Using command line tools you can do the following:
- Install brew
- Update and doctor brew
Install portaudio, ffmpeg and all dependencies with brew
brew install portaudio
brew install ffmpeg
Install pip by downloading get-pip.py (direct link) and executing
sudo python ~/Downloads/get-pip.py
Install soundmeter
sudo pip install soundmeter
Run soundmeter. To get help use the -h switch:
soundmeter -h
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-c, --collect collect RMS values to determine thresholds
-s SECONDS, --seconds SECONDS
time in seconds to run the meter (default forever)
-a {stop,exec-stop,exec}, --action {stop,exec-stop,exec}
triggered action
-t [+|-]THRESHOLD [NUM ...], --trigger [+|-]THRESHOLD [NUM ...]
trigger condition (threshold RMS and number of times)
-e SCRIPT, --exec SCRIPT
shell script to execute upon trigger
-d, --daemonize run the meter in the background
--log [LOGFILE] log the meter (default to ~/.soundmeter/log)
-v, --verbose verbose mode
--segment SECONDS audio segment length recorded in seconds (defaults to
0.5)
Simply running soundmeter will output an RMS value. After defining a threshold you can trigger a shell script action (which may itself trigger an AppleScript script) with the -e switch.
Entering soundmeter --segment 0.1 --log watching online TV (climate change and coffee farming in Colombia - the end of Arabica beans) will show something like:
2017-01-25 18:16:02,289 24
2017-01-25 18:16:02,665 24
2017-01-25 18:16:03,037 31
2017-01-25 18:16:03,399 3
2017-01-25 18:16:03,769 15
2017-01-25 18:16:04,142 11
2017-01-25 18:16:04,524 9
2017-01-25 18:16:04,891 7
2017-01-25 18:16:05,257 7
2017-01-25 18:16:05,632 0
2017-01-25 18:16:06,001 7
2017-01-25 18:16:06,384 0
2017-01-25 18:16:06,745 2
2017-01-25 18:16:07,113 10
2017-01-25 18:16:07,491 14
2017-01-25 18:16:07,860 6
2017-01-25 18:16:08,223 0
2017-01-25 18:16:08,609 13
2017-01-25 18:16:08,973 16
2017-01-25 18:16:09,347 7
2017-01-25 18:16:09,720 26
2017-01-25 18:16:10,091 1
2017-01-25 18:16:10,464 38 ← an Arabica bean died here
2017-01-25 18:16:10,835 13
2017-01-25 18:16:11,204 Stopped
Just to confirm: that's the microphone input level and not the sound level of the TV stream because the above installation runs in a VM guest and the TV stream on the hosting Mac - tested but not logged with some clapping which will increase the RMS to values above 200!
To send a message after a triggering event do the following - change <user_name> to your OS X short username and <telephone_number> to an appropriate telephone number below:
Create a dir and change to it:
mkdir ~/.soundmeter
cd ~/.soundmeter
Create an AppleScript:
nano sendMessage.applescript
with the content:
on run {targetBuddyPhone, targetMessage}
tell application "Messages"
set targetService to 1st service whose service type = iMessage
set targetBuddy to buddy targetBuddyPhone of targetService
send targetMessage to targetBuddy
end tell
end run
Create a shell script:
nano sendMessage.sh
with the content:
#!/bin/bash
osascript /Users/<user_name>/.soundmeter/sendMessage.applescript <telephone_number> "Another Arabica bean died"
and change the permissions:
chmod 755 sendMessage.sh
Now start soundmeter with a command like this:
soundmeter -t +38 -a exec -e /Users/<user_name>/.soundmeter/sendMessage.sh
This should send a message to your (iPhone) telephone number. Please note that you can't send an iMessage to yourself. Sending it to an alias may work. Other similar (Apple)scripts are available here: How to send an imessage text with applescript, only in provided service?
