alsamixer-0.5(1)

Options

-h, -help

Help: show available flags.

-c <card number>

Select the soundcard to use, if you have more than one. Cards are numbered from 0 (the default).

-m <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 amixer, arecord, and aplay.

-e

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 TAB.

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.

M toggles muting for the current channel (both left and right). You can mute left and right independently by using , and . respectively.

SPACE 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.

R toggle display of playback or record mixer.

L re-draws the screen.

TAB toggles the mode for volume display. See description for the -e flag above.

Quick Volume Changes

PageUp increases volume by 10.

PageDown decreases volume by 10.

Home sets volume to maximum.

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.

Exiting

Quit the program with ALT Q, or by hitting ESC.