Python library to modify MP3 audio without transcoding

Question

I am looking for some general advice about the mp3 format before I start a small project to make sure I am not on a wild-goose chase.

My understanding of the internals o

Answer 1

If you want to do things low-level, use pymad. It turns MP3s into a buffer of sample data.

If you want something a little higher-level, use the Echo Nest Remix API (disclosure: I wrote part of it for my dayjob). It includes a few examples. If you look at the cowbell example (i.e., MoreCowbell.dj), you'll see a fork of pymad that gives you a NumPy array instead of a buffer. That datatype makes it easier to slice out sections and do math on them.