.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 Select the soundcard to use, if you have more than one. Cards are numbered from 1 (the default). .TP \fI-m\fP 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 None known. 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 \fBalsamixer\fP is by Jaroslav Kysela This document is by Paul Winkler .