Provided by: alsa-utils_1.2.9-1ubuntu1_amd64 bug

NAME

       alsamixer - soundcard mixer for ALSA soundcard driver, with ncurses interface

SYNOPSIS

       alsamixer [options]

DESCRIPTION

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

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
              Help: show available flags.

       -c, --card <card number or identification>
              Select the soundcard to use, if you have more than one. Cards are numbered  from  0
              (the default).

       -D, --device <device identification>
              Select the mixer device to control.

       -V, --view <mode>
              Select the starting view mode, either playback, capture or all.

       -B, --black-background
              Use the black background color.

       -g, --no-color
              Toggle the using of colors.

MIXER VIEWS

       The  top-left  corner  of alsamixer shows some basic information: the card name, the mixer
       chip name, the current view mode and the currently selected mixer item.   When  the  mixer
       item is switched off, [Off] is displayed in its name.

       Volume  bars are located below the basic information area.  You can scroll left/right when
       all controls can't be put in a single screen.  The name of each control is  shown  in  the
       bottom  below  the  volume  bars.   The  currently  selected  item  is drawn in red and/or
       emphasized.

       Each mixer control with volume capability shows a box and the  current  volume  filled  in
       that  box.   The  volume percentages are displayed below the volume bar for left and right
       channels.  For a mono control, only one value is shown there.

       When a mixer control is turned off, M (mute) appears below  the  volume  bar.   When  it's
       turned on, O in green appears instead.  You can toggle the switch via m key.

       When  a  mixer  control  has capture capability, the capture flag appears below the volume
       bar, too.  When the capture is turned off, ------- is shown.  CAPTURE in red appears  when
       the  capture  switch  is turned on.  In addition, L and R letters appear in left and right
       side to indicate that left and the right channels are turned on.

       Some controls have the enumeration list,  and  don't  show  boxes  but  only  texts  which
       indicate the currently active item.  You can change the item via up/down keys.

VIEW MODES

       alsamixer has three view modes: playback, capture and all.  In the playback view, only the
       controls related with playback are  shown.   Similarly,  only  the  controls  for  capture
       (recording)  are  shown  in  the capture view.  The all view mode shows all controls.  The
       current view mode is displayed in the top-left position together with the mixer name, etc.

       The default view mode is the playback view.  You can change it via -V option.

       Each view mode can be switched via keyboard commands, too.  See the next section.

KEYBOARD COMMANDS

       alsamixer recognizes the following keyboard commands to control the  soundcard.   Commands
       shown  here  in  upper  case  can  also  be  given in lower case.  To be reminded of these
       keystrokes, hit the h key.

   General Controls
       The Left and right arrow keys are used to select the channel (or device, depending on your
       preferred terminology). You can also use n ("next") and p ("previous").

       The  Up and Down Arrows control the volume for the currently selected device. You can also
       use + or - for the same purpose. Both  the  left  and  right  signals  are  affected.  For
       independent left and right control, see below.

       The B or = key adjusts the balance of volumes on left and right channels.

       M  toggles muting for the current channel (both left and right).  If the hardware supports
       it, you can mute left and right independently by using , (or <) and . (or >) respectively.

       SPACE enables recording for the current channel. If  any  other  channels  have  recording
       enabled, they will have their recording function disabled first. This only works for valid
       input channels, of course.

       L re-draws the screen.

   View Mode Controls
       Function keys are used to change view modes.  You can switch to the help mode and the proc
       info  mode  via  F1  and F2 keys, respectively.  On terminals that can't use function keys
       like gnome-terminal, ? and / keys can be used alternatively for help and proc modes.

       F3, F4 and  F5  keys  are  used  to  switch  to  playback,  capture  and  all  view  mode,
       respectively.  TAB key toggles the current view mode circularly.

   Quick Volume Changes
       PageUp increases volume by 5.

       PageDown decreases volume by 5.

       End sets volume to 0.

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

       [Q | W | E ]  -- turn UP [ left | both | right ]

       [Z | X | C ] -- turn DOWN [ left | both | right ]

       If the currently selected mixer channel is not a stereo channel, then  all  UP  keys  will
       work like W, and all DOWN keys will work like X.

       The number keys from 0 to 9 are to change the absolute volume quickly.  They correspond to
       0 to 90% volume.

   Selecting the Sound Card
       You can select another sound card by pressing the F6 or S keys.  This will show a list  of
       available sound cards to choose from, and an entry to enter the mixer device name by hand.

   Exiting
       Quit  the  program  with ALT Q, or by hitting ESC.  Please note that you might need to hit
       ESC twice on some terminals since it's regarded as a prefix key.

VOLUME MAPPING

       In alsamixer, the volume is mapped to a value that is more natural for a human  ear.   The
       mapping  is designed so that the position in the interval is proportional to the volume as
       a human ear would perceive it, i.e. the position is the cubic root of  the  linear  sample
       multiplication  factor.   For  controls with a small range (24 dB or less), the mapping is
       linear in the dB values so that each step has the same size visually.

       Only for controls without dB information, a linear mapping of the hardware volume register
       values is used (this is the same algorithm as used in the old alsamixer).

FILES

       Configuration is read from the following files:

       $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/alsamixer.rc

       $HOME/.config/alsamixer.rc

CONFIGURATION

       Comments start with '#'.

       color element foreground background [attribute...]

              Valid  values for foreground and background are: red, green, yellow, blue, magenta,
              cyan, white, black, none / default.

              Valid values for attribute are: bold,  normal,  reverse,  underline,  dim,  italic,
              blink.

              See section THEME ELEMENTS for a list of elements.

       set option value

              mouse_wheel_step <N>

              Set the mouse wheel step to <N>

              mouse_wheel_focuses_control 0|1

              If  enabled  (1), mixer controls can be changed by hovering over them and scrolling
              the mouse wheel.

              background color

              Set the default background color

       bind key_definition command

              A key_definition may be:
                 - a single character
                 - a combination with control: C-a
                 - a combination with alt: M-a
                 - a special keyname: Enter, Escape, PageUp, PageDown,  Left,  Down,  Right,  Up,
              Home, End, Backspace, F1 .. F12

              See section COMMANDS for a list of commands.

   COMMANDS
       textbox_close
              Close textbox

       textbox_up / textbox_down
              Scroll text up/down by one line

       textbox_left / textbox_right
              Scroll text left/right by one column

       textbox_page_up / textbox_page_down
              Scroll text up/down one page

       textbox_page_left / textbox_page_right
              Scroll text left/right one page

       textbox_top / textbox_bottom
              Go to top/bottom position of text

       mixer_balance_volumes
              Balance both channels

       mixer_close
              Close alsamixer application

       mixer_help
              Show help

       mixer_mode_playback
              Show playback controls

       mixer_mode_capture
              Show capture controls

       mixer_mode_all
              Show playback and capture controls

       mixer_mode_toggle
              Toggle between playback/capture/all controls

       mixer_refresh
              Refresh screen

       mixer_previous / mixer_next
              Select previous/next mixer control

       mixer_control_focus_<N>
              Focus control number <N>.

       mixer_control_set_<N>[_left|_right]
              Change volume of current control to <N> percent.

       mixer_control_up_<N>[_left|_right]
              Increase volume of current control by <N> percent.

       mixer_control_down_<N>[_left|_right]
              Decrease volume of current control by <N> percent.

       mixer_toggle_mute[_left|_right]
              Toggle mute state of both/left/right channels

       mixer_toggle_capture[_left|_right]
              Toggle capture state of both/left/right channels

       mixer_select_card
              Show window for selecting sound card

       mixer_system_information
              Show system information

   THEME ELEMENTS
       mixer_frame Color of the box around the mixer

       mixer_text Color of text at the top of the mixer

       mixer_active Color of AlsaMixer heading

       ctl_frame Color of the frame around the mixer controls

       ctl_mute Color indicating the mute state (MM)

       ctl_nomute Color indicating the unmute state (00)

       ctl_capture Color of CAPTURE text

       ctl_nocapture Colof of disabled capture label

       ctl_label Color of label underneath mixer controls

       ctl_label_focus Color of label underneath focused mixer control

       ctl_mark_focus Color of <> marks beside focused mixer label

       ctl_bar_lo Color of lower volume bar

       ctl_bar_mi Color of middle volume bar

       ctl_bar_hi Color of top volume bar

       ctl_inactive Color for inactive control

       ctl_label_inactive Color for inactive label

       errormsg Color used for error message

       infomsg Color used for information message

       textbox Color used for textbox (user input)

       textfield Color used for textbox

       menu Color used for menu

       menu_selected Color used for selected entry in menu

SEE ALSO

        amixer(1), aplay(1), arecord(1)

AUTHOR

       alsamixer  has  been  written  by  Tim  Janik and been further improved by Jaroslav Kysela
       <perex@perex.cz> and Clemens Ladisch <clemens@ladisch.de>.

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

                                           22 May 2009                               ALSAMIXER(1)