> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.getlimina.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Processing Audio Files

> This guide will get you started with Audio deidentification.

Limina supports scanning audio for PII and creating de-identified or redacted copies. Limina’s supported entity types function across each file type, with localized variants of different **PII** (Personally Identifiable Information) entities, **PHI** (Protected Health Information) entities, and **PCI** (Payment Card Industry) entities being detected. Our [Supported Languages](/languages) and [Supported Entity Types](/entities) page provides a more detailed look.

## How Audio Files Are Processed

Audio files are processed as follows:

1. A transcript is produced using an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system
2. The resulting ASR transcript is passed through the text-based PII detection engine
3. If specified by the user, the audio file undergoes pitch distortion
4. Using the ASR timestamps, any sections of the audio file corresponding with PII detections are replaced with a Sine wave or bleep tone
5. The resulting de-identified or redacted audio file and transcript are passed back to the user

## Parameters

Please see the `audio_options` object in the [API reference](/latest/process-files-base64#body-audio-options) for a full list of the parameters for audio processing.

## Supported File Types

| File Type | Extension   | Content Type              | Added In |
| --------- | ----------- | ------------------------- | -------- |
| wave      | `.wav`      | `audio/wav`               | 3.0.0    |
| x-wave    | `.wav`      | `audio/x-wav`             | 3.5.0    |
| mp3       | `.mp3`      | `audio/mpeg`, `audio/mp3` | 3.0.0    |
| mp4       | `.mp4`      | `audio/mp4`               | 3.0.0    |
| m4a       | `.m4a`      | `audio/m4a`               | 3.5.0    |
| m4a-latm  | `.m4a-latm` | `audio/m4a-latm`          | 3.5.0    |
| webm      | `.webm`     | `audio/webm`              | 3.5.0    |

### VOX Files

Note that .vox files are not natively supported by Limina, but can be processed by converting the .vox file to a wav or mp3 using a conversion tool like [SoX](https://sourceforge.net/projects/sox/).

Because .vox files are headerless, you will need to know the sample rate and encoding to specify.

For example, to take a vox file with a sample rate 8000, mono channel, mu-law encoded:

```shell SoX Command theme={"theme":"poimandres"}
sox -t raw -r 8000 -c 1 -e mu-law myfile.vox myfile.wav
```

to generate a wav file.

## Support Matrix

|           | CPU Container | GPU Container | Community API | Professional API |
| --------- | ------------- | ------------- | ------------- | ---------------- |
| Supported | Yes           | Yes           | Up to 10 MiB  | No               |

## Sample Request

<Info>
  [Connect with one of our privacy experts](https://getlimina.ai/contact-us/?utm_source=docs\&utm_medium=website) to run this code.
</Info>

<CodeGroup>
  ```json Request Body wrap lines theme={"theme":"poimandres"}
  {
    "file": {
      "data": "<file_content_base64>",
      "content_type": "audio/wav"
    },
    "entity_detection": {
      "return_entity": true
    },
    "audio_options": {
      "bleep_start_padding": 0,
      "bleep_end_padding": 0
    }
  }
  ```

  ```shell curl wrap lines theme={"theme":"poimandres"}
  echo '{
            "file": {"data": "'$(base64 -w 0 sample.wav)'", 
            "content_type": "audio/wav"}, 
            "entity_detection": {"return_entity": "True"}
        }' \
  | curl --request POST --url 'https://api.private-ai.com/community/v4/process/files/base64' \
         -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
         -H 'x-api-key: <YOUR KEY HERE>' \
         -d @- \
         | jq -r .processed_file \
         | base64 -d > 'sample.redacted.wav'
  ```

  ```python python wrap lines theme={"theme":"poimandres"}
  import requests
  import base64

  file_url = "https://paidocumentation.blob.core.windows.net/$web/sample.wav"
  filename_out = "/path/to/output/sample.redacted.wav"
  file_content = requests.get(file_url).content
  file_content_base64 = base64.b64encode(file_content).decode()

  headers = {"Content-Type": "application/json", "x-api-key": "<INSERT API KEY>"}

  url = "https://api.private-ai.com/community/v4/process/files/base64"

  payload = {
    "file" : {
      "data": file_content_base64,
      "content_type": "audio/wav"
    },
    "entity_detection": {
      "return_entity": True
    },
    "audio_options":{
      "bleep_start_padding": 0,
      "bleep_end_padding": 0
    }
  }

  response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)
  with open(filename_out, "wb") as f:
      f.write(base64.b64decode(response.json()["processed_file"]))
  ```

  ```python Python Client wrap lines theme={"theme":"poimandres"}
  from privateai_client import PAIClient
  from privateai_client.objects import request_objects
  import base64

  filename_in = "sample.wav"
  filename_out = "sample.redacted.wav"

  file_type= "audio/wav"
  client = PAIClient(url="https://api.private-ai.com/community/v4/", api_key="<YOUR API KEY>")

  with open(filename_in, "rb") as b64_file:
      file_data = base64.b64encode(b64_file.read())
      file_data = file_data.decode("ascii")

  file_obj = request_objects.file_obj(data=file_data, content_type=file_type)
  request_obj = request_objects.file_base64_obj(file=file_obj)
  resp = client.process_files_base64(request_object=request_obj)

  with open(filename_out, 'wb') as redacted_file:
      processed_file = resp.processed_file.encode("ascii")
      processed_file = base64.b64decode(processed_file, validate=True)
      redacted_file.write(processed_file)
  ```
</CodeGroup>

## Sample Response

```json Response wrap lines theme={"theme":"poimandres"}
{
  "processed_file": "Base64 Encoded File Content of the Redacted File",
  "processed_text": "string",
  "entities": "List[Entity]",
  "entities_present": true,
  "languages_detected": {"lang_1": 0.67, "lang_2": 0.74}
}
```