Python Audio Tools are a collection of audio handling programs which work from the command line. These include programs for CD extraction, track conversion from one audio format to another, track renaming and retagging, track identification, CD burning from tracks, and more.

Supports internationalized track filenames and metadata using Unicode. Works with high-definition, multi-channel audio as well as CD-quality. Track conversion uses multiple CPUs or CPU cores if available to greatly speed the transcoding process. Track metadata can be retrieved from FreeDB or FreeDB-compatible servers. Audio formats supported are:

· WAV
· AIFF
· Sun AU
· FLAC
· WavPack
· Monkey's Audio
· MP3
· MP2
· Ogg Vorbis
· Ogg Speex
· M4A

Easy to install and use:

I don't like programs with lots of obscure dependencies, so I've written Python Audio Tools to require as few external libraries and programs as possible. Most formats require only one or two common executables and some require none at all. Installation utilizes Python's built-in distutils, but a provided makefile reduces the process to a simple "make install" command.

The programs that make up Python Audio Tools provide a consistent interface for painless switching between them. man pages are included, as is a lengthy manual for both users and programmers. See the short tutorial in the documentation for an illustration of their usage.

These Python Audio Tools are designed with Unix-like systems in mind. Although most of it is written in pure Python, the libcdio library is used to read from a CD-ROM drive. If one is willing to forgo the CD-based tools, Python Audio Tools is fully portable so long as the required helper applications are present. I have used it on the i386, x86_64 and ppc architectures without difficulty.

Standards compliant

Because Python Audio Tools sticks very close to established, documented standards, it has no trouble interoperating with other audio-handling programs. If you want to rip CDs with Exact Audio Copy, batch convert them to M4As with these tools and play them back in iTunes, that's no problem.

What's New in This Release:

· Support for non-CD quality audio was improved through automatic resampling, dithering, and channel reduction when necessary.
· This allows 24-bit audio to be played through OSS-compatible sound devices, non-44.1kHz audio tracks to be burnt to CD, 5.1 channel tracks to be transcoded to MP3, and so forth.