Appendix A — Setup, Per Operating System

Every install command in the book, collected in one place. Everything in this appendix runs in the book’s continuous-integration harness on clean Ubuntu, Windows, and macOS machines — these are tested instructions, not remembered ones.

The Python packages (all platforms)

pip install pedalboard pyfluidsynth numpy scipy mido
# optional extras used in later chapters:
pip install mutagen        # metadata tagging (Chapter 15)

Python 3.9 or newer. All five core packages install from pre-built wheels on all three OSes — no compilers needed.

FluidSynth (Chapter 2)

macOS

brew install fluid-synth

If import fluidsynth then fails with “Couldn’t find the FluidSynth library,” add the loader shim before the import (from the Sign-Off album script, where it ships in production):

import ctypes.util, os

_orig_find_library = ctypes.util.find_library
def _find_library(name):
    found = _orig_find_library(name)
    if not found and name == "fluidsynth":
        path = "/opt/homebrew/lib/libfluidsynth.dylib"
        if os.path.exists(path):
            return path
    return found
ctypes.util.find_library = _find_library

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)

sudo apt-get install fluidsynth libfluidsynth-dev fluid-soundfont-gm

The third package installs a General MIDI soundfont at /usr/share/sounds/sf2/FluidR3_GM.sf2 — usable immediately.

Windows

choco install fluidsynth

Verified on clean machines: the chocolatey install works with no further configuration (pyfluidsynth special-cases its install directory, C:\tools\fluidsynth\bin). If you installed FluidSynth anywhere else, register the directory both ways before importing — find_library only searches PATH, while the DLL’s own dependencies resolve via add_dll_directory:

import os
os.add_dll_directory(r"C:\path\to\fluidsynth\bin")
os.environ["PATH"] = r"C:\path\to\fluidsynth\bin;" + os.environ["PATH"]

Plugin folders (Chapter 3)

load_plugin needs a path; installers put plugins here:

The Intel-Python rescue environment (Chapter 4, macOS only)

For Intel-only plugins on Apple Silicon:

arch -x86_64 /usr/bin/python3 -m venv ~/.venvs/x86-audio
arch -x86_64 ~/.venvs/x86-audio/bin/pip install pedalboard mido numpy scipy

Invoke helpers with subprocess.run(["arch", "-x86_64", "~/.venvs/x86-audio/bin/python", "helper.py", ...]).

Windows plugins on Linux (Chapter 4)

# Arch: yay -S yabridge yabridgectl wine-staging
# (see the yabridge README for apt/dnf equivalents)
yabridgectl add "$HOME/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Common Files/VST3"
yabridgectl sync        # bridged plugins appear in ~/.vst3

32-bit plugins on Windows (Chapter 4)

Install a 32-bit Python from python.org alongside your 64-bit one, then run the same helper script under it:

subprocess.run([r"C:\Python311-32\python.exe", "render_helper.py",
                "notes.json", "out.wav"])

Format conversion tools (Chapters 5–6)

• macOS: afconvert is built in. afconvert -f WAVE -d LEI16@44100 in.caf out.wav
• Windows/Linux: ffmpeg -i in.caf out.wav (install via choco/apt/brew).

Sanity check

After setup, this five-liner proves the two load-bearing pieces work:

import numpy as np, fluidsynth                     # (shim first on macOS)
from pedalboard import Pedalboard, Chorus
noise = np.random.default_rng(0).uniform(-0.3, 0.3, (2, 44100)).astype("float32")
out = Pedalboard([Chorus()])(noise, 44100)
print("pedalboard OK:", out.shape, "— fluidsynth OK:", fluidsynth.Synth() is not None)