This is a Python port of VoiceSauce (written in MATLAB) / OpenSauce (written in GNU Octave). It provides a set of command-line tools for taking automatic voice measurements from audio recordings.

Here is the BibTeX citation:

@misc{opensauce_2019_2638411,
  author = {Terri M.~Yu and
            R.~David Murray and
            Kate Silverstein and
            Kristine M.~Yu},
  title  = {OpenSauce: Open source software for voice analysis, v0.1},
  year   = 2019,
  doi    = {10.5281/zenodo.2638411},
  url    = {https://github.com/voicesauce/opensauce-python}
}

Depending on the bibliography style file you're using, the DOI and URL fields might not appear. If your bibliography style file doesn't support DOI and URL fields, you may need to find a workaround, like using the note field.

Alternatively, here's a sample plain text citation (your journal may differ in style):

Terri M. Yu, R. David Murray, Kate Silverstein and Kristine M. Yu. OpenSauce: Open source software for voice analysis, v0.1. (2019). doi:10.5281/zenodo.2638411

Here is the link to the DOI on Zenodo:

• Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux operating system
• Python 2.7 or 3.6+
• Python packages NumPy and SciPy

We do continuous integration testing on the following:

• Python 2.7, 3.6, and 3.7 on Ubuntu 16.04
• Anaconda Python 2.7 and 3.6 on Ubuntu 16.04
• Homebrew Python 2.7 and 3.6 on Mac OS X 10.12 Sierra
• Anaconda Python 2.7 and 3.6 on Mac OS X 10.12 Sierra
• Homebrew Python 2.7 and 3.6 on Mac OS X 10.13 High Sierra

Previously, we have tested OpenSauce successfully tested on Ubuntu 14.04, Manjaro 17.0, Windows 7 64-bit, and Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan. However, these are not part of the current continuous integration testing setup.

If you want to use Snack to estimate parameters, you need to install the following:

• Tcl/Tk 8.4+ (needed to run Snack Sound Toolkit)
• Snack Sound Toolkit (v2.2)

If you want to use Praat to estimate parameters, you need to download the Praat software.

• Praat (version 6.0.20+)

OpenSauce has been tested with Praat v6.0.20 - v6.0.49 on Linux. It's possible that OpenSauce may work with Praat versions 6.0.03 - 6.0.19, but those have not been tested.

If you want to use REAPER to estimate F0, you need to either install the corresponding Python package pyreaper or build it using a C compiler.

• Python packages Cython and pyreaper (Note: Cython and NumPy are requirements for pyreaper)

OR

• Build REAPER from source

Note: Currently, the only input files supported are WAV files in 16-bit integer PCM format. Praat can only read certain file types described in their documentation. Snack can only read the file types described in their documentation. REAPER only supports 16-bit integer PCM input files. If you would like to see other file types supported, please let us know in the issue tracker!

1. Install Python, the Python packages NumPy / SciPy / Reaper, and Snack Sound Toolkit, if you don't already have them. Installing Snack can be non-trivial, so we recommend that you follow the recommendations in the instructions below for this step.

   • Windows specific instructions
   • Mac OS X specific instructions (Homebrew, Anaconda Python)
   • Linux specific instructions (Standard Python, Anaconda Python)

2. Download Praat, if you don't already have it. On Linux, if you have trouble with the full featured Praat executable, you can download and use the "barren" version instead. The barren version lacks the GUI and other features, but those aren't needed for OpenSauce.

3. Install Git, if you don't have it on your machine. See the official Git website for recommendations on how to install Git.

4. Finally, navigate to the directory where you want to download opensauce and clone this repository using Git.

   $ git clone https://github.com/voicesauce/opensauce-python.git
   

5. To get updates to the software, use the git pull command inside the opensauce-python directory.

   $ git pull
   

(Note that these are interim instructions. Eventually there will be an 'opensauce' command.)

To run OpenSauce, open a new terminal window, cd into the directory where you cloned opensauce-python:

$ cd /path/to/opensauce-python

You can view the command help by typing:

$ python -m opensauce --help

or alternatively:

$ python -m opensauce --h

Here's an example of how to use the command line interface. To process a sound file and get the SHR measurements written to a CSV file, do:

$ python -m opensauce --measurements SHR -o out.csv /path/to/file.wav

Or alternatively, you can put file path to the sound file first.

$ python -m opensauce /path/to/file.wav --measurements SHR -o out.csv

The default output format used is Excel tab delimited. You can also output files that are comma delimited using the option --output-delimiter.

You can list multiple measurements in a single command. To process a sound file and get the PraatF0 and SHR measurements written to a CSV file, do:

$ python -m opensauce --measurements praatF0 SHR -o out.csv /path/to/file.wav

(Note that if a Snack, Praat, or REAPER command doesn't appear to be working even though you installed the program, you may need to move the Snack / Praat / REAPER executable to the default location or set the correct path by using a settings file or passing the correct path through a parameter. See next section for details.)

You can process multiple wav files by using shell wildcards. Suppose your wav files are in the directory data/sample1. You can process all of them by typing:

$ python -m opensauce --measurements SHR -o out.csv data/sample1/*.wav

If you want to write the output to stdout (that is, displayed on the terminal) instead of writing to a file, leave off the -o optional argument. For example, this command writes the SHR measurements to stdout and does not use TextGrid information.

$ python -m opensauce --measurements SHR --no-textgrid /path/to/file.wav

To view other measurement options, run $ python -m opensauce --help to see which measurements are available.)

The command line interface has default values for all the different options. To see the default values, run the help command: python -m opensauce -h.

If you want to use TextGrid files in your analysis, make sure that each sound file you analyze name.wav, has a corresponding TextGrid file with the same base filename followed by the .TextGrid extension, e.g. name.TextGrid. Capitalization is important, so name.TextGrid will be found, but name.textgrid will not.

Note there is one subtlety with using the command line interface. You cannot specify the sound files right after the --measurements option.

A command, such as,

$ python -m opensauce --measurements SHR /path/to/file.wav

would fail to be parsed correctly because the path of the sound file is interpreted as a measurement. Either make sure that there is another option specified after measurements,

$ python -m opensauce --measurements SHR --no-labels /path/to/file.wav

or specify the sound file at the beginning.

$ python -m opensauce /path/to/file.wav --measurements SHR

Snack, Praat, and REAPER are all external programs, outside of OpenSauce. OpenSauce calls these programs when the corresponding measurements (Snack / Praat / REAPER) are requested by the user.

When Snack measurements are requested, OpenSauce tries to use default values for the Tcl shell command. When Praat measurements are requested, OpenSauce calls the Praat executable. When REAPER measurements are requested with the use-creaper parameter, OpenSauce calls the REAPER executable. If the default values don't match your installation, you will need to either move the executables to the default locations or explicitly specify the path to the executable location on your system.

Note, if you install the pyreaper Python package and request REAPER measurements with the use-pyreaper parameter, you don't need to worry about setting the path to the REAPER executable.

For Snack, the default Tcl shell command is tclsh8.4 on Mac OS X, and tclsh on Windows and Linux.

For Praat, the default path is /Applications/Praat.app/Contents/MacOS/Praat on Mac OS X, C:\Program Files\Praat.exe on Windows, and /usr/bin/praat on Linux.

For REAPER, the default path to the REAPER executable is /usr/bin/reaper.

If you are calling Snack via the Tcl shell, you can set the command that runs the Tcl shell interpreter using the --tcl-cmd command line option. For example, if we use run

$ python -m opensauce --measurements snackF0 --tcl-cmd tclsh8.5 /path/to/file.wav

this tells OpenSauce to use the command tclsh8.5 to run the Tcl shell interpreter (specifically Tcl version 8.5). This is especially useful if you have multiple versions of Tcl installed on your machine.

To specify your own path for the Praat executable, use the command line option --praat-path. For example,

$ python -m opensauce --measurements praatF0 --praat-path /home/username/praat /path/to/file.wav

will run the Praat executable located at /home/username/praat.

To specify your own path for the REAPER executable, use the command line option --reaper-path. For example,

$ python -m opensauce --measurements reaperF0 --reaper-path /home/username/reaper /path/to/file.wav

will run the REAPER executable located at /home/username/reaper.

Since you will probably be running Snack / Praat / REAPER the same way every time you use OpenSauce, it is best to set these preferences automatically through a settings file, as described in the next section.

If it is inconvenient to enter options on the command line, you can also do this via a settings and/or measurements file.

Any options you can specify on the command line you can put into a settings file, one option and its arguments per line. On the command line, you can specify a settings file to use, with a command like

$ python -m opensauce -s /path/to/my_settings /path/to/file.wav

or alternatively,

$ python -m opensauce --settings /path/to/my_settings /path/to/file.wav

To run your favorite settings by default, you can copy your settings file to one of the locations ./opensauce.settings, ~/.config/opensauce/settings, or ~/.opensaucerc. Opensauce will automatically search each of these locations, in the above order, for a default settings file, if no settings file is explicitly specified on the command line. The first file found will be used.

An example settings file is included in this repository, called opensauce.settings.example. You can copy this file to opensauce.settings to see how the settings file works. Run OpenSauce on a sound file with no settings file specified, like this:

$ python -m opensauce /path/to/file.wav

You can also have a measurements file containing one measurement per line. On the command line, you can specify a measurements file to use, with a command like

$ python -m opensauce -m my_measurements /path/to/file.wav

To run your favorite settings by default, you can copy your measurements file to one of the locations ./opensauce.measurements, ~/.config/opensauce/measurements, or ~/.opensauce.measurements. Opensauce will automatically search each of these locations, in the above order, for a default settings file, if no settings file is explicitly specified on the command line. The first file found will be used.

An example settings file is included in this repository, called opensauce.measurements.example. You can copy this file to opensauce.measurements to see how the measurements file works. Run OpenSauce on a sound file with no measurements file specified, like this:

$ python -m opensauce /path/to/file.wav

Note that if you specify measurements in both the settings and measurements files, the measurements in the settings file will override those in the measurements file. Similarly, options and measurements specified on the command line override those specified in a settings or measurements file.

See CONTRIBUTING.

• Documentation: someday
• OpenSauce
• VoiceSauce
• STRAIGHT speech software

Please feel free to post a question on the Issue tracker (use the label 'question').

Thanks to Ryuichi Yamamoto for his help getting pyreaper working.