au

au is a little script to make ffmpeg and sox easier to use for common audio manipulations like cutting to a specific number of beats at a set BPM, volume adjustments, joining files together, and converting between file formats or between mono and stereo. I made this to automate the job of preparing files for various audio hardware that I use in my live shows.

Setup

1. install ffmpeg and sox (Linux users may need to install PHP too)

2. save the au file to your ~/bin folder

3. chmod the file to be executable:

     chmod u+x ~/bin/au
   

You're all set, now run:

au help

Available commands

au cut    input.wav 120 16 ouput.wav                     # cut file to specified bpm*beats for making loops
au join   file1.wav file2.wav [...file3.wav] output.wav  # join files together to make one audio file
au pad    input.wav end 2.0 padded.wav                   # pad start or end of file with silence
au vol    input.wav 0.5 output.wav                       # adjust the volume of a file
au mp3    input.wav output.mp3                           # convert to an mp3 of the same name
au wav    input.aif output.wav                           # convert to a wav of the same name
au mono   stereo.wav mono.wav                            # convert stereo to mono
au stereo mono.wav stereo.wav                            # convert mono to stereo

Examples

# cut verses.wav to 4 bars at 132bpm
au cut verses.wav 132 16 verses-cut.wav

# convert aif to wav (saves to verses.wav)
au wav verses.aif

# halve the volume of a clip (overwrites verses.aif)
au vol verses.aif 0.5

# join some files together as song.wav
au join verse.wav chorus.wav verse.wav song.wav

# pad a file with 2 seconds of silence at the end
au pad song.wav end 2.0 padded.wav

Author

Aband*nthecar / Johnny Broadway
http://www.abandonthecar.com
http://www.johnnybroadway.com