## recordtest.py
##
## This is an example of a simple sound capture script.
##
## The script opens an ALSA pcm forsound capture. Set
## various attributes of the capture, and reads in a loop,
## writing the data to standard out.
##
## To test it out do the following:
## python recordtest.py > out.raw # talk to the microphone
## aplay -r 8000 -f S16_LE -c 1 out.raw

import alsaaudio
import sys
import time

# Open the device in nonblocking capture mode. The last argument could
# just as well have been zero for blocking mode. Then we could have
# left out the sleep call in the bottom of the loop
inp = alsaaudio.PCM(alsaaudio.PCM_CAPTURE,alsaaudio.PCM_NONBLOCK)

# Set attributes: Mono, 8000 Hz, 16 bit little endian samples
inp.setchannels(1)
inp.setrate(8000)
inp.setformat(alsaaudio.PCM_FORMAT_S16_LE)

# The period size controls the internal number of frames per period.
# The significance of this parameter is documented in the ALSA api.
# For our purposes, it is suficcient to know that reads from the device
# will return this many frames. Each frame being 2 bytes long.
# This means that the reads below will return either 320 bytes of data
# or 0 bytes of data. The latter is possible because we are in nonblocking
# mode.
inp.setperiodsize(160)

loops = 1000000
while loops > 0:
  loops -= 1
  # Read data from device
  l,data = inp.read()
  
  if l:
    # actual data read. Write it to stdout
    sys.stdout.write(data)
  time.sleep(.001)