List all audio devices with Python's pyaudio (portaudio binding)

Question

I tried

import pyaudio
p = pyaudio.PyAudio()
for i in range(p.get_device_count()):
    print p.get_device_info_by_index(i)

but I don't get the full list of all devices : for example I don't get ASIO devices in this list. This is strange, because portaudio should give ASIO devices as well, right ?

How can I list all audio devices with pyaudio ?

Solution 1

I've created (a while after this question was posted) the sounddevice module for Python, which includes its own DLLs with ASIO support (and all other host APIs, too). It can be installed with:

pip install sounddevice --user

After that, you can list all your devices with:

python -m sounddevice

Of course you can also do this within Python:

import sounddevice as sd
sd.query_devices()

Solution 2

I think your expectations are reasonable. The equivalent C code to enumerate PortAudio devices would give you all available devices. There are a couple of things that could be wrong:

• Your build of PyAudio has not been compiled with ASIO support. PortAudio will only enumerate devices for the native host APIs that have been configured/compiled in at compile time.

• You have a 64-bit build of Python/PyAudio and your ASIO device drivers are 32-bit, or vis-versa (64-bit ASIO drivers and 32-bit Python).

As Multimedia Mike suggests, you can eliminate PyAudio from the equation by enumerating PA devices from C. The pa_devs.c program in the PortAudio distribution does this.

Comments

[Basj]

I need to study this. I don't have a C compiler/linker installed (and those libraries neither) right now, and quite no knowledge about this... Would you have such tools @MultimediaMike ?

[Ross Bencina]

The fact that PortAudio can't open streams to multiple ASIO devices simultaneously has no bearing on enumerating device info.

[Basj]

Thank you for your answer. I spent hours and hours to try to compile PyAudio with ASIO support (thanks to the discussion github.com/bastibe/PyAudio/pull/4) but unfortunately I cannot finish the compile... If you have time to have a look at the procedure described here github.com/bastibe/PyAudio/pull/4 @RossBencina, thanks in advance!

[JakeD]

The sounddevice module also uses PortAudio which can find the correct device.

[Chris P]

python3.6 -m sounddevice (prints nothing)

[Matthias]

@ChrisP Please create an issue as described in python-sounddevice.readthedocs.io/en/latest/CONTRIBUTING.htm‌​l.