Mac and Linux

OpenSoundscape can be installed on Mac and Linux machines with Python >=3.10 using the pip command pip install opensoundscape==0.13.0. We strongly recommend installing OpenSoundscape in a virtual environment to prevent dependency conflicts.

Below are instructions for installation with two package managers:

  • conda: Python and package management through Anaconda, a package manager popular among scientific programmers

  • venv: Python’s included virtual environment manager, venv

Feel free to use another virtual environment manager (e.g. virtualenvwrapper) if desired.

Installation via Anaconda

  • Install Anaconda if you don’t already have it.

  • Create a Python (>=3.10) conda environment for opensoundscape: conda create --name opensoundscape pip python=3.10 (you can leave out the requirement of python 3.10, just make sure you have at least python 3.10)

  • Activate the environment: conda activate opensoundscape

  • Install opensoundscape using pip: pip install opensoundscape==0.13.0

  • Deactivate the environment when you’re done using it: conda deactivate

Intel-chip Macs (not Apple Silicon)

You may need to install pytorch from conda-forge since newer versions are not visible to pip. Run these lines in Termina, replacing NAME with the desired name of your environment:

conda create -n NAME python=3.11
conda activate NAME
conda install pytorch==2.5.1 torchvision==0.20.1 torchaudio==2.5.1 -c conda-forge
pip install opensoundscape==0.13.0

Installation via venv

Download Python (>=3.10) from this website.

Run the following commands in your bash terminal:

  • Check that you have installed Python >=3.10: python3 --version

  • Change directories to where you wish to store the environment: cd [path for environments folder]

    • Tip: You can use this folder to store virtual environments for other projects as well, so put it somewhere that makes sense for you, e.g. in your home directory.

  • Make a directory for virtual environments and cd into it: mkdir .venv && cd .venv

  • Create an environment called opensoundscape in the directory: python3 -m venv opensoundscape

  • Activate/use the environment: source opensoundscape/bin/activate

  • Install OpenSoundscape in the environment: pip install opensoundscape==0.13.0

  • Once you are done with OpenSoundscape, deactivate the environment: deactivate

  • To use the environment again, you will have to refer to absolute path of the virtual environments folder. For instance, if I were on a Mac and created .venv inside a directory /Users/MyFiles/Code I would activate the virtual environment using: source /Users/MyFiles/Code/.venv/opensoundscape/bin/activate

For some of our functions, you will need a version of ffmpeg >= 0.4.1. On Mac machines, ffmpeg can be installed via brew.