Hearsay

Windows desktop app that records system audio and/or microphone input and transcribes it in real-time using OpenAI's open-source Whisper model running locally.

No API calls, no cloud services -- everything runs on your machine.

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Features

• System audio capture -- record what your speakers play (YouTube, Teams, podcasts, etc.) via WASAPI loopback
• Microphone capture -- record from your mic, or mix both sources together
• Real-time transcription -- text appears in a live view window as you record
• Local AI -- uses faster-whisper (CTranslate2), no internet required after model download
• GPU + CPU -- auto-detects NVIDIA GPU; works on CPU with INT8 quantization
• Markdown output -- timestamped .md transcripts saved to your chosen directory
• System tray app -- runs quietly in the tray, right-click to start/stop recording
• First-run wizard -- detects hardware, downloads the right model, configures everything
• Windows installer -- appears in Add/Remove Programs, Start Menu shortcut, clean uninstall

Quick Start

From source

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/parkscloud/Hearsay.git
cd hearsay

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Run
python -m hearsay

On first launch, the setup wizard walks you through:

1. Hardware detection (GPU vs CPU)
2. Audio source selection
3. Output directory
4. Model download

After setup, Hearsay lives in your system tray. Right-click the icon to start recording.

Installed version

Download the latest installer from the Releases page and run HearsaySetup.exe. The app appears in your Start Menu and Add/Remove Programs.

Silent install (RMM / SCCM / Intune)

HearsaySetup.exe /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /NORESTART

Installs to C:\Program Files\Hearsay for all users. Hearsay starts automatically at login. To skip auto-start:

HearsaySetup.exe /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /NORESTART /TASKS=""

Uninstall silently:

"C:\Program Files\Hearsay\unins000.exe" /VERYSILENT

Usage

1. Right-click the tray icon
2. Choose Start Recording > System Audio, Microphone, or Both
3. Audio is transcribed in real-time -- open Live Transcript to watch
4. Stop Recording when done -- a timestamped .md file is saved to your output directory

Hardware Requirements

Setup	Recommended Model	Speed
NVIDIA GPU (6+ GB VRAM)	turbo (float16)	~8x real-time
NVIDIA GPU (4 GB VRAM)	small.en (float16)	~4x real-time
CPU only	small.en (int8)	~1x real-time

A 1-hour recording transcribes in ~7 min on GPU or ~60 min on CPU.

Project Structure

src/hearsay/
├── __init__.py              # Version string
├── __main__.py              # Entry point
├── app.py                   # Application orchestrator
├── config.py                # AppConfig + ConfigManager (JSON in %APPDATA%)
├── constants.py             # App name, model table, defaults
├── audio/
│   ├── devices.py           # Enumerate loopback + mic devices
│   ├── recorder.py          # AudioRecorder thread
│   ├── mixer.py             # Mix two audio streams
│   └── resampler.py         # Resample to 16kHz mono float32
├── transcription/
│   ├── gpu_detect.py        # Detect CUDA, recommend model
│   ├── model_manager.py     # Download and cache Whisper models
│   ├── engine.py            # TranscriptionEngine (faster-whisper)
│   └── pipeline.py          # TranscriptionPipeline thread
├── output/
│   ├── formatter.py         # Timestamp formatting
│   └── markdown_writer.py   # Write .md transcripts
├── ui/
│   ├── tray.py              # System tray icon (pystray)
│   ├── wizard.py            # First-run setup wizard
│   ├── live_view.py         # Live transcript window
│   ├── about_window.py      # About dialog
│   ├── settings_window.py   # Settings editor
│   ├── icons.py             # Programmatic icon generation
│   └── theme.py             # customtkinter theme
└── utils/
    ├── paths.py             # %APPDATA%\Hearsay directories
    ├── logging_setup.py     # File + console logging
    └── threading_utils.py   # StoppableThread, safe_after

Building

Prerequisites

1. Python 3.11+
2. Project dependencies: pip install -r requirements.txt
3. PyInstaller: pip install pyinstaller
4. Inno Setup 6+: winget install JRSoftware.InnoSetup

Build steps

# 1. Bundle the app with PyInstaller (output in dist\Hearsay\)
build.bat

# 2. Compile the Windows installer
iscc installer.iss

The installer is written to installer_output\HearsaySetup.exe.

Releasing

See RELEASING.md for instructions on creating GitHub releases with the installer attached. This is a reference for the author and LLM when updating the application.

Tech Stack

• Python 3.11+
• faster-whisper -- CTranslate2-based Whisper inference
• PyAudioWPatch -- WASAPI loopback recording
• sounddevice -- Microphone capture
• customtkinter -- Modern UI
• pystray + Pillow -- System tray
• PyInstaller + Inno Setup -- Build and install

Contact

Robert Parks
raparks.com

License

MIT -- free to use, modify, and distribute for any purpose (personal or commercial). See LICENSE for full text.