Executing command line programs from within python

The subprocess module is the preferred way of running other programs from Python -- much more flexible and nicer to use than os.system.

import subprocess
#subprocess.check_output(['ls', '-l'])  # All that is technically needed...
print(subprocess.check_output(['ls', '-l']))

This whole setup seems a little unstable to me.

Talk to the ffmpegx folks about having a GUI front-end over a command-line backend. It doesn't seem to bother them.

Indeed, I submit that a GUI (or web) front-end over a command-line backend is actually more stable, since you have a very, very clean interface between GUI and command. The command can evolve at a different pace from the web, as long as the command-line options are compatible, you have no possibility of breakage.

I am not familiar with sox, but instead of making repeated calls to the program as a command line, is it possible to set it up as a service and connect to it for requests? You can take a look at the connection interface such as sqlite for inspiration.