ALSA-only purists: Question, new GUI app for the mixer and EQ?

greenjeans · 2025-07-02 15:28:11

So I am one of the alsa-only hard-core holdouts, and I know there's a lot of us out there, so here's what popped into my head last night as I was trying to think about tackling a new project since my app-info project is done. I need something a little more complex to push myself forward in this learning experience and also wanted something even more useful to experienced linux users.

I use pure alsa, and in my systems I add a pair of menu entries, one that opens the alsa mixer in terminal, and another that does the same with the equalizer, looks and works fine but:

1. I'm a GUI guy, can't help it, there's no GUI at all for the EQ, and the mixer is shipped now with a tiny sad gui made with FLTK that just doesn't cut it.
2. It fits the bill for a more complex and potentially useful project.

So i'm thinking a simple gui, with a top pane and a bottom pane, mixer controls on top and EQ in the bottom pane, nice looking sliders, some info about your sound card and such similar to what's in the terminal apps and perhaps some other useful info and things. One simple app to deal with sound, and possibly very helpful to newer folks who might want to go the alsa-only route.

Would love to get folks thoughts on such. This thread will be about the build, I already mocked up a basic working crude protoype last night just for a few controls for the mixer and this seems very do-able and possibly groovy to boot.

EDIT: this thread is NOT about how to get rid of Pulse and Pipe, plenty of other threads cover that, so please no long-winded tutorials and dissertations on how to do so or the merits of doing so. This app will assume you have already converted.

Last edited by greenjeans (2025-07-02 15:33:02)

Andre4freedom · 2025-07-02 18:29:00

Hello greenjeans,
Understanding your question perfectly, have you looked for these tools:

- alsamixergui
- alsa-tools-gui

I'm quite interested in your project.
Good luck!
Greetings, andre

fsmithred · 2025-07-02 19:53:34

libasound2-plugin-equal with .asoundrc like the example in the README that comes with that package and alsamixergui can show the equalizer.

There are some other mixers that work with alsa, but I don't know if they can display the equalizer. Try them all and make one that's better.

delgado · 2025-07-02 22:22:24

I remember having QasMixer in my alsa-only-time. It was recommended from someone in this forum and worked good.

It works - shows alsa channels and also pipewire and the inactive hdmi-sound-devices. There are more Qas* sound tools.

JWM-Kit · Yesterday 00:46:57

Have you tried Aitor's amixer-gtk? It is a part of gnuinos.

https://git.devuan.org/aitor_czr/amixer … nch/master

I don't know if it's supports EQ, but it is a nicer ALSA mixer.

Last edited by JWM-Kit (Yesterday 00:47:54)

greenjeans · Yesterday 02:03:43

Thanks for the thoughts y'all! So here's a very rough prototype, got the logic worked out for the mixer that's in the top tab and it's working great, and have an empty bottom pane where the EQ will go, but it's gonna take more work on the EQ than it did the mixer. Plus there will be some stuff at the very bottom, info about sound cards and chips and some other things.
Screenie of progress so far:

aitor · Yesterday 17:29:10

It looks nice. Which toolkit are you using?

greenjeans · Yesterday 17:37:02

^^^ Hi aitor! Using GTK and some CSS in a C script. Been working all morning on the EQ section, have probably modded/re-compiled/tested the script about 60-70 times already and no luck yet, it's a lot harder than it was getting the mixer section to work.

greenjeans · Yesterday 21:48:15

Wow, that part was crazy hard, i've been at it for like 7 hours today, just for a tiny bit of stuff it seems like, lol, but part two is done and the whole thing is now 100% functional, sitting here using it right now listening to Boot Liquor playing through Exaile. Last parts should be super easy by comparison. Working draft:

fsmithred · Yesterday 22:03:24

Looks nice!

Part 3: Pre-defined and user-defined pre-sets for the equalizer? fsmithred ducks

greenjeans · Yesterday 22:25:55

Well crap...no...hadn't thought about doing that, was trying to keep it super simple and lean, a set-it-and-forget-it kinda app that's just replicating the same functions you would get running the mixer/eq in terminal, just all in one place and nice and clean and easy to use. Sound doesn't get changed much on my laptop, but I guess on a desktop with good speakers it might be nice to have some user-defined pre-sets... greenjeans gives fsmithred the stinkeye

Ron · Yesterday 22:25:58

It looks good. I'm interested. Any estimated time of arrival?

swanson · Today 09:09:43

I'm in! Nice project. I will certainly try it. On my Devuan DAW (Reaper) I run only Alsa and Jack. No pipe and no Pulse.
And I can play both DAW and Youtube at the same time.

For DAW's you can get better latency with a pure Alsa setup.

greenjeans · Today 14:31:36

Kinda stuck for the moment, having a hard time thinking of a reason not to just leave it like it is, it does everything now that I intended basically and does it well and fast. Needs some cleaning up for margins and such. I don't like feature creep, just doing things because they can be done. I try to think about philosophy of use and just not sure any extra features are needed.

Really could use some input from y'all on proposed additions, the only one i'm seriously considering at the moment, is implementing fsmithred's suggestion. Adding a text-entry field-button to save/name the current EQ setting as a pre-set, then another little field/button that's also a drop-down menu that shows current pre-set applied (if any) and let's you use the drop-down to select one of your other pre-sets.

The officially official Devuan Forum!

#1 2025-07-02 15:28:11

ALSA-only purists: Question, new GUI app for the mixer and EQ?

#2 2025-07-02 18:29:00

Re: ALSA-only purists: Question, new GUI app for the mixer and EQ?

#3 2025-07-02 19:53:34

Re: ALSA-only purists: Question, new GUI app for the mixer and EQ?

#4 2025-07-02 22:22:24

Re: ALSA-only purists: Question, new GUI app for the mixer and EQ?

#5 Yesterday 00:46:57

Re: ALSA-only purists: Question, new GUI app for the mixer and EQ?

#6 Yesterday 02:03:43

Re: ALSA-only purists: Question, new GUI app for the mixer and EQ?

#7 Yesterday 17:29:10

Re: ALSA-only purists: Question, new GUI app for the mixer and EQ?

#8 Yesterday 17:37:02

Re: ALSA-only purists: Question, new GUI app for the mixer and EQ?

#9 Yesterday 21:48:15

Re: ALSA-only purists: Question, new GUI app for the mixer and EQ?

#10 Yesterday 22:03:24

Re: ALSA-only purists: Question, new GUI app for the mixer and EQ?

#11 Yesterday 22:25:55

Re: ALSA-only purists: Question, new GUI app for the mixer and EQ?

#12 Yesterday 22:25:58

Re: ALSA-only purists: Question, new GUI app for the mixer and EQ?

#13 Today 09:09:43

Re: ALSA-only purists: Question, new GUI app for the mixer and EQ?

#14 Today 14:31:36

Re: ALSA-only purists: Question, new GUI app for the mixer and EQ?

Board footer