AMIXER(1) General Commands Manual AMIXER(1)
NAME
amixer - command-line mixer for ALSA soundcard driver
SYNOPSIS
amixer [-option] [cmd]
DESCRIPTION
amixer allows command-line control of the mixer for the ALSA soundcard
driver. amixer supports multiple soundcards.
amixer with no arguments will display the current mixer settings for the
default soundcard and device. This is a good way to see a list of the
simple mixer controls you can use.
COMMANDS
help Shows syntax.
info Shows the information about a mixer device.
scontrols
Shows a complete list of simple mixer controls.
scontents
Shows a complete list of simple mixer controls with their con-
tents.
set or sset <SCONTROL> <PARAMETER> ...
Sets the simple mixer control contents. The parameter can be the
volume either as a percentage from 0% to 100% with % suffix, a dB
gain with dB suffix (like -12.5dB), or an exact hardware value.
The dB gain can be used only for the mixer elements with avail-
able dB information. When plus(+) or minus(-) letter is appended
after volume value, the volume is incremented or decremented from
the current value, respectively.
The parameters cap, nocap, mute, unmute, toggle are used to
change capture (recording) and muting for the group specified.
The optional modifiers can be put as extra parameters before the
value to specify the stream direction or channels to apply. The
modifiers playback and capture specify the stream, and the modi-
fiers front, frontleft, frontright, frontcenter, center, rear,
rearright, rearleft, woofer are used to specify channels to be
changed.
A simple mixer control must be specified. Only one device can be
controlled at a time.
get or sget <SCONTROL>
Shows the simple mixer control contents.
A simple mixer control must be specified. Only one device can be
controlled at a time.
controls
Shows a complete list of card controls.
contents
Shows a complete list of card controls with their contents.
cset <CONTROL> <PARAMETER> ...
Sets the card control contents. The identifier has these compo-
nents: iface, name, index, device, subdevice, numid. The next ar-
gument specifies the value of control.
cget <CONTROL>
Shows the card control contents. The identifier has same syntax
as for 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
Select the card number to control. The device name created from
this parameter has syntax 'hw:N' where N is specified card num-
ber.
-D device
Select the device name to control. The default control name is
'default'.
-s | --stdin
Read from stdin and execute the command on each line sequen-
tially. When this option is given, the command in command-line
arguments is ignored.
Only sset and cset are accepted. Other commands are ignored.
The commands to unmatched ids are ignored without errors too.
-h Help: show syntax.
-q Quiet mode. Do not show results of changes.
-R Use the raw value for evaluating the percentage representation.
This is the default mode.
-M Use the mapped volume for evaluating the percentage representa-
tion like alsamixer, to be more natural for human ear.
EXAMPLES
amixer -c 1 sset Line,0 80%,40% unmute cap
will set the second soundcard's left line input volume to 80% and
right line input to 40%, unmute it, and select it as a source for
capture (recording).
amixer -c 1 -- sset Master playback -20dB
will set the master volume of the second card to -20dB. If the
master has multiple channels, all channels are set to the same
value.
amixer -c 1 set PCM 2dB+
will increase the PCM volume of the second card with 2dB. When
both playback and capture volumes exist, this is applied to both
volumes.
amixer -c 2 cset iface=MIXER,name='Line Playback Volume",index=1 40%
will set the third soundcard's second line playback volume(s) to
40%
amixer -c 2 cset numid=34 40%
will set the 34th soundcard element to 40%
SEE ALSO
alsamixer(1)
BUGS
None known.
AUTHOR
amixer is by Jaroslav Kysela <perex@perex.cz>. This document is by Paul
Winkler <zarmzarm@erols.com> and Jaroslav Kysela <perex@perex.cz>.
11 Aug 2000 AMIXER(1)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Sat Oct 3 08:36:01 CEST 2026.