Linux Sound

• i3-volume – script to change volume and display OSD.

Mopidy: Mopify (Spotify für Mopidy, Webinterface)

• NoiseTorch – virtual microphone that suppresses noise

Next generation sound server, meant to succeed PulseAudio's janky architecture.

• PulseEffects – Effects GUI for Pipewire, older versions support PulseAudio as well.
• Helvum – GTK-based patchbay for pipewire, inspired by the JACK tool catia.
• qpwgraph – graph manager for PipeWire, very similar to QjackCtl.
• pw-viz – visualise Pipewire inputs/outputs/routing.

# toggle mute mode
pactl set-sink-mute 0 toggle
# increase volume of default sink (=sound target) in 1% steps
# warning: can exceed 100%.
pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ +1%

# lower volume and unmute
amixer set Master 5%- unmute
 
# raise volume and unmute
amixer set Master 5%+ unmute

automute.sh

#!/bin/sh
# check auto-mute state
amixer -c 1 sget "Auto-Mute Mode" | grep "Item0: 'Disabled'"
# $? is 0 if auto-mute is disabled
# $? is 1 if auto-mute is enabled
if [ "$?" -eq "0" ]; then
    amixer -c 1 sset "Auto-Mute Mode" Enabled
else
    amixer -c 1 sset "Auto-Mute Mode" Disabled
fi

$ alsamixer
cannot open mixer: No such file or directory

/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

# Keep snd-usb-audio from beeing loaded as first soundcard
options snd-usb-audio index=-2

-2 → 0

Crackling or popping in PipeWire usually comes from buffer underruns or resampling issues.

• Missing realtime scheduling (no rtkit)
• Wrong sample rate or small quantum
• CPU power-saving or load spikes
• Aggressive resampling between 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz

sudo pacman -S rtkit

default.clock.rate = 48000
default.clock.allowed-rates = [ 44100 48000 ]
default.clock.quantum = 1024
default.clock.min-quantum = 512
default.clock.max-quantum = 2048

["api.alsa.period-size"] = 1024
["api.alsa.headroom"] = 8192

systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber

• Verify settings:

pw-metadata -n settings 0

• Play tone:

speaker-test -t sine -f 440

• Watch logs:

journalctl --user -u pipewire.service -f

• Monitor:

pw-top

If crackling persists, increase `quantum` or disable CPU power-saving.

Might cause crackling when CPU load is high!

~/.config/pulse/daemon.conf

resample-method = soxr-mq
flat-volumes = no
default-sample-format = s24le
default-sample-rate = 96000