How do I toggle the microphone with a keyboard short cut, a command or with Autokey

Desktop: MATE 1.20.1 Distro: Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa

Hi,

assuming that it is the first microphone and that you are using pulse audio
Run pavucontrol and look at the "Input Devices" tab, and also run "pactl subscribe" in another to confirm what is happening.

Cheers,

Evo2.

1 members found this post helpful.

Under hardware/sound I found:
Choose a device for sound input:
© AK5370 I/F A/D Converter Analog Mono
©) Built-in Audio Analog Stereo

The above has a radio box that toggles the Microphone

--------------------------


pactl set-source-mute 1 toggle

nothing happend and no feedback and no toggle of microphone.


james@james-desktop:~$ pactl subscribe
Event 'change' on source-output #2224
Event 'remove' on source-output #2224
Event 'new' on source-output #2225
Event 'change' on source-output #2225
Event 'change' on source-output #2225
Event 'remove' on source-output #2225
Event 'new' on source-output #2226
Event 'change' on source-output #2226
Event 'change' on source-output #2226
Event 'remove' on source-output #2226
Event 'new' on source-output #2227
Event 'change' on source-output #2227
Event 'change' on source-output #2227
Event 'remove' on source-output #2227
Event 'new' on source-output #2228
Event 'change' on source-output #2228
Event 'change' on source-output #2228
Event 'remove' on source-output #2228
Event 'new' on source-output #2229
Event 'change' on source-output #2229
Event 'change' on source-output #2229
Event 'remove' on source-output #2229
Event 'new' on source-output #2230
Event 'change' on source-output #2230

Hi,

qhat do you see from "pactl subscribe" when you toggle the microphone using pavucontrol (or some other gui tool)? You should see something like:
I this case "1" is index for source (microphone). Presumably for you it is something else. Maybe 0, maybe 2 etc. Once you know that index you should be able to use:
Where N is the index for your microphone.

Evo2.

Do you mean like a hardware toggle? Cause many apps have built in toggles. Skype, mumble, and things have keys you can set to USE the microphone, otherwise it's muted. And probably settings to avoid the hassle as well. If it's not in use you can modprobe -r the module for the sound card. I have a headphone preamp for my output that has a mute (and mono) toggle button. In terms of microphones (external) you can just unplug them. The advantage of an XLR connection is that it doesn't pop when you plug/unplug it. Versus TRS that does pop. A lot of interfaces have gain knobs, not technically muted, but you can turn those down to inaudible levels.

james@james-desktop:~$ pactl subscribe
Event 'change' on sink #0

but:

james@james-desktop:~$ pactl set-source-mute 0 toggle
james@james-desktop:~$

Gives no feedback and there is no change in microphone state.

Hmm, strange.

Do you see anything change in "Input Devices" tab (with "All Input Devices" selected) in pavucontrol when you run "pactl set-source-mute 0 toggle"?

Evo2.

Just to confirm that evo2's command:

works perfectly in muting my internal microphone, tested by recording my voice in Audacity and running the command twice in the middle of the recording to mute my microphone and then unmute it again.

Mint 19.1 MATE.

Not sure what I did wrong yesterday but this moring:

pactl set-source-mute 0 toggle

Worked to toggle my microphone.

Thanks.

Great to hear. You can also connect this command to a keystroke sequence:

Control Centre->Hardware->Keyboard Shortcuts->Add->Name:Toggle Microphone, Command: pactl set-source-mute 0 toggle->Apply.

Then click on "Disabled" beside the command & press Ctrl+Shift+Esc (or whichever key sequence you require).

Close that window and try it out.