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MIXER(8) System Manager's Manual MIXER(8) NAME mixer -- manipulate soundcard mixer controls SYNOPSIS mixer [-f device] [-d pcmX | X] [-os] [dev[.control[=value]]] ... mixer [-os] -a mixer -h DESCRIPTION The mixer utility is used to set and display soundcard mixer device controls. The options are as follows: -a Print the values for all mixer devices available in the system (see "FILES"). -d pcmX | X Change the default audio card to pcmX, where X is the de- vice's unit number (e.g for pcm0, the unit number is 0). See "EXAMPLES" on how to list all available audio devices in the system. -f device Open device as the mixer device (see "FILES"). -h Print a help message. -o Print mixer values in a format suitable for use inside scripts. The mixer's header (name, audio card name, ...) will not be printed. -s Print only the recording source(s) of the mixer device. The list of mixer devices that may be modified are: vol, bass, treble, synth, pcm, speaker, line, mic, cd, mix, pcm2, rec, igain, ogain, line1, line2, line3, dig1, dig2, dig3, phin, phout, video, radio, and monitor. Not all mixer devices are available. Without any arguments, mixer displays all information for each one of the mixer's supported devices to stdout. If the dev argument is speci- fied, mixer displays only the values for dev. More than one device may be specified. Commands use the following format: Name Action dev Display all controls dev.control Display only the specified control dev.control=value Set control value The available controls are as follows (replace dev with one of the available devices): Name Value dev.volume vol|[+|-]lvol[%][:[+|-]rvol[%]] dev.mute 0|1|^ dev.mute off|on|toggle dev.recsrc ^|+|-|= dev.recsrc toggle|add|remove|set The dev.volume control modifies a device's volume. The optional lvol and/or rvol values have to be specified. The values should typically be decimal numbers between 0 and 1 with at most 2 digits after the dec- imal point. A trailing percent sign indicates that the value should be treated as a percentage of 1.0, rather than an absolute value. Thus, 70% means the same as 0.7. If the left or right volume values are pre- fixed with + or -, the value following will be used as a relative ad- justment, modifying the current settings by the amount specified. Note that relative percentages are still relative to 1.0, not to the current value. If the volume is currently 0.40 and an adjustment of +20% is specified, then thet final volume will be set to 0.60. Volume can also be set using the shorthand dev=value. This syntax does not apply to other controls. The dev.mute control (un)mutes a device. The following values are available: 0 | off unmutes dev 1 | on mutes dev ^ | toggle toggles the mute of dev The dev.recsrc control modifies the recording sources of a mixer. mixer marks devices which can be used as a recording source with rec. Recording sources are marked with src. To modify the recording source you can use one of the following modifiers on a rec device: ^ | toggle toggles dev of possible recording devices + | add adds dev to possible recording devices - | remove removes dev from possible recording devices = | set makes dev the only recording device. FILES /dev/mixerX The mixer device, where X is the unit number of that de- vice, /dev/dsp* devices and /dev/mixer* devices have a 1:1 relationship, which means that, for instance, /dev/mixer0 is the mixer device for /dev/dsp0. /dev/mixer Alias to the default device's mixer device. mixer opens this when the -f device option is not specified. EXAMPLES List all available audio devices in the system: $ mixer -a | grep ^pcm Increase the vol device's volume by 5%: $ mixer vol=+5% Change the volume for the vol device of the /dev/mixer0 mixer device to 0.65: $ mixer -f /dev/mixer0 vol.volume=0.65 Increase the mic device's left volume by 0.10 and decrease the right volume by 0.05: $ mixer mic.volume=+0.10:-0.05 Toggle the mute for vol: $ mixer vol.mute=toggle Add mic and remove line from the recording devices: $ mixer mic.recsrc=add line.recsrc=remove Dump /dev/mixer0 information to a file and retrieve back later: $ mixer -f /dev/mixer0 -o > info ... $ mixer -f /dev/mixer0 `cat info` SEE ALSO mixer(3), sound(4), sysctl(8) HISTORY The mixer utility first appeared in FreeBSD 2.0.5 and was rewritten completely in FreeBSD 14.0. AUTHORS Christos Margiolis <christos@FreeBSD.org> FreeBSD ports 15.quarterly February 26, 2026 MIXER(8)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | FILES | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | AUTHORS
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