/latest/) built on OpenCV and FFmpeg. All its APIs [keep OpenCV's coding syntax](https://abhitronix.github.io/vidgear/latest/switch_from_cv/). Each task has [its own gear](https://abhitronix.github.io/vidgear/latest/gears/): CamGear reads cameras, network streams, and streaming sites in multiple threads. WriteGear writes frames to a video file or network stream, and StreamGear transcodes video into adaptive streaming formats. [Install OpenCV first](https://abhitronix.github.io/vidgear/latest/installation/pip_install/), since the core functions need it.
tinytag only reads tags: ["Support for changing/writing metadata will not be added."](https://github.com/tinytag/tinytag) To write them, use Mutagen. `mutagen.File()` guesses the format for you, and Mutagen [saves ID3 tags as v2.4](https://mutagen.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user/id3.html) unless you open and save them with `v2_version=3`.
Mutagen reads and writes tags with [roughly the same API across all tag formats](https://mutagen.readthedocs.io/en/latest/). `mutagen.File` [guesses the file type](https://mutagen.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user/gettingstarted.html). ID3 tags in MP3 files are highly structured; for common keys, use [the simpler EasyID3 interface](https://mutagen.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user/id3.html). Mutagen is licensed under GPL-2.0-or-later; if you only read tags, MIT-licensed tinytag avoids that.
beets runs from the command line: set `directory` and `library` in its config file, then run `beet import`. Its getting started guide recommends the autotagger and [importing a few albums at a time](https://beets.readthedocs.io/en/stable/guides/main.html). It also warns that importing can modify and move your files, so back them up first.
tinytag only reads metadata, and [writing support will not be added](https://github.com/tinytag/tinytag): its README points you to Mutagen for that. It's pure Python with no dependencies and gives you the same API for every format. `TinyTag.get()` returns an object with attributes like `artist` and `duration`.
For long files, `librosa.stream()` reads audio [block by block](https://librosa.org/doc/latest/api/generated/librosa.stream.html) instead of loading it all into memory; set `center=False` in the analyses you run on those blocks. pydub [loads the whole file into RAM](https://github.com/jiaaro/pydub/issues/51#issuecomment-35839094), so pass `start_second` and `duration` to `from_file()` when you only need a slice.
beets is a command-line music library manager, not a library you import: it [catalogs your collection and improves its metadata](https://beets.io/) as it goes. Install it [as a standalone tool](https://beets.readthedocs.io/en/stable/guides/installation.html), isolated from your system Python and other packages. `beet import` can modify and move your files, so [back up first and import a few albums at a time](https://beets.readthedocs.io/en/stable/guides/main.html). [Plugins](https://beets.readthedocs.io/en/stable/plugins/index.html) add commands, fetch extra data during import, and add metadata sources.
FFmpeg sits under most of these projects: pydub needs it for any format other than WAV, MoviePy runs on it, and VidGear's WriteGear and StreamGear wrap it. When you only want to convert a video file or turn images into a movie, [call FFmpeg directly](https://zulko.github.io/moviepy/getting_started/quick_presentation.html). MoviePy's own docs say it's faster and uses less memory than going through MoviePy.