change audio

[vsreeser]

This may sound strange, but I don't know how to change my audio output temporarily from the built in sound card to my plantronics headset. Kubuntu sees the headset and it does work, at least when I run the test in Kmix. Just haven't found a way to switch on-the-fly

[kernelbasher]

Surely your headset receives audio from the built in sound card.

[whatthefunk]

You need veromix plasma widget. Install it and put it on your desktop. From the widget, you can change your audio streams to different audio outputs.

[vinnywright]

or install pavucontrol "pulse audio volume control" ,,,,,,,

VINNY

[vsreeser]

Surely your headset receives audio from the built in sound card.

It connects with usb transceiver.

[aria]

Maybe I'm wong, but:
KDE Mixer -> Settings -> Audio Setup -> Device Preference & Audio Hardware Setup (tabs).

[sithlord48]

You need veromix plasma widget. Install it and put it on your desktop. From the widget, you can change your audio streams to different audio outputs.

+1 yes it makes moving streams much easier

[anika200]

It is very easy to do this from the speaker icon (kmix) in the taskbar.

Make sure kmix is set to show playback streams.

Now when you have the media playing you can left click the speaker then right click the little icon of the stream you want to send to the usb sound device and then select move and you can pick who plays the media.


Sorry, it is hard to get screen captures from stuff in the taskbar.

[lnx64]

This way of doing it is silly. I'm sorry. We need to have the ability to just plug in USB headphones or whatever, and tell it that all new and past events get automatically forwarded to the USB sound if we told it to. Not this silly pulse audio way of changing the default, then moving old apps over too, when you run across them.

Currently in pulse audio, I just disable all other sound cards or outputs, and only enable the one I want. It seems like the only way to simply just make sound come out of where I want to. Unity and Gnome get this right, they make it simple, click which output you want, and that's it, no more tinkering. (I think Cinnamon does this too, the good way).

[anika200]

I just disable all other sound cards or outputs, and only enable the one I want..

This is different than what the OP wanted, a quick way to switch between hardware for a short amount of time.
So far in this thread there is instructions for a plasmoid which would get you there in one click.
There is also the standard kmix taskbar icon which gets you there is three clicks basically.

[lnx64]

It's still extra steps, which is why I'm siding with the Gnome developers here. Why is it this difficult though? I love everything about KDE, BUT this. That plasmoid? Didn't even load for me. I tried to install it, but I get an error about not being able to load a python script.

Why is it NOT built into KDE?

I'm with one of my long time Linux buddies on this when it comes to sound on Linux, I think it's time to abandon ship. OSS, ALSA, Pulse, wtf.

To me and a lot of others, temporary still means, if I have my USB headphones plugged in, I want ALL sound coming out of those headphones like I plugged it into a stereo system. Speakers remain silent and don't play anything. Not only one app going to the USB sound because I told it too (amarok?), then surf on a web browser, run into a talking ad, and it talks out of the speakers because I forgot to tell Chrome or Firefox to also come out of headphones, to NOT wake people up. (and yes, turning off speakers would be nice, but that's besides the point, ALL sound events should easily go to the output of choice).

I understand there are tricks and tips to get around this, but the built in KDE way of doing this has always been confusing as hell ever since Pulseaudio has been adopted.

[whatthefunk]

I agree. Although the Veromix widget works for me, I think sound should work out of the box without having to install anything extra.

[anika200]

The widget is not working here either.
For some reason I do not have a problem with the sound system as it is now. I use a mix of usb speakers which are always plugged in and then headphones from the internal audio card.
So how would this be handled differently in Gnome? When I plug my headphone in would it turn off my usb speakers? What if I leave my headphones plugged in but I am not using them, how would my speakers get turned back on? Or would the sound come out of both at the same time?

[sithlord48]

I tried to install it, but I get an error about not being able to load a python script.

try installing the plasma-scriptengine-python package.

Why is it NOT built into KDE?

because pulseaudio is not used on all distros. so veromix a widget for working with pulseaudio won't be useful on a disto that doesn't have it.