AMIXER(1)

✨ AMIXER(1) — the ALSA mixer manual, bestie 🎀

Okay so amixer is literally the command-line mixer for the ALSA soundcard driver, and it's giving main character energy 💅 NAME, SYNOPSIS, DESCRIPTION, and all the rest, let's gooo 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

amixer — command-line mixer for ALSA soundcard driver 🌸

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

amixer [-option] [cmd]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

Okay bestie, so amixer lets you control the mixer for the ALSA soundcard driver straight from the command line 🎧 And it supports multiple soundcards, so you're not stuck with just one, iykyk ✨

Running amixer with no arguments shows you the current mixer settings for the default soundcard and device. It's lowkey the best way to see which simple mixer controls you can actually use 🫶

✨ COMMANDS ✨

• help — shows the syntax 💖
• info — shows info about a mixer device 🔥
• scontrols — shows a full list of simple mixer controls 🌈
• scontents — shows a full list of simple mixer controls with their contents 💜
• set or sset <SCONTROL> <PARAMETER> ... — sets the simple mixer control contents 🎀

Ngl this one is the star of the show. The parameter can be a volume as a percentage from 0% to 100% with the % suffix, a dB gain with the dB suffix (like -12.5dB), or an exact hardware value. dB gain only works on mixer elements that actually have dB info, so keep that in mind 🙈 When you tack a plus + or minus - onto the volume value, it bumps the volume up or down from whatever it currently is, respectively ✨

The parameters cap, nocap, mute, unmute, and toggle change capture (recording) and muting for the group you specified 🦋

You can slip optional modifiers in as extra parameters before the value. playback and capture pick the stream direction, and front, frontleft, frontright, frontcenter, center, rear, rearright, rearleft, and woofer pick which channels get changed 💅

You must specify a simple mixer control, and only one device can be controlled at a time, so no multitasking here, bestie 🫶

• get or sget <SCONTROL> — shows the simple mixer control contents 👑

You have to specify a simple mixer control, and again only one device can be controlled at a time 🌸

• controls — shows a full list of card controls 🧚
• contents — shows a full list of card controls with their contents 🍓
• cset <CONTROL> <PARAMETER> ... — sets the card control contents 💖

The identifier has these components: iface, name, index, device, subdevice, numid. The next argument specifies the value of the control ✨

• cget <CONTROL> — shows the card control contents 🔥

The identifier uses the same syntax as the cset command 🫶

✨ ADVANCED COMMANDS ✨

• sevents — shows the events for the simple mixer controls 💜
• events — shows the events for the mixer controls 🌈

✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -c card — picks the card number you want to control 🎀

The device name made from this parameter looks like hw:N, where N is the card number you gave 💅

• -D device — picks the device name to control 🦋

If you don't set it, the default control name is 'default' 🌸

• -s, --stdin — reads from stdin and runs the command on each line, one after another 🫶

When this option is on, the command in the command-line arguments gets ignored, so don't be confused 🙈

Only sset and cset are accepted. Every other command gets ignored. Commands aimed at unmatched ids also get ignored, and no errors are thrown either 💀

• -f file, --file file — reads from the given file and runs the command on each line, one after another 🧚

When this option is on, the command in the command-line arguments gets ignored, bestie 💖

Only sset and cset are accepted. Other commands are ignored. Commands to unmatched ids are ignored too, with no errors 🍓

• -h — help, shows the syntax ✨
• -q — quiet mode, so it doesn't show the results of your changes 🤫
• -R — uses the raw value to evaluate the percentage representation. This is the default mode, so you get it without asking 👑
• -M — uses the mapped volume to evaluate the percentage representation, just like alsamixer, so it feels more natural to human ears 🎧

✨ EXAMPLES ✨

amixer -c 1 sset Line,0 80%,40% unmute cap

This sets the second soundcard's left line input volume to 80% and the right line input to 40%, unmutes it, and selects it as a source for capture (recording) 🎤

amixer -c 1 -- sset Master playback -20dB

This sets the master volume of the second card to -20dB. If the master has multiple channels, they're all set to the same value 🔊

amixer -c 1 set PCM 2dB+

This increases the PCM volume of the second card by 2dB. When both playback and capture volumes exist, it gets applied to both of them 📈

amixer -c 2 cset iface=MIXER,name='Line Playback Volume",index=1 40%

This sets the third soundcard's second line playback volume(s) to 40% 🌈

amixer -c 2 cset numid=34 40%

This sets the 34th soundcard element to 40% 💫

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

• alsamixer(1) 🦋

✨ BUGS ✨

No bugs known, bestie 🥳

✨ AUTHOR ✨

amixer is by Jaroslav Kysela <perex@perex.cz>. This document is by Paul Winkler <zarmzarm@erols.com> and Jaroslav Kysela <perex@perex.cz> 💜

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Bye bestie, this manual was dated 11 Aug 2000 and came from the amixer(1) pages 🌸💖 Stay iconic! ✨