Retard Meter

A macOS Electron app that captures system audio and provides real-time speech transcription.

Features

• Real-time audio capture from system or microphone
• Speech-to-text conversion using Deepgram's powerful AI transcription
• Live speech recognition with low latency
• Device selection for capturing from different audio sources
• Beautiful, easy-to-use interface with dark mode support
• Transcript history with timestamps

Prerequisites

Before you can run this app, you'll need to:

1. Install Node.js and npm
2. Install SoX for audio capture:

   brew install sox
   

3. Set up a Deepgram + openai API key:
   • Create a free account at deepgram.com
   • Create a new project and generate an API key
   • Add your API key to the .env file or environment variables

Installation

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/retard-meter.git
   cd retard-meter
   

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install
   

3. Run the setup script to check dependencies:

   npm run setup
   

4. Start the app:

   npm start
   

Capturing System Audio on macOS

This app can capture audio from your microphone by default. To capture system audio (everything playing on your computer), you'll need to:

1. Install BlackHole to create a virtual audio device:

   brew install blackhole-2ch
   

2. Set up audio routing in Audio MIDI Setup:

   • Open Audio MIDI Setup (found in /Applications/Utilities)
   • Click the "+" button in the bottom left and select "Create Multi-Output Device"
   • Check both your regular output device (e.g., Built-in Output) and "BlackHole 2ch"
   • Set the Multi-Output Device as your default output in System Preferences > Sound
   • In the Retard Meter app, select "BlackHole 2ch" from the device dropdown

Using the App

1. Launch the app using npm start
2. Select your audio input device from the dropdown menu
3. Click "Start Recording" to begin capturing and transcribing audio
4. The transcript will update in real-time
5. Click "Stop Recording" when finished

Building the App

To build the app for distribution:

npm run build

This will create distributable files in the dist directory.

Troubleshooting

• No audio devices detected: Make sure you've granted microphone permissions to the app
• "SoX not found" error: Make sure Sox is installed with brew install sox
• "Error initializing Deepgram API": Check your Deepgram API key setup in the .env file
• No system audio: Make sure BlackHole is installed and your Multi-Output Device is configured correctly

License

MIT

Acknowledgements

• Electron
• Deepgram for speech recognition API
• node-audiorecorder
• BlackHole for system audio capture