alsa-utils/alsamixer/alsamixer.1

.TH ALSAMIXER 1 "25 Nov 1998"
.SH NAME
alsamixer \- soundcard mixer for ALSA soundcard driver, with ncurses interface
.SH SYNOPSIS

\fBalsamixer\fP [\fIoptions\fP]

.SH DESCRIPTION
\fBalsamixer\fP is an ncurses mixer program for use with the ALSA
soundcard drivers. It supports multiple soundcards with multiple devices.

.SH INVOKING

\fBalsamixer\fP [\fIoptions\fP]

.SS Options

.TP
\fI-h, -help\fP 
Help: show available flags.

.TP
\fI-c\fP <card number>
Select the soundcard to use, if you have more than one. Cards are
numbered from 1 (the default).

.TP
\fI-m\fP <device number>
Select the soundcard device to control, if your card has more than
one. Devices are numbered from 0 (the default). Not to be confused
with the soundcard mixer channels, which are sometimes also referred
to as "devices", just to be annoying. Many soundcards will only have
device 0. Some more complex cards may have more. This flag corresponds
to the -d flag for \fBamixer\fP, \fBarecord\fP, and \fBaplay\fP.

.TP
\fI-e\fP
Start in "exact mode." This will affect the numbers you see displayed
for volumes, but does not affect operation of the level controls.
The default behavior is to show levels in percent from 0 to 100. This
is easy to read, but can mislead you about how much control the
soundcard actually lets you have. Exact mode, on the other hand, shows
you the settings as the soundcard itself understands them. In exact
mode, each channel level is between 0 and a power of 2 minus one
(e.g. 0-7, or 0-63). Exact mode may also be toggled while alsamixer is
running, by using \fITAB\fP.

.SH KEYBOARD COMMANDS
\fBalsamixer\fP recognizes the following keyboard commands to control the soundcard. 

.SS
General Controls

The \fILeft\fP and \fIright arrow\fP keys are used to select the
channel (or device, depending on your preferred terminology). You can
also use \fIn\fP ("next") and \fIp\fP ("previous").

The \fIUp\fP and \fIDown Arrows\fP control the volume for the
currently selected device. You can also use \fI+\fP or \fI-\fP for the
same purpose. Both the left and right signals are affected. For
independent left and right control, see below.
 
\fIM\fP toggles muting for the current channel (both left and right). You can
mute left and right independently by using \fI,\fP and \fI.\fP respectively.

\fISPACE\fP toggles recording: the current channel will be added or
removed from the sources used for recording. This only works for valid
input channels, of course.

\fIR\fP toggle display of playback or record mixer.

\fIL\fP re-draws the screen.

\fITAB\fP toggles the mode for volume display. See description for the
\fI-e\fP flag above.

.SS
Quick Volume Changes

\fIPageUp\fP increases volume by 10.

\fIPageDown\fP decreases volume by 10.

\fIHome\fP sets volume to maximum.

\fIEnd\fP sets volume to 0.

You can also control left & right levels for the current channel
independently, as follows:

[\fIQ\fP | \fIW\fP | \fIE\fP ]  -- turn UP [ left | both | right ]

[\fIZ\fP | \fIX\fP | \fIC\fP ] -- turn DOWN [ left | both | right ]   

If the currently selected mixer channel is not a stereo channel, then
all UP keys will work like \fIW\fP, and all DOWN keys will work like \fIX\fP.

.SS
Exiting

Quit the program with \fIALT Q\fP, or by hitting \fIESC\fP.

.SH SEE ALSO
\fB
amixer(1),
arecord(1)
\fP

.SH BUGS 
There is no help screen implemented yet. Some terminal emulators
(e.g. \fBnxterm\fP) may not
work quite right with ncurses, but that's their own damn
fault. Plain old \fBxterm\fP seems to be fine.

.SH AUTHOR
.B alsamixer
has been written by Tim Janik <timj@gtk.org> and
been furtherly improved by Jaroslav Kysela <perex@suse.cz>.

This manual page was provided by Paul Winkler <zarmzarm@erols.com>.