alsamixer

A terminal-based audio mixer for Windows — inspired by the classic Linux alsamixer.

┌─────────────────────────── alsamixer — Windows Audio Mixer ───────────────────────────┐
│  100%    85%    60%    45%                                                            │
│  ║███║  ║███║  ║███║  ║   ║                                                           │
│  ║███║  ║███║  ║███║  ║   ║                                                           │
│  ║███║  ║███║  ║   ║  ║   ║                                                           │
│  ║███║  ║███║  ║   ║  ║   ║                                                           │
│  ║███║  ║   ║  ║   ║  ║   ║                                                           │
│  Master  Spotify  Chrome  Discord                                                     │
│   🔊       🔊       🔊      MUTE                                                     │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
       [←/→] Select   [↑/↓] Volume ±5   [M] Mute   [Q/Esc] Quit

Features

• Master volume control via Windows WASAPI endpoint volume API
• Per-application volume & mute via Windows Audio Session API (WASAPI)
• Gradient-coloured vertical bars (blue → cyan → green → yellow → red)
• Full mute toggle with visual indicator
• Keyboard-driven — no mouse required
• Zero runtime dependencies beyond the Windows OS itself
• Single static executable, ~2 MB stripped

Requirements

Requirement	Version
OS	Windows 10 / 11 (any edition)
Rust toolchain	1.75+ (MSVC ABI)
Terminal	Windows Terminal, ConEmu, or any VT100 terminal

Note: The classic Windows cmd.exe works but Windows Terminal gives the best visual experience.

Installation

Pre-built binary (recommended)

Download the latest alsamixer-vX.Y.Z-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.exe from the Releases page, rename it to alsamixer.exe, and place it anywhere on your %PATH%.

From source

# Requires Rust + MSVC build tools: https://rustup.rs
git clone https://github.com/cumulus13/alsa-mixer
cd alsa-mixer
cargo build --release
# Binary is at: target\release\alsamixer.exe

Via cargo install (once published)

cargo install alsa-mixer

Usage

alsamixer

Keyboard Controls

Key	Action
← / →	Select previous / next channel
Tab / F6	Select next channel
↑	Volume +5%
↓	Volume −5%
M	Toggle mute
Q / Esc	Quit
Ctrl+C	Force quit

Architecture

src/
├── main.rs      — Entry point: COM init, terminal setup, teardown
├── app.rs       — Application state & main event loop
├── audio.rs     — WASAPI backend (WasapiMixer)
├── ui.rs        — Ratatui rendering (title, bars, controls)
├── input.rs     — Crossterm key-event → Action mapping
└── error.rs     — MixerError type

Audio Backend

alsamixer uses the Windows Audio Session API (WASAPI) via the windows crate:

• IMMDeviceEnumerator — discovers the default render endpoint
• IAudioEndpointVolume — master volume & mute
• IAudioSessionManager2 → IAudioSessionEnumerator → ISimpleAudioVolume — per-app volume/mute

No third-party audio middleware is required.

Building for Release

cargo build --release
# Outputs: target\release\alsamixer.exe (~2 MB, fully stripped)

The Cargo.toml is configured with:

[profile.release]
opt-level = 3
lto       = true
codegen-units = 1
strip     = true

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
No channels shown	Ensure at least one audio output device is enabled in Sound settings
Garbled display	Use Windows Terminal for proper Unicode / VT100 support
Access denied errors	Run as the same user who owns the audio sessions (not as Administrator)
Per-app sessions missing	App must be actively playing audio to appear as a session

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feat/my-feature)
3. Commit with conventional commits (feat:, fix:, docs: …)
4. Open a Pull Request — CI will run cargo fmt check and cargo clippy

License

MIT © 2026 Hadi Cahyadi

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Inspired by the Linux alsamixer TUI from the alsa-utils project.

👤 Author

Hadi Cahyadi

Support me on Patreon