Parselmouth for bioacoustics: automated acoustic analysis in Python

Bioacoustics increasingly relies on large datasets and computational methods. The need to batch-process large amounts of data and the increased focus on algorithmic processing require software tools. To optimally assist in a bioacoustician's workflow, software tools need to be as simple and effective as possible. Five years ago, the Python package Parselmouth was released to provide easy and intuitive access to all functionality in the Praat software. Whereas Praat is principally designed for phonetics and speech processing, plenty of bioacoustics studies have used its advanced acoustic algorithms. Here, we evaluate existing usage of Parselmouth and discuss in detail several studies which used the software library. We argue that Parselmouth has the potential to be used even more in bioacoustics research, and suggest future directions to be pursued with the help of Parselmouth.

Automated summary

Bioacoustics research increasingly relies on large datasets and computational methods. The Python package Parselmouth provides easy access to the advanced acoustic algorithms of Praat software, which is primarily designed for phonetics and speech processing. This article evaluates the existing usage of Parselmouth and discusses its potential for further applications in bioacoustics research.