new_contents: # https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6867675/audio-recording-in-python
  
  import alsaaudio, wave, numpy
  
  inp = alsaaudio.PCM(alsaaudio.PCM_CAPTURE)
  inp.setchannels(1)
  inp.setrate(44100)
  inp.setformat(alsaaudio.PCM_FORMAT_S16_LE)
  inp.setperiodsize(1024)
  
  w = wave.open('test.wav', 'w')
  w.setnchannels(1)
  w.setsampwidth(2)
  w.setframerate(44100)
  
  while True:
      l, data = inp.read()
      a = numpy.fromstring(data, dtype='int16')
      print numpy.abs(a).mean()
      w.writeframes(data)
  
subject: add recording example