1ALSAMIXER(1)                General Commands Manual               ALSAMIXER(1)
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NAME

6       alsamixer - soundcard mixer for ALSA soundcard driver, with ncurses in‐
7       terface
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SYNOPSIS

10       alsamixer [options]
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DESCRIPTION

14       alsamixer is an ncurses mixer program for use with the  ALSA  soundcard
15       drivers. It supports multiple soundcards with multiple devices.
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OPTIONS

19       -h, --help
20              Help: show available flags.
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23       -c, --card <card number or identification>
24              Select  the  soundcard  to use, if you have more than one. Cards
25              are numbered from 0 (the default).
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28       -D, --device <device identification>
29              Select the mixer device to control.
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32       -V, --view <mode>
33              Select the starting view mode, either playback, capture or all.
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36       -g, --no-color
37              Toggle the using of colors.
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MIXER VIEWS

41       The top-left corner of alsamixer shows some basic information: the card
42       name,  the mixer chip name, the current view mode and the currently se‐
43       lected mixer item.  When the mixer item is switched off, [Off] is  dis‐
44       played in its name.
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46       Volume  bars  are  located  below  the basic information area.  You can
47       scroll left/right when all controls can't be put in  a  single  screen.
48       The  name of each control is shown in the bottom below the volume bars.
49       The currently selected item is drawn in red and/of emphasized.
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51       Each mixer control with volume capability shows a box and  the  current
52       volume  filled in that box.  The volume percentages are displayed below
53       the volume bar for left and right channels.  For a mono  control,  only
54       one value is shown there.
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56       When  a  mixer control is turned off, M (mute) appears below the volume
57       bar.  When it's turned on, O in green appears instead.  You can  toggle
58       the switch via m key.
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60       When  a  mixer control has capture capability, the capture flag appears
61       below the volume bar, too.  When the capture is turned off, -------  is
62       shown.   CAPTURE  in  red appears when the capture switch is turned on.
63       In addition, L and R letters appear in left and right side to  indicate
64       that left and the right channels are turned on.
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66       Some  controls have the enumeration list, and don't show boxes but only
67       texts which indicate the currently active item.   You  can  change  the
68       item via up/down keys.
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VIEW MODES

72       alsamixer  has  three  view  modes:  playback, capture and all.  In the
73       playback view, only the controls related with playback are shown.  Sim‐
74       ilarly, only the controls for capture (recording) are shown in the cap‐
75       ture view.  The all view mode shows all  controls.   The  current  view
76       mode  is  displayed  in  the  top-left position together with the mixer
77       name, etc.
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79       The default view mode is the playback view.  You can change it  via  -V
80       option.
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82       Each  view  mode  can  be switched via keyboard commands, too.  See the
83       next section.
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KEYBOARD COMMANDS

87       alsamixer recognizes the following keyboard  commands  to  control  the
88       soundcard.   Commands  shown  here  in  upper case can also be given in
89       lower case.  To be reminded of these keystrokes, hit the h key.
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92   General Controls
93       The Left and right arrow keys are used to select the  channel  (or  de‐
94       vice,  depending  on  your  preferred  terminology). You can also use n
95       ("next") and p ("previous").
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97       The Up and Down Arrows control the volume for  the  currently  selected
98       device. You can also use + or - for the same purpose. Both the left and
99       right signals are affected. For independent left and right control, see
100       below.
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102       The  B  or = key adjusts the balance of volumes on left and right chan‐
103       nels.
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105       M toggles muting for the current channel (both left and right).  If the
106       hardware  supports it, you can mute left and right independently by us‐
107       ing , (or <) and . (or >) respectively.
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109       SPACE enables recording for the current channel. If any other  channels
110       have  recording  enabled,  they will have their recording function dis‐
111       abled first. This only works for valid input channels, of course.
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113       L re-draws the screen.
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116   View Mode Controls
117       Function keys are used to change view modes.  You  can  switch  to  the
118       help  mode and the proc info mode via F1 and F2 keys, respectively.  On
119       terminals that can't use function keys like  gnome-terminal,  ?  and  /
120       keys can be used alternatively for help and proc modes.
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122       F3, F4 and F5 keys are used to switch to playback, capture and all view
123       mode, respectively.  TAB key toggles the current view mode circularly.
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126   Quick Volume Changes
127       PageUp increases volume by 5.
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129       PageDown decreases volume by 5.
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131       End sets volume to 0.
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133       You can also control left & right levels for the current channel  inde‐
134       pendently, as follows:
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136       [Q | W | E ]  -- turn UP [ left | both | right ]
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138       [Z | X | C ] -- turn DOWN [ left | both | right ]
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140       If  the  currently selected mixer channel is not a stereo channel, then
141       all UP keys will work like W, and all DOWN keys will work like X.
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143       The number keys from 0 to 9 are to change the absolute volume  quickly.
144       They correspond to 0 to 90% volume.
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147   Selecting the Sound Card
148       You  can  select another sound card by pressing the F6 or S keys.  This
149       will show a list of available sound cards to choose from, and an  entry
150       to enter the mixer device name by hand.
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153   Exiting
154       Quit  the  program with ALT Q, or by hitting ESC.  Please note that you
155       might need to hit ESC twice on some terminals since it's regarded as  a
156       prefix key.
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VOLUME MAPPING

160       In  alsamixer, the volume is mapped to a value that is more natural for
161       a human ear.  The mapping is designed so that the position in  the  in‐
162       terval  is proportional to the volume as a human ear would perceive it,
163       i.e. the position is the cubic root of the linear sample multiplication
164       factor.   For  controls with a small range (24 dB or less), the mapping
165       is linear in the dB values so that each step has  the  same  size  vis‐
166       ually.
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168       Only for controls without dB information, a linear mapping of the hard‐
169       ware volume register values is used (this is the same algorithm as used
170       in the old alsamixer).
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SEE ALSO

174        amixer(1), aplay(1), arecord(1)
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BUGS

178       Some  terminal  emulators  (e.g.  nxterm) may not work quite right with
179       ncurses, but that's their own damn fault. Plain old xterm seems  to  be
180       fine.
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AUTHOR

184       alsamixer  has  been  written by Tim Janik and been further improved by
185       Jaroslav    Kysela     <perex@perex.cz>     and     Clemens     Ladisch
186       <clemens@ladisch.de>.
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188       This manual page was provided by Paul Winkler <zarmzarm@erols.com>.
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192                                  22 May 2009                     ALSAMIXER(1)
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