All Questions
659
questions
1582
votes
6
answers
164k
views
How do I make a machine "blank screen" for a period of time (as a penalty) if certain noise levels are reached?
My kids (4 and 5) yell a lot when playing games on the computer. I found an effective cure for this. When I hear loud noises, I ssh into the game computer and do:
chvt 3; sleep 15; chvt 7
This ...
116
votes
10
answers
315k
views
Play MP3 or WAV file via the Linux command line
I would like to make an alarm system backed by a Ubuntu (no graphical interface) box, which plays various announcement and alarm audio tracks (.mp3 or .wav) via the command line.
For example:
$ root&...
93
votes
2
answers
267k
views
What do ALSA devices like "hw:0,0" mean? How do I figure out which to use?
I've searched over and over and can't find any explanation of what "hw:0,0" means. How do I determine the number of my USB audio card? MPD requires me to enter something like this:
audio_output {
...
73
votes
2
answers
57k
views
How do ALSA and PulseAudio relate?
While trying to get my sound to work, I was wondering about the roles of ALSA and PulseAudio. I have both installed and was wondering, for example, which of them needs to know about my sound card.
...
63
votes
11
answers
139k
views
Can I increase the sound volume above 100% in Linux?
I am running KDE 4.6 in Debian Testing. Is there a way to increase the sound (i.e. more than the standard 100%)? The current settings with my speakers seem a bit too quiet in some cases.
I found a ...
60
votes
6
answers
91k
views
How to stream my GNU/Linux audio output to Android devices over WI-FI?
I want to stream my audio output over the network (Wi-Fi) to my Android devices. I'm not looking for a music/video streaming solution, but I would stream any audio output of my GNU/Linux desktop to my ...
59
votes
8
answers
10k
views
How do I check if a 2-track WAV file is "really" in stereo?
I have an audio file (WAV format to be specific). When I open it with an editor (e.g. audacity), I see two channels I suspect that the recording is actually mono rather than audio, i.e. I suspect the ...
40
votes
6
answers
64k
views
Mono sound output in Ubuntu?
Is there an easy way of forcing mono sound output - for one ear, one earphone, one speaker?
35
votes
6
answers
68k
views
linux arecord: capture sound card output rather than microphone input
I am trying to capture sound card output and encode it in Vorbis ogg format using the following command:
arecord -f cd -t raw | oggenc - -r -o file.ogg
However, the computer's microphone input is ...
26
votes
2
answers
10k
views
Increase Volume of an MKV Video from Linux Terminal
I've got a large amount of .MKV video files which seem to all play at a very low volume - I end up having to turn the TV up all the way to hear them, which is really irritating when I switch to ...
24
votes
6
answers
32k
views
Command line tool to identify audio file specs
I'm looking for an audio file equivalent to ImageMagick's identify command.
For example, with identify, I can get brief information about a bunch of images:
% identify b*
banner1.jpg JPEG 134x614 ...
24
votes
1
answer
39k
views
command-line utility to record from microphone
I am looking for command-line utility that monitors the microphone, and if you start to speak, writes the file. Recording period should be adjusted.
Solution is:
sox -t alsa default recording.wav ...
22
votes
5
answers
26k
views
Ffmpeg Audio Stereo to Mono using only left channel
I use the following command to extract video parts of an '.MTS' record (video).
ffmpeg -i 00402.MTS -s 1280x720 -r 25 -ss 0:00:05.38608 -vcodec libxvid -qscale:v 2 -acodec ac3 -ar 48000 -ab 256k -t 0:...
22
votes
4
answers
21k
views
How can I find out what programs are using sound in Linux?
Is there anyway of knowing what binaries are using the sound system/server ?
Like seeing something in the /proc directory (or /dev) ?
After a while ALSA stops working , and I would like to know why.
22
votes
4
answers
23k
views
Monitoring the microphone level with a command line tool in Linux
I am looking for a tool that will tell me, in less than half a second, if the microphone is picking up any sound above a certain threshold. (I plan to then mute the Master channel with another command ...