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I am deaf in one ear and want Ubuntu to mix both left and right audio channels to mono audio. There is an Accessibility Setting for this in Windows, but I cannot find one in Ubuntu. The only Hearing Accessibility Setting I can find is for Visual Alerts. I am currently using 21.10, but also couldn't didn't see anything on my other computer running 20.04 LTS.

I saw a couple of older search results for mono audio in individual programs, but would prefer a solution that handles audio for the entire OS.

Thanks for any help.

Freshmaker
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    Does this answer your question? Can I downmix stereo audio to mono? – mchid Feb 16 '22 at 02:18
  • @mchid does one really need to resort to scripting to achieve this? – vanadium Feb 16 '22 at 09:22
  • @vanadium As far as I can tell, there isn't always a mono option using pulse or pavucontrol. However, the same answer also lists an option to edit the /etc/pulse/default.pa config file to make the change somewhat permanent/automatic. – mchid Feb 16 '22 at 09:38
  • @vanadium There's also an app called pulseeffects but it's not available through the official repos and I think there's only a snap and/or flathub version available. Anyhow, the last time I used it, it was weird and didn't integrate seamlessly. For example, the volume function keys stopped working. – mchid Feb 16 '22 at 09:50
  • I tried that answer (from 11 years ago), but it didn't work. I tried both the command and changing the /etc/pulse/default.pa config file a couple of times each. No matter what I tried, neither allowed me to hear both channels through the one good ear. – Freshmaker Feb 16 '22 at 19:42
  • @Freshmaker It should make both channels on both ears. Did you replace NAME_OF_AUDIO_SINK_GIVEN_BY_PREVIOUS_COMMAND with the actual output? Example: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo You have to remove the <> and name: – mchid Feb 17 '22 at 07:39
  • Then, you have to go to your sound settings and select the remaped one as the output device. – mchid Feb 17 '22 at 07:41
  • I added

    load-module module-remap-sink sink_name=mono master=alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo channels=2 channel_map=mono,mono

    to /etc/pulse/default.pa but it still did not add any additional Outputs after reboot.

     – Freshmaker Feb 17 '22 at 15:23
  • If the pacmd command works, you can add this command to automatically start when you sign in. See the answer below. Also, if the pacmd command doesn't work at first, try switching to your built in device and then back to the remaped device in your sound settings. If you need a video to test this with, just let me know and I'll post a link to a youtube video that has a distinct left and right channel. – mchid Feb 17 '22 at 19:18
  • Also, if it doesn't work, please explain how it doesn't work in detail and maybe we can figure out why. Thanks. – mchid Feb 17 '22 at 19:31

1 Answers1

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If the pacmd command works from the other answer:

pacmd load-module module-remap-sink sink_name=mono master=alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo channels=2 channel_map=mono,mono

you can add the command to start at boot time.

First, search your applications for "startup applications". Open the Startup Applications app and then click Add.

Next, a popup window will appear.

  • For the Name, enter "mono"
  • For the Command, paste the pacmd command you used earlier.

Finally, click Add.

enter image description here

mchid
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    That seems to have done the trick, and it's persistent after a reboot. Thanks for your help. – Freshmaker Feb 17 '22 at 21:02
  • @Freshmaker Awesome. If this works, don't forget to click the checkmark icon to the left to mark this as the accepted solution. – mchid Feb 17 '22 at 21:06
  • doesn't work for me, I edited to my output name "alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo" and tried to switch to it in audio settings but it stays on one side. – tatsu Mar 09 '23 at 10:52