How To Install pedalboard

pedalboard is a useful tool if you are an artist, musician, producer, or enthusiast getting started with Python and looking to add effects to audio files.

Compatibility

For pedalboard, ensure you have Python 3.6 or higher.

Create a Project Directory

Create a folder that will serve as your project directory for pedalboard.

Virtual Environments

pedalboard is delivered as a Python package. When working with packages, you should create a virtual environment. This ensures that a package is only added to your current project, rather than your entire operating system.

You can set up a virtual environment by navigating to your project directory in the terminal and running the following commands:

# Create a virtual environment
python3 -m pip install --user virtualenv 
python3 -m venv .venv

# Activate the virtual environment
source .venv/bin/activate

Note: Windows commands are available here.

If you want to leave your pedalboard project, you can deactivate the virtual environment using:

deactivate

You can activate your virtual environment at any time, without needing to create it again.

Packages

pedalboard is a package that can be installed using Python's package manager, pip. If you have set up a virtual environment, pip will add the package there. You will need to make sure that:

# pip is installed
python3 -m pip install --user --upgrade pip

# pip is updated 
python3 -m pip --version

Installing pedalboard

After setting up a virtual environment and installing pip, install pedalboard:

pip install pedalboard

Accessing Audio Files

The interactive demo for pedalboard uses librosa. Librosa is a popular package that provides access to audio files, as well as tools for music and audio analysis.

You can install librosa using pip:

pip install librosa

If you plan to use your own audio files, save them to the project directory. You can use librosa.load to load an audio file by its path.

Creating A Python Program

You'll want an IDE to build, run, and debug your code. Thonny is a popular choice for beginners, and there are many others.

Open a new Python file in your IDE and save it to your project directory.

Note: creating a virtual environment will create a new directory (.venv) within your project directory. Save your .py file in the project directory.

You can now refer to the interactive demo to understand how audio and effects are called.

The interactive demo uses additional packages, including NumPy and Matplotlib. More information is available below.

Key Terms

• package: a collection of modules (a Python program that you import), bound by a package name. pedalboard is a package.
• virtual environment: an environment that allows packages to be installed for a specific project, rather than system wide.
• venv: a tool used for creating virtual environments in Python.
• pip: a package manager for Python. Allows you to install and use packages, including pedalboard.
• wheel: a way of delivering packages in Python. Allows the user to install the package quicker. pedalboard is delivered as a wheel.
• Integrated Development Environment (IDE): a software application that combines different programming activities, including writing, executing, and debugging code.

Other Useful Packages

• NumPy: a package that facilitates mathematical and other operations on data. NumPy is required by pedalboard and will automatically be installed with pedalboard.

pip install numpy

• Matplotlib: a package for data visualization. Matplotlib is referenced in the pedalboard interactive demo.

pip install matplotlib