This small project is a audio recording box built from a Raspberry Pi and some basic components. Audio recording is possible via any USB microphone. For playback a USB sound card is recommended. The goal is to have simple cassette recorder like functionality.

Features are

• direct recording with one button push
• a display with a basic menu to navigate through recordings and setup audio devices
• menu navigation is done with a rotary encoder with a built-in switch (push)
• playback can be started by navigating to a recorded file and pushing the play button
• a separate button can be used to set up a A/B loop for continuous playback.
• recorded files are named with a date and time stamp
• the RTC module keeps time and date when unplugged from power

• Raspberry Pi 3
• 3 push buttons (1 momentary: Loop, and 2 on/off switches: Rec and Play)
• 3 LEDs and resistors
• a rotary encoder with integrated push button (for menu navigation)
• LCD Display (20x4 characters) with I2C adapter
• a USB microphone or USB sound card (with speaker out and mic in)
• some wire

• real Time Clock module, e.g. Adafruit PiRTC - PCF8523
• sturdy push buttons, momentary and on/off with LED included (I used this one in different colors)
• an adequate enclosure, e.g. a console like this one
• a heat sink for the Raspberry Pi, possibly a small fan

Install the required packages:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python3-pip python3-pyaudio python3-smbus python3-gpiozero git 
sudo pip3 install RPLCD

git clone https://github.com/lochbika/recording_box.git

Make sure that the RTC module is configured and working correctly and add the following lines to /boot/config.txt:

dtparam=i2c_arm=on
dtoverlay=i2c-rtc,pcf8523

There is an example file at RaspberryPi_config/config.txt.

Either log in via ssh and manually start it

python3 main.py

or modify and copy the systemd service file to /etc/systemd/system, start and enable it:

sudo cp systemd/recording_box.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start recording_box.service
sudo systemctl enable recording_box.service