Mikey - Audio Recorder and Transcriber

Mikey is an application for recording audio, transcribing it locally or using the Groq API. Mikey provides a seamless experience for managing recordings, viewing transcriptions, and exploring saved sessions.

Features

• Audio Recording: Records audio from WASAPI loopback devices using pyaudiowpatch.

• Transcription Options:

  • Local transcription using faster-whisper (supports CPU/CUDA)
  • Model size selection (tiny, base, small, medium, large)
  • Cloud-based transcription via Groq API (requires GROQ_API_KEY)

• Recordings Browser: Browse your session recordings with a dedicated two-panel window; the left panel lists session timestamps and the right panel displays the generated transcript.

• Standalone Executable: Option to build a standalone executable for easy distribution and use without Python environment setup.

Directory Structure

Mikey/
├── core/
│   └── audio_session.py      # High-level session orchestration for recording, transcription, and merging
├── gui/
│   ├── main_window.py        # PyQt-based main GUI for recording, transcription, and managing sessions
│   └── recordings_window.py  # Two-panel recordings browser: left for session timestamps, right for transcript display
├── mikey/
│   ├── __init__.py           # Legacy initialization for the underlying functionality
│   ├── audio_recorder.py     # AudioRecorder class for capturing audio data
│   └── audio_transcriber.py  # AudioTranscriber class for transcription and meeting notes generation
├── recordings/               # Directory for storing recordings, transcripts, and meeting notes
├── bin/                      # Directory for FFmpeg binaries (included in executable builds)
├── resources/                # Directory for resources like favicon
├── main.py                   # Application entry point (launches the PyQt GUI)
├── README.md                 # Project overview and instructions
├── requirements.txt          # Project dependencies
├── main.spec                 # PyInstaller configuration file
└── .env                      # Environment variables file

Requirements

• Python 3.7+
• pyaudiowpatch
• groq
• faster-whisper
• python-dotenv
• PyQt5
• [Other dependencies as listed in requirements.txt]

Install dependencies (if using requirements.txt):

pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage

1. Configure Environment: Create a .env file in the project root directory and set your environment variables, most importantly your GROQ_API_KEY. This file should be in the same directory as main.py.

   GROQ_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY_HERE
   

2. Launch the Application: Run the following command to launch Mikey's GUI:

   python main.py

   The graphical interface lets you:

   • Select system and microphone audio devices.
   • Start and stop audio recording.
   • View live logs and monitor transcription progress.
   • Open the recordings browser to explore saved sessions and view corresponding transcripts.

3. Transcription Settings: The GUI now provides several transcription options:

   • ☁️ Cloud-based (Groq) vs 🖥️ Local (faster-whisper) transcription
   • Model size selection (tradeoff between speed and accuracy)
   • Compute device selection (CPU, CUDA for Nvidia GPUs, MPS for Apple Silicon)

   Local transcription recommendations:

   • CPU: Use "tiny" or "base" models
   • CUDA: Up to "large" model

Building an Executable

To package Mikey as a standalone executable, PyInstaller is used. The configuration is already set up in main.spec.

Before building, ensure you have FFmpeg binaries in the bin directory. The main.spec (startLine: 5, endLine: 9) is configured to include FFmpeg based on your operating system (Windows, Linux, or macOS). You might need to download FFmpeg and place the executable in the bin folder.

To build the executable, run PyInstaller from the project root:

pyinstaller main.spec

This command will generate a dist folder containing the standalone executable. The .env file and resources/favicon.ico are automatically included in the executable, as configured in main.spec (startLine: 20, endLine: 23).

The executable will be located in dist/MikeyV3 (or a similar name based on the name field in main.spec (startLine: 40)).

Make sure to test your executable on your target platform(s).

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue or submit a pull request for any bugs, performance improvements, or feature suggestions.

---

Happy Recording with Mikey!