Here’s a tool that will change the way you tinker with sound. Forget complicated interfaces and resource-hungry software; welcome to the command line with Asak!
It’s a cross-platform audio tool written in the current language of choice, Rust. Light, fast, and incredibly efficient. The kind of thing that makes you want to dust off your old terminal and play around.
Asak allows you to record, play, and even apply effects in real-time, all via its command line interface or its super intuitive text user interface (TUI). No more endless clicking; here, you type commands like a true weekend hacker.
To install it, nothing could be simpler.
Make sure you have Cargo installed, then run a quick
cargo install asak
and voilà, you’re ready to tackle sound waves. If you don’t have Cargo yet, don’t worry, just follow the installation guide and you’ll be set up in no time.
Next, if you want to record a message for your answering machine in an 80s style, it’s easy:
asak rec hello
And if you don’t specify a file name, don’t worry, Asak will kindly ask you to do so, with a default name.
Now to listen to your masterpiece:
asak play hello.wav
And if you can’t remember the name, just take a quick look in the current directory and Asak will kindly let you choose from the available .wav files.
But Asak doesn’t stop there. You can set the recording and playback device with -r and -p, the duration with -d, the sample rate with -s, the channels and format with -ch. In short, you have complete control.
And what would an audio tool worthy of its name be without the ability to play with sound in real-time? Asak lets you adjust the volume with -a, apply effects like reverb or delay with -f, and even do passthrough with live effects thanks to -z. Basically, it can turn your desk into a trendy lo-fi recording studio.
As for formats, Asak supports the classics: WAV, AIFF, and FLAC, both for input and output. And if you feel like tinkering with multiple audio streams simultaneously, no problem, Asak handles it like a pro.
So, convinced? You can find more info here.
With that, I’ll leave you. I have a sudden urge to tinker with samples from old sci-fi movies. May the force of sound be with you!
See you soon on Tech To Geek.
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