> For example, here’s a script I use to print out 80 zeroes (or a specific number of zeroes) 

Also...

  # Print 80 0's and flush 
  printf %.1s 0{1..80} $'\n'
  # Alternatively
  for i in {1..80}; do echo -n 0; done; echo

For the ffmpeg example is this any different from

  ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -c:v copy -filter:a volumedetect -pass 1 -f null /dev/null &&\
  ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -c:v copy -filter:a "loudnorm" -pass 2 out.mp4

The python seems more complicated tbh