Simple Recording

Pisound Projects
1

Hi all,

First off, thanks to the Pisound team for this excellent piece of hardware, I got it a couple weeks back and am using it as planned already.

Background:
As a dj I have recorded every session with a mobile audio recorder (Zoom H1n) for a long time.

My workflow until recently:

  • Connect recorder to master 2 output of mixer
  • Insert micro sd card
  • Confirm settings since not run on batteries
  • Press record
  • record
  • Press record to stop
  • Turn of recorder
  • Remove micro sd card
  • Put micro sd card into adapter for regular sd
  • Plug sd card into computer
  • Execute self-written script to convert wav to mp3, upload to my Nextcloud instance and delete wav
  • Listen on phone

One might argue that I could’ve just plugged in my laptop (I don’t own a desktop), but this quite cumbersome workflow proved to be more reliable than needing to find my laptop, check the battery, look for the charger if needed and control a recording software.

That said, I wanted something simpler. That’s when I stumbled upon the Pisound, while conveniently owning a currently unused Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. I knew about HiFiBerry already but the missing physical button always bothered me so I never got one.

Goal:

  • Recording analog signal from dj mixer
  • Always ready to record
  • No external device needed for starting/stopping
  • Upload to personal cloud

Thoughts:

  • I have an original Raspberry Pi power connector which does not fit firmly into the usb power input of the raspberry with the case because the hole is a bit too small. I will use a file to increase make it fit but that’s not good design in my opinion. That’s my only complaint though, button and knobs are firm, case looks pretty and assembly was easy and well documented. (As a sidenote, the button was missing in my original order and the blokas support send me a replacement the same day I wrote, excellent support!)
  • I am aware that ffmpeg can record and convert at the same time. In my case I got xrun errors and faulty recordings which is why I opted for this two-step process of recording with arecord and converting with ffmpeg. I could not find a solution for this ffmpeg issue, if anyone knows a solution I can incorperate this.
  • I can’t manage to connect via bluetooth with the Pisound app so no instructions how to use it there.
  • I’m open to any suggestions or if someone needs help, just answer this post and I’ll try to find a solution.

Code:
Can all be found on github, please create an issue if you’d like to improve anything.

3 Likes
2

Thanks for this, adding a record function to the button will certainly be useful to my project.

3

I have moved this to github to easily apply updates.

Is there a way to modify the original post so that this is visible at the top?

4

Yes, newly registered users have a time limit for how long their posts can be edited (to prevent editing normal looking posts to something with spam links), regulars get more permissions. I’ve increased your level, so you can edit your original post. :slight_smile:

5

Thank you for writing these scripts and publishing them to the community. I’m eager to try it out this weekend.

1 Like
6

Thank you, I shortened the post and linked to the code on github with some improvements.

1 Like
7

I’m having some trouble setting this up. I’ve gotten through all of the basic pisound + rpi set up but is it only possible to record if you have a webdav url? Can’t we just record and store it locally?

8

I had the same problem
Try this GitHub - kounsokiri/pisound_recorder: Pisound recorder with pre-recording buffer and local storage

This version has a pre recording buffer of 3 minutes and saves files locally in /home/patch/Music/