pulsemixer

CLI and curses mixer for PulseAudio

Requirements

• Python >= 3.3
• PulseAudio >= 1.0

Installation

Pulsemixer is a self-sufficient single-file python app that doesn't require any extra libraries. You can simply download pulsemixer manually, do chmod +x ./pulsemixer and put it anywhere you want.

Below are some more convenient ways to install pulsemixer:

curl

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GeorgeFilipkin/pulsemixer/master/pulsemixer > pulsemixer && chmod +x ./pulsemixer

pip

pip install pulsemixer

Interactive mode

Interactive mode is used if no arguments are given (except --color and --server)

Interactive controls:

 j k   ↑ ↓               Navigation
 h l   ← →               Change volume
 H L   Shift←  Shift→    Change volume by 10
 1 2 3 .. 8 9 0          Set volume to 10%-100%
 m                       Mute/Unmute
 Space                   Lock/Unlock channels
 Enter                   Context menu
 F1 F2 F3                Change modes
 Tab   Shift Tab         Next/Previous mode
 Mouse click             Select device or mode
 Mouse wheel             Volume change
 Esc q                   Quit

Via context menu it is possible to set-default-sink, set-default-source, move-sink-input, move-source-output, suspend-sink, suspend-source, set-sink-port, set-source-port, kill-client, kill-sink-input, kill-source-output, set-card-profile. See man pactl for details on these features.

CLI

Usage of pulsemixer:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -v, --version         print version
  -l, --list            list everything
  --list-sources        list sources
  --list-sinks          list sinks
  --id ID               specify ID, default sink is used if no ID specified
  --get-volume          get volume for ID
  --set-volume n        set volume for ID
  --set-volume-all n:n  set volume for ID, for every channel
  --change-volume +-n   change volume for ID
  --max-volume n        set volume to n if volume is higher than n
  --get-mute            get mute for ID
  --mute                mute ID
  --unmute              unmute ID
  --toggle-mute         toggle mute for ID
  --server              choose the server to connect to
  --color n             0 no color, 1 color currently selected, 2 full-color
  --no-mouse            disable mouse support
  --create-config       generate configuration file

CLI examples

Pulsemixer follows PulseAudio's terminology:

• Sink - an output device.
• Source - an input device.
• Sink input - a stream that is connected to an output device, i.e. an input for a sink.
• Source output - a stream that is connected to an input device, i.e. an output of a source.

$ pulsemixer --list
Sink:          ID: sink-1, Name: Built-in Stereo, Mute: 0, Channels: 2, Volumes: ['60%', '60%'], Default
Sink:          ID: sink-3, Name: HDMI Audio (HDMI 2), Mute: 0, Channels: 2, Volumes: ['50%', '50%']
Sink input:    ID: sink-input-663, Name: Firefox, Mute: 0, Channels: 2, Volumes: ['60%', '60%']
Sink input:    ID: sink-input-686, Name: mocp, Mute: 0, Channels: 2, Volumes: ['60%', '60%']
Source:        ID: source-1, Name: HDMI Audio (HDMI 2), Mute: 0, Channels: 2, Volumes: ['100%', '100%']
Source:        ID: source-2, Name: Built-in Stereo, Mute: 0, Channels: 2, Volumes: ['40%', '40%'], Default
Source output: ID: source-output-7, Name: arecord, Mute: 0, Channels: 1, Volumes: ['40%]

Print volume of the default sink, decrease by 5, print new volume:

$ pulsemixer --get-volume --change-volume -5 --get-volume
60 60
55 55

Toggle mute of source-1, print mute status:

$ pulsemixer --id source-1 --toggle-mute --get-mute
1

Set volume of sink-input-663 to 50, then set volume of sink-3 to 10 (left channel) and 30 (right channel):

$ pulsemixer --id sink-input-663 --set-volume 50 --id sink-3 --set-volume-all 10:30

Increase volume of sink-input-686 by 10 but don't get past 100:

$ pulsemixer --id sink-input-686 --change-volume +10 --max-volume 100

Configuration

Optional. The config file will not be created automatically. Do pulsemixer --create-config or copy-paste it from here.

;; Goes into ~/.config/pulsemixer.cfg, $XDG_CONFIG_HOME respected
;; Everything that starts with "#" or ";" is a comment
;; For the option to take effect simply uncomment it

[general]
step = 1
step-big = 10
; server =

[keys]
;; To bind "special keys" such as arrows see "Key constant" table in
;; https://docs.python.org/3/library/curses.html#constants
; up        = k, KEY_UP, KEY_PPAGE
; down      = j, KEY_DOWN, KEY_NPAGE
; left      = h, KEY_LEFT
; right     = l, KEY_RIGHT
; left-big  = H, KEY_SLEFT
; right-big = L, KEY_SRIGHT
; top       = g, KEY_HOME
; bottom    = G, KEY_END
; mode1     = KEY_F1
; mode2     = KEY_F2
; mode3     = KEY_F3
; next-mode = KEY_TAB
; prev-mode = KEY_BTAB
; mute      = m
; lock      = ' '  ; 'space', quotes are stripped
; quit      = q, KEY_ESC

[ui]
; hide-unavailable-profiles = no
; hide-unavailable-ports = no
; color = 2    ; same as --color, 0 no color, 1 color currently selected, 2 full-color
; mouse = yes

[style]
;; Pulsemixer will use these characters to draw interface
;; Single characters only
; bar-top-left       = ┌
; bar-left-mono      = ╶
; bar-top-right      = ┐
; bar-right-mono     = ╴
; bar-bottom-left    = └
; bar-bottom-right   = ┘
; bar-on             = ▮
; bar-on-muted       = ▯
; bar-off            = -
; arrow              = ' '
; arrow-focused      = ─
; arrow-locked       = ─
; default-stream     = *
; info-locked        = L
; info-unlocked      = U
; info-muted         = M  ; 🔇
; info-unmuted       = M  ; 🔉

[renames]
;; Changes stream names in interactive mode, regular expression are supported
;; https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax
; 'default name example' = 'new name'
; '(?i)built-in .* audio' = 'Audio Controller'
; 'AudioIPC Server' = 'Firefox'

The old environment variable PULSEMIXER_BAR_STYLE is still supported. To change the volume bar's appearance in (e.g.) zsh without creating the config file:

export PULSEMIXER_BAR_STYLE="╭╶╮╴╰╯◆◇· ──"

See also

python-pulse-control - Python high-level interface and ctypes-based bindings for PulseAudio.