Automatic Gain Control in Python?

[Chris Angelico]

On Wed, 1 Jun 2022 at 11:05, Steve GS <Gronicus at sga.ninja> wrote:
>
>
> >    Even easier, the few NPR podcasts I just checked now have RSS feeds of
> their episodes (as expected).  It seems it would be much easier to just
> download the latest episode based on the XML file, normalize, send it to
> play, done.
>
> How can that possibly be easier? I am playing the podcast and recording it
> for a one-time replay.
> Now you want me to write a program that automatically downloads 48 files
> then manipulate them for equalization then replay it. It certainly doesn't
> sound easier to me. I already have that working using simple
> computer-generated vocal commands.
>

General principle: If you're asking someone else for help, don't tell
them that your way is easier, because the obvious response is "go
ahead then, do it your own way".

You're technically right in a sense: something that you already have
is, indeed, easier than something else. But downloading files is
*easy* in Python, and audio analysis on files is FAR easier than
real-time audio analysis with hysteresis avoidance.

What you're doing actually reminds me of the old acoustic couplers
[1], which were a messy hack brought about by monopolies that refused
to allow other devices onto the network. Unless you have a really good
reason for sticking to the black-box system, I would strongly
recommend going for the much much easier method of simply downloading
the files as they are.

ChrisA

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_coupler