This is a first for me in terms of Linux developement so please excuse the gaps in my question (which I previously posted in the wrong section of this site!): I need to develop a command line based utility for eventual use with web focused languages that can take an mp3, read the waveform data, and output either A: a graphical representation of the waveform in a common image format or B: An array containing values that could be used to graph the waveform at a later date. Option B would be ideal but A might work too.

I know I haven't mentioned what language I want to try to program it in but I was hoping you could point me in the right direction so that I might have an idea as to where to start. The end use is going to be on a linux/apache server combo.

You can do it in many languages. The thing is how non-standard your processing is. You can have a library that reads mp3 and another one that can write png or gif. I'd start from defining the requirements clearly. Especially: what kind of mp3/graphics format support you need/would like to have.

Ideally I would like to be able to support 128kbps MP3s and output an EPS for the graphic format.