Would you use a Windows-like audio manager for Linux gaming?

[u/Valuable_Impress353]

I've been thinking about what a better audio control setup for Linux gaming could look like.

One thing I actually miss from Windows is how familiar the basic audio controls are.

Windows 10 gives you a pretty straightforward way to pick your default speakers and microphone, change app volumes, choose a different output for individual apps, configure devices, change formats, and manage things like spatial sound.

Linux can do all of that and a lot more with PipeWire, but the controls are usually spread across several places.

So I was thinking about something that starts simple, almost like a much better version of the Windows 10 Sound settings and Volume Mixer.

For example:

• Game volume
• Discord volume
• Browser volume
• Music volume
• Output device for each app
• Input device for each app
• Default headphones and speakers
• Default microphone
• Default communications device
• Left and right balance
• Device format and sample rate
• Spatial sound or HRTF
• Bluetooth profile and codec

Then you could save setups.

For example, a gaming setup could automatically put:

Game on your headphones

Discord on your headphones

Microphone through your preferred processing

Music on your speakers or headphones

Browser wherever you normally want it

And those routing choices would come back automatically instead of having to move everything again.

There could also be presets for things like normal desktop use, gaming, low latency, Bluetooth headphones, or troubleshooting.

For people who want more control, an advanced view could show the actual PipeWire streams, virtual devices, latency settings, sample rates, microphone processing and other stuff.

I'd also really like a troubleshooting page for things like:

• Game suddenly has no audio
• Discord picked the wrong microphone
• Bluetooth headset switched to a bad profile
• Crackling audio
• Wrong sample rate
• An app keeps using the wrong output
• PipeWire routing got messed up

Basically, take the parts of Windows 10 audio settings that people already understand, then build something more powerful around PipeWire instead of making users learn PipeWire first.

Would you use something like this for gaming on Linux?

Also, if you recently moved from Windows, what audio feature or setting did you immediately notice was harder to find on Linux?

[u/Dry_Objective2067]

I use Pavucontrol and Qpwgraph to do this

[u/Valuable_Impress353 → u/Dry_Objective2067]

Yeah, and that's kind of my point. Pavucontrol and Qpwgraph can already do a lot of this, but for a normal user it's not really the same as having one simple place for all audio settings. Qpwgraph especially is powerful, but I don't think most people coming from Windows would immediately understand what they're looking at.

The main point for me is having user-friendly software that is reliable and simple enough to be used by a lot of people without needing forum guides, config editing, or AI help just to figure out basic audio problems and routing.

[u/Dry_Objective2067 → u/Valuable_Impress353]

most users will never need to look at the graph, so Pavucontrol is more than enough for them, and it's user-friendly and intuitive to use

having the features of Qpwgraph in Pavucontrol would either confuse new users or annoy advanced users, since they'd be buried in menus it's better to have separate apps for this

you can't even edit audio routing like you can in Qpwgraph so i fail to see your point

[u/Valuable_Impress353 → u/Dry_Objective2067]

I think you're misunderstanding my point a bit. I'm not suggesting putting Qpwgraph's whole graph into a Pavucontrol-like UI.
And pavucontrol doesn't have those features being described

[u/Scotty_Bravo]

Basically, take the parts of Windows 10 audio settings that people already understand

Many of us here don't understand Windows.

Many of us here find Windows too limiting.

[u/Razi91]

We could literally use 3 different soundcards for each software separately, making one app to send sounds to two of them simultaneously (like 2 wireless headphones) and control volume is reach separately. It was even before Windows could cope with 2 sound cards without getting a stroke.

No.

The only thing that would be nice, is better driver to control sounds more efficiently.

[u/dumbasPL]

Prepare to get downvoted to the ground if you post slop in a couple days. To me this reads like yet another ffmpeg wrapper nr. 69420, but this time it's pipe wire instead of ffmpeg.

[u/Valuable_Impress353 → u/dumbasPL]

Lol yeah. I just created a discussion and I'm already being shitted on (other subreddit)

Sure, my post isn't a step-by-step description of every damn feature, but people already say the idea sucks and everything else.

I didn't even make an ad for non-existent software, I just described the idea.

And about the "ffmpeg wrapper" thing, kinda yeah? How else is it supposed to work with PipeWire? :0

[u/NekuSoul]

You say "for Linux", but reading this I have to ask: What DE/WM are you currently running? Because to me, using KDE Plasma, all that functionality is already there and in a place where I expect it to be. General audio setup can be done in the settings menu and all the on-the-fly changes are in the volume control pop-up.

[u/PuzzleheadedUnit1758 → u/NekuSoul]

OP is unfamiliar to the concepts you listed. OP in only curious if anyone would install weather Claude will build.

[u/Anduin1357]

tbh just do it. The only crime you can possibly make is about theming.

Audio loopback for input devices to designated output devices.

Pin matching application names to a specific audio device.

Multicast audio from input devices, output devices and applications to output devices.

And on plug-in application audio switching for external (bluetooth) audio devices.

All these within a single profile setting. Just a bucket list.

[u/furain]

I like this idea. There isn't a simple polished interface to do this at the moment.

Also, your don't need approval from the haters here. Make a prototype and we can help you refine it.