Configuration and Saved Options

Configuration File

The configuration file (config file for short) is audiotuner.conf. It’s optional and not installed automatically. If you need to change Audio Tuner’s default settings, you can get started by copying and pasting the example configuration shown at the bottom of this page: Full example

Where it goes

The default config file path varies by platform. Run

tuner --default-config-path

to find out where it goes on your system. You can also look at the About window in the GUI (Help ‣ About Audio Tuner) to find out the path.

Once you find out where it goes, copy the example configuration there and then edit it to suit your needs.

If the GUI is running, you’ll need to restart it for the config file to take effect.

What goes in it

The syntax is INI style.

Note

If there’s a problem parsing the file, it will cause the file to be ignored.

Comments

A line starting with # is a comment. This only works if the # is the first non-whitespace character in the line (no inline comments allowed).

Sections

There is one section, denoted by the following required header:

[DEFAULT]

Options

The lines following the header are either key/value pairs of the form:

key = value

Or, for options that don’t take a value, just:

key

Tip

The syntax isn’t strict. Whitespace mostly doesn’t matter, you can use : instead of = if you want, and you can abbreviate things as long as it’s not ambiguous.

The possible options are mostly the same as the command line options (long form), but without the -- prefixes. (See the tuner and tuner-gui man pages.)

The options that can’t be set in the config file are:

config (Because if Audio Tuner is already parsing the config file, it’s too late to choose a different config file!)
default-config-path
default-savefile-path
savefile-header
print-completion
version
help

Here are the options that can be set in the config file, along with some sample values for the options that take a value:

tuning = equal_temperament
ref-note = A4
ref-freq = 440.0
low-cut = 20.0
high-cut = 15000.0
dB-range = 30.0
max-peaks = 10
size-exp = 15
start = 0
end = 100
samplerate = 44100
plot = log
nopad
verbose
debug
color

Note

Before version 0.12.0, option names used underscores instead of dashes. Underscores are still accepted for backwards compatibility (for example, ref-note and ref_note will both work).

The following can only be set in the config file, not on the command line or GUI Option Panel:

backends = mpv_pipe

Use this to specify which backends should be tried for reading media files for analysis. You can specify more that one in a comma separated list, and they will be tried in order.

The backends are:

mpv_pipe is the default backend. It uses libmpv2 and transfers data through a named pipe.
mpv_tempfile also uses libmpv2, but transfers data using a temporary file. It shouldn’t ever be necessary to use this, but it’s there in case your system has trouble with named pipes for some weird reason.
ffmpeg uses ffprobe and ffmpeg. Use this if you already have those programs installed and don’t want to bother installing libmpv2.

Attention

The player and export functionality in the GUI are not affected by the backends setting and will not work unless libmpv2 is installed.

Also, ffmpeg does not have the scaletempo2 filter, so rubberband will always be used with ffmpeg regardless of the correction backend setting.

Full example

audiotuner.conf

# Example config file for Audio Tuner

# The [DEFAULT] header is required, don't remove it.
[DEFAULT]

# These work the same as the corresponding command line arguments.
# Run 'tuner -h' for descriptions of them.

tuning = equal_temperament
ref-note = A4
ref-freq = 440.0
low-cut = 20.0
high-cut = 15000.0
dB-range = 30.0
max-peaks = 10

# Don't mess with this one unless you know what you're doing:
#size-exp = 15

# Uncomment these options to set them

#start = 0
#end = 100
#samplerate = 44100
#nopad
#verbose
#debug

# Requires colorama:
#color

# Requires matplotlib:
#plot = log

# Avoid using the plot and debug options at the same time, since matplotlib
# likes to be EXTREMELY verbose with it's debug output.


# This specifies which backends should be tried for reading media files for
# analysis, in which order.  Valid backends are:
#
# mpv_pipe
# libmpv, using a named pipe to transfer the audio data.
#
# mpv_tempfile
# libmpv, using a temporary file to transfer the audio data.  This is a stupid
# way of doing it and should be used only as a last resort.
#
# ffmpeg
# ffprobe and ffmpeg.  This is slightly slower than libmpv and obviously
# requires that ffprobe and ffmpeg be installed, but it's a good option if
# libmpv doesn't work.

backends = mpv_pipe

Save File

Added in version 0.11.

The save file is saved_options.ini. It’s similar to the config file, but stores options associated with specific audio files instead of general default options.

The CLI and GUI both read it, and the GUI can also write to it. The GUI will create it if necessary.

It’s in INI format like the config file. It can be manually created and/or edited, but the easiest way to get one is to let the GUI create it by using its option saving functionality.

See Saving Options.

Where it goes

The default save file path varies by platform. Run

tuner --default-savefile-path

to find out where it goes on your system. You can also look at the About window in the GUI (Help ‣ About Audio Tuner) to find out the path.

What goes in it

The only difference between the save file and the config file is that the save file doesn’t have a [DEFAULT] header, and instead has headers containing paths to audio files. They should be absolute paths with no symlinks, quoted, and in square brackets.

Run

tuner --savefile-header /path/to/audio/file

to convert a path into a header than can be used in the save file.