Ronen Aminoff
ENעברית
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Tools

Studio Preflight

Check podcast recordings right after the shoot, while a re-record is still possible.

Working Available to download. Below, a sample run from the terminal.

The problem

Recording sessions fail in the edit for reasons you could see right away: the wrong sample rate, a clipping mic, a track that recorded silence.

What I built

A command line tool that checks every file after the shoot, then copies them with clear names and checks each copy.

  • Sample rate, clipping and silent tracks
  • Checked copies with clear names
  • Never changes the source files

DownloadSee it run

Features and limits

Built and tested

  • check: sample rate (48 kHz), bit depth (24-bit preferred), clipping (peaks above -0.5 dBFS), silent tracks, camera and audio lengths within 2 seconds, one frame rate.
  • ingest: copies into media/ with session names (cam1, audio1, audio2), verifies each copy by SHA-256, writes ingest_report.json.
  • Dry run by default; sources are never changed; nothing is overwritten; re-running is safe.
  • Several camera files are reported as a multi-camera session, clearly labeled as a proposed, untested mode.

Limits

  • The single-camera path is the tested one; multi-camera sync is not checked.
  • Tested on media generated with ffmpeg on Linux; not yet on real camera cards, macOS or Windows.
  • Level checks read the first audio stream of each file; multi-channel recorders with one file per channel are fine, polyphonic files are checked on channel one only.

Planned

Add multi-camera presets only after testing.

How to use
  • Download and unzip.
  • python3 studio_preflight.py check /path/to/CARD right after the shoot.
  • Fix or re-record what fails, then ingest with --session and --out, first without --apply to see the plan.
  • Keep ingest_report.json with the project.
How it works
  • ffprobe for stream facts; ffmpeg's volumedetect for peak and mean levels.
  • Copies are hashed with SHA-256 against their sources.
  • Python standard library plus ffmpeg; no network.
Download
  • Download Studio Preflight 1.0.0 (ZIP, Python)v1.0.0 · 7.2 KB · MIT
    SHA-256 7deff148b87c11c352090f83c077f0c71a3f4f7a246688b7643d600328af4c38
    Tested: Linux, Python 3.13, ffmpeg 7 (3 automated tests on generated media). Real camera cards, macOS and Windows not yet tested. Multi-camera not tested.
Tested versions & limits
  • Pass Package: clean single-camera session passes; verified ingest; sources unchanged; safe re-run Linux, Python 3.13, ffmpeg 7
  • Pass Package: catches 44.1 kHz, 16-bit, clipping, silence and a late start Linux, Python 3.13, ffmpeg 7
  • Pass Package: dry run, multi-camera labeled untested, output inside the card refused Linux, Python 3.13, ffmpeg 7
  • Pass Release: tests re-run from the unzipped archive, public scan clean Linux

Last verified 2026-10-31.

Single-camera path tested on generated media on Linux. Multi-camera is a proposed mode, not tested. Not yet tested on real cards, macOS or Windows.

Details
Input
Fictional podcast shoot
Output
Capture checklist, file map and ingest report
Runs in
Command line tool for macOS, Linux or Windows with Python 3.9+ and ffmpeg (tested on Linux).
Source
Original, rebuilt from scratch
  • Video
  • Workflow
  • Templates
  • Systems
  • Downloadable