Create Waveform Video from MP3

TL;DR

If your MP3 file is called my-sound-file.mp3, and your background image is called my-backgroud-picture.png, just open up a terminal and run the follow command below to merge them together, and create a fancy waveform video.

1
2
3
4
5

ffmpeg -i my-sound-file.mp3 -i my-background-picture.png -filter_complex \
    "[1:v]scale=1920x1080[image]; \
    [0:a]showwaves=s=1920x1080:colors=blue:mode=line:rate=25[waves]; \
    [image][waves]overlay[combine]" \
    -map "[combine]" -map 0:a mp3-plus-waves-output.mp4

Sources

• https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html#showwaves
• https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Waveform#Waveformvideo
• https://www.extua.pw/blog/2018/11/25/ffmpeg_audio_visualisation/

The Rest of the Story

So picture this. You do a live stream, and the video streams horribly, but there is a backup audio recording, and that turns out perfect. So what can you upload to YouTube? How about a custom background image and the audio overlayed with the waveforms of the speaker’s voice?

Now, I am sure this can be done with something like OpenShot or KDEN Live, but I’m just looking for something quick and simple.

I’ll admit however, it probably took me longer, because I’m not very familiar with ffmpeg, but now that I have this script, it will be extremely simple to do this again the future. Or will it? 😉️

The Script

So open up your terminal, and paste this in (changing the file names to match your files of course):

1
2
3
4
5

ffmpeg -i my-sound-file.mp3 -i my-background-picture.png -filter_complex \
    "[1:v]scale=1920x1080[image]; \
    [0:a]showwaves=s=1920x1080:colors=blue:mode=line:rate=25[waves]; \
    [image][waves]overlay[combine]" \
    -map "[combine]" -map 0:a mp3-plus-waves-output.mp4

The Breakdown

Here is what each line does.

1. ffmpeg -i my-sound-file.mp3 -i my-background-picture.png -filter_complex \
   • This sets the input sound and image file for the script. Be sure to change my-sound-file.mp3 to the name of your sound file, and the same goes for the background image file (my-background-picture.png).
2. "[1:v]scale=1920x1080[image]; \
   • Scale the background image [1:v](my-background-picture.png) to 1920 by 1080, and call it image.
3. [0:a]showwaves=s=1920x1080:colors=blue:mode=line:rate=25[waves]; \
   • Take the audio file [0:a](my-sound-file.mp3), and run it through showwaves, set the size to 1920 by 1080, set the color of the waveforms to blue, generate the waveform from a line that run across the screen, set the output frame rate, and call that waves.
4. [image][waves]overlay[combine]" \
   • Overlay the waveforms over the image, and call it combine.
5. -map "[combine]" -map 0:a mp3-plus-waves-output.mp4
   • Merge it all together, and churn out the final product, mp3-plus-waves-output.mp4 (you can call it whatever you like, just keep the .mp4 extension).

Conclusion

There you have it; you should have your very own waveform video with a custom background like this one: