muttr 1.0.0

Muttr. Mute all inputs, or change audio outputs and inputs easily.

Mute all inputs, or change audio outputs and inputs easily.

So, you’re in a meeting a need to mute yourself (all microphones!), independently of the application you’re running? Done.

You’re done with your meeting, you put your headset down and want to listen to music in a different audio output? Done.

Your colleague said, hey, can we do a quick meeting? Angrily, you pause your music and grab your headset. Do I need to change the audio input and output back to my headset? Yes? Done.

So, what’s Muttr?

Muttr is a tool specially made for COVID-19 pandemic working from home people.

It allows to:

• Mute all sources (microphones) at the same time, in case the application is getting audio from a different source of the one you think its on.

  Am I muted? Am I muted? Yes, you are!

• To mute independently of the application you’re running (Slack, Zoom, Teams) because it mutes the sound server from the operating system (PulseAudio).

  What was the hotkey for Slack? Oh wait that’s the hotkey for Teams! Where is that damn mute button and why it is so small and hidden and dark?

• To change between audio profiles, for example, to quickly change to your headset before a meeting, and then change back to your speakers to listen music.

  Yay meeting is no more, music fun times, oh wait forget about it.

Muttr uses PulseAudio API to do all of this, so it is supported in operating systems that use PulseAudio to control the audio devices. For example, Ubuntu, and many other Linux based operating systems.

With Muttr you can configure audio profiles, that is, what audio devices, their inputs and outputs (sources and sinks, in PulseAudio terminology) you want to use at a determined point in time.

You can mute, unmute, or swap between those audio profiles using the CLI. Or you can assign a key combination, start the Muttr daemon and perform those actions using your keyboard. This is great when using macropads!

Install

$ sudo pip3 install muttr
$ muttr --version

Getting Started

Mute and unmute

$ muttr mute
$ muttr unmute

The above will mute and unmute all audio sources in the system.

If for any reason there is the need to restrict the audio sources to mute the following configuration entry may be used:

[muttr.muter]
sources = ["first_source", "second_source"]

Create a config.toml with the above entry and run Muttr with:

$ muttr -c config.toml mute
$ muttr -c config.toml unmute

Use the following command to identify which sources are available in your system:

$ muttr show

Create and change audio profiles

First, connect all your devices (Bluetooth headsets, for example), and run:

$ muttr show

A complete tree of your audio system will print.

Create a file config.toml and fill the profiles you need like this:

[muttr.changer.options.meeting]
card_profile = [
    "bluez_card.20_74_CF_92_CD_06",
    "Headset Head Unit (HSP/HFP)",
]
source = "OpenComm by Shokz"
sink = "OpenComm by Shokz"

[muttr.changer.options.music]
card_profile = [
    "bluez_card.20_74_CF_92_CD_06",
    "Headset Head Unit (HSP/HFP)",
]
sink = "M-Track 2X2M Digital Stereo (IEC958)"

[muttr.changer.options.game]
source = "SteelSeries Arctis 7 Analog Mono"
sink = "SteelSeries Arctis 7 Analog Stereo"

In this example, the system will have 3 profiles:

1. One for meetings, using a lightweight Bluetooth bone conductor headset. Not the best sound, but is good for voices and is the most comfortable for those long meetings.

2. One for listening music, using an external interface connected to some great monitor speakers.

3. One for gaming, a large over-ear headphones, awesome sound. Perfect for immersive experiences.

Once ready, change between audio profiles using:

$ muttr -c config.toml change music
$ muttr -c config.toml change meeting
$ muttr -c config.toml change game

As noted, at least a sink or a source needs to be declared. In many situations there may be the need to change the profile the card associated with the source or sink is using. In those situations, use the card_profile and specify which card and card profile to use when changing to that audio profile.

Enable system wide mode and hotkeys

To enable kotkeys to change mute/unmute and change between audio profiles run Muttr as a daemon:

$ muttr -c config.toml daemon

By default, the following hotkeys are supported:

[muttr.daemon]
hotkey_mute = "<ctrl>+<alt>+m"
hotkey_unmute = "<ctrl>+<alt>+u"
hotkey_mute_toggle = "<cmd_l>+<alt>+m"
hotkey_change_cycle = "<cmd_l>+<alt>+c"

hotkey_mute:

Mute all sources.

hotkey_unmute:

Unmute all sources.

hotkey_mute_toggle:

Toggle between mute and unmute all sources.

hotkey_change_cycle:

Change / cycle between all configured audio profiles.

The hotkeys can be changed in your config.toml using the above snippet. Set to empty string to disable the hotkey.

To enable hotkeys to change to specific audio profiles, set the hotkey value for the audio profile in the configuration file.

Using the previous example:

[muttr.changer.options.music]
hotkey = "<cmd_l>+<alt>+1"
sink = "M-Track 2X2M Digital Stereo (IEC958)"

[muttr.changer.options.meeting]
hotkey = "<cmd_l>+<alt>+2"
card_profile = [
    "bluez_card.20_74_CF_92_CD_06",
    "Headset Head Unit (HSP/HFP)",
]
source = "OpenComm by Shokz"
sink = "OpenComm by Shokz"

[muttr.changer.options.game]
hotkey = "<cmd_l>+<alt>+3"
source = "SteelSeries Arctis 7 Analog Mono"
sink = "SteelSeries Arctis 7 Analog Stereo"

With the above configuration the hotkeys CMD+ALT+1 can be used to change to the music audio profile, and so on.

Using system wide configuration files

Muttr support the following files for system wide and/or user wide setup:

• /etc/muttr/config.toml

• ~/.config/muttr/config.toml

Configuration files will be read in that order and the last will override any configuration from the previous file. Finally, user configuration files passed using argument -c or --config are read last in the order the user passed the arguments to the CLI.

Changelog

1.0.0 (2023-04-1)

New

• Initial public version.

• Support for muting and unmuting.

• Support for audio profiles, changing and cycling.

• Support for global hotkeys and audio profile specific hotkeys.

0.1.0 (2022-05-18)

New

• Development preview.

License

Copyright (C) 2017-2023 KuraLabs S.R.L

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
software distributed under the License is distributed on an
"AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
specific language governing permissions and limitations
under the License.