r/pipewire

Hello. Geeting crispy audio quality on any computer has always been my thing. This for both the output (speakers or headphones) or input through my microphone. The microphone one has always been a big one for me: I do a lot of meeting/calls and people being able to hear you in good quality is a godsend.

Since I migrated to Pipewire (like so many years ago), I have been using EasyEffects for this purpose. I used it on both my desktop PC (Arch) and laptops (Debian and Arch). I am happy with it overall: incredible program!

On my laptops, I sometimes experience some problems when switching audio sources, especially when it comes to Bluetooth sources (ugh, I know...). Then I have to restart EasyEffects or even sometimes the whole audio stack. Not great when I am doing a meeting. This is the only weak spot of EasyEffects for me.

I never really tried anything else. I looked at JACK in the past before Pipewire was even a thing but that looked daunting. I looked that something called Carla is supposed to be more reliable when it comes to Bluetooth but it looks quite overkill for my requirements.

Anyways, just curious: what do you guys use for audio processing on Linux?

I want an easy app for creating aggregate devices (using two audio interfaces at once) with linux audio. The current patchbay method is hell and is so annoying and complected that I give up and stop making music on my computer. Check out Macos vs Linux aggregate devices below:

Macos: Simple, checkbox gui for which devices you want to use in the aggregate device

https://preview.redd.it/aonetw5or8wg1.png?width=1302&format=png&auto=webp&s=e1275c41659f009e7fcca586ef71c34821f5bafc

Linux: Hell

https://preview.redd.it/1l7fder1s8wg1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=48b069545a8453b57abaaba56af6578df3549de1

Please, someone, make an easy gui for creating aggregate devices in linux.

The man page for pipewire.conf mentions the following environment variables:

• PIPEWIRE_CONFIG_DIR
• PIPEWIRE_CONFIG_PREFIX
• PIPEWIRE_CONFIG_NAME

But it doesn't actually mention what they do, or provide any examples for how they impact configuration lookup. Is anyone able to shed some light on how they impact configuration lookup (ideally with examples)?

Hi! Pipewire's features seem incredible but I have not been able to make it work for my setup so far.

I use an Arch-based distro, an ancient but rock-solid Edirol UA-25EX soundcard and Reaper as my DAW. Due to a poorly suppressed gear acquisition syndrome, I also have a SP-404 MKII and a CK-61 keyboard that I wish to use mostly via USB since it's more convenient than audio cables.

Normal use works without issue: Firefox, Spotify, etc. is played perfectly through my soundcard. I can see changes I make in pipewire.conf on my soundcard in pw-top and coppwr. However, my sampler and keyboard sound like a circuit-bent Atari 2600 whenever I play in my DAW.

When Reaper is open, pw-top shows that both instruments have a QUANT of zero and my guess is that it's the most likely cause of my problems. No matter what I try to modify, QUANT stays at zero for these devices.

Each device also have a different bitrate and samplerate combination, another possible problem (UA-25EX: 24bit/48000, SP: 16bit:48000, CK-61: 16bit/41000).

So...I'm not sure what to do next. Is there a way to make these three USB connexions work together with Pipewire? I'd be happy to sacrifice some audio quality for complete compatibility, like setting everything to 16bit 41000.

Thank you all for your help!

Hi all!
I have my different desktops apps running through multiple sinks/sources then reaper and out of it to my soundcard and other sinks/sources(see attached pictures of qjackctl and qpwgraph).

https://preview.redd.it/58wpd3v0gzug1.png?width=1912&format=png&auto=webp&s=e1d5090970424a8d9143a0392f86a48b4d615d5a

My problem is the following : when playing music from QBZ (no DAC Passthrough or nor Exclusive mode) Reaper (through jack) changes sample rate automaticly.

I have tried the following Wireplumber conf:

monitor.alsa.rules = [

{

matches = [

{

device.name = "alsa_card.usb-Focusrite_Scarlett_2i2_USB-00"

}

]

actions = {

update-props = {

priority.session = 10000,

audio.format= "S24LE"

audio.rate = 96000

api.alsa.period-size = 256

}

}

}

]

Any idea how to lock the sample rate ? Will signals automatically be resampled to match? (I know some people want bit perfect audio, but it is not what I'm looking for, I just want to route my audio through reaper)

I'm looking to dynamically create loopback devices after Pipewire starts (meaning I can't just use a config file, and I'm in a situation where I can't restart Pipewire).

I can successfully create a loopback device with `pw-loopback`, or `pw-cli --monitor load-module libpipewire-module-loopback`. However, these commands stay alive, and destroy the loopback device they created when the program terminates. This isn't ideal.

How can I create a loopback device such that it stays alive after the command used to create it terminates? I want the Pipewire daemon to take ownership of the device as soon as it's created.

I mainly want to know if you believe what I'm trying to do is possible before I spend a lot of time trying to do it. I'm a relatively new Linux user but I'm learning.

I'm a bedroom producer. I have Tascam Model 12 (12 in, 12 out) and Expert Sleepers ES-9 (14 in, 12 out) audio interfaces. I would like to combine them into a single device driven by ALSA (PulseAudio is incompatible with VCVRack, my preferred "DAW"). Furthermore, I want the Model 12 to occupy IOs 1-16 (with 4 dummy IOs) and the ES-9 to occupy IOs 17-32.

Currently, the generic ALSA device can handle one or the other interface, but not both at once.

Any hints toward a solution (e.g. how to start crafting an aggregate interface) would be greatly appreciated!

I want to add cava (audio visualizer) to my rice but i don't like that it also responses to noices in discord.

cava supports specifying the output device that schould be monitored so i thought i could make a virtual audio device that plays everything besides discord. how can i do that? is there a better approach?

Hello,

I have an issue on my archlinux where the sound from the HDMI port isn't played on the tv speaker

uname -a
Linux computer 6.18.21-1-lts #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu, 02 Apr 2026 15:44:36 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I have only one sink listed

pactl list short sinks
471     alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.hdmi-stereo        PipeWire        s32le 2ch 48000Hz       RUNNING

While the HDMI is detected

But still the sound doesn't come up in the speakers

cat /proc/asound/card0/eld\#2.16
monitor_present         1
eld_valid               1
codec_pin_nid           0xb
codec_dev_id            0x0
codec_cvt_nid           0x3
monitor_name            AAA
connection_type         DisplayPort
eld_version             [0x2] CEA-861D or below
edid_version            [0x3] CEA-861-B, C or D
manufacture_id          0x1863
product_id              0x0
port_id                 0x0
support_hdcp            0
support_ai              0
audio_sync_delay        0
speakers                [0x1] FL/FR
sad_count               1
sad0_coding_type        [0x1] LPCM
sad0_channels           2
sad0_rates              [0xe0] 32000 44100 48000
sad0_bits               [0x6] 16 20

It used to work yesterday and after a screen off/ screen on, it sudently stopped working.

The hub is also working with a Windows computer

I think it might be a mapping error between alsa/pipewire/wireplumber and the physical output but I don't know how to fix it.

Did it already happen to you ? Or do you have any insights on where to look please ?

PS : I have the extra1,2,3 also available but they doesn't work also.

Thank you !

When connecting the hub I get the following dmesg

[  +8,723541] usb 3-4: new high-speed USB device number 10 using xhci_hcd
[  +0,137487] usb 3-4: New USB device found, idVendor=05e3, idProduct=0610, bcdDevice= 6.63
[  +0,000005] usb 3-4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[  +0,000001] usb 3-4: Product: USB2.1 Hub
[  +0,000001] usb 3-4: Manufacturer: GenesysLogic
[  +0,001323] hub 3-4:1.0: USB hub found
[  +0,000269] hub 3-4:1.0: 4 ports detected
[  +0,047857] usb 2-3: new SuperSpeed USB device number 7 using xhci_hcd
[  +0,023577] usb 2-3: New USB device found, idVendor=05e3, idProduct=0626, bcdDevice= 6.63
[  +0,000004] usb 2-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[  +0,000001] usb 2-3: Product: USB3.1 Hub
[  +0,000001] usb 2-3: Manufacturer: GenesysLogic
[  +0,001302] hub 2-3:1.0: USB hub found
[  +0,000804] hub 2-3:1.0: 4 ports detected
[  +0,277662] usb 2-3.3: new SuperSpeed USB device number 8 using xhci_hcd
[  +0,018880] usb 2-3.3: New USB device found, idVendor=0b95, idProduct=1790, bcdDevice= 2.00
[  +0,000005] usb 2-3.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[  +0,000001] usb 2-3.3: Product: AX88179B
[  +0,000001] usb 2-3.3: Manufacturer: ASIX
[  +0,000001] usb 2-3.3: SerialNumber: 006C1FF770BFAA
[  +0,048744] cdc_ncm 2-3.3:2.0: MAC-Address: 6c:1f:f7:72:06:ee
[  +0,000006] cdc_ncm 2-3.3:2.0: setting rx_max = 16384
[  +0,000266] cdc_ncm 2-3.3:2.0: setting tx_max = 16384
[  +0,000391] cdc_ncm 2-3.3:2.0 eth0: register 'cdc_ncm' at usb-0000:00:0d.0-3.3, CDC NCM (NO ZLP), 6c:1f:f7:72:06:
ee
[  +0,008501] cdc_ncm 2-3.3:2.0 enp0s13f0u3u3c2: renamed from eth0
[  +0,822938] usb 3-4.2: new full-speed USB device number 11 using xhci_hcd
[  +0,106144] usb 3-4.2: New USB device found, idVendor=4037, idProduct=2804, bcdDevice= 1.10
[  +0,000004] usb 3-4.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=1, SerialNumber=0
[  +0,000001] usb 3-4.2: Product: 2.4G Composite Devic
[  +0,006777] input: 2.4G Composite Devic as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-4/3-4.2/3-4.2:1.0/0003:4037:28
04.0009/input/input41
[  +0,130537] hid-generic 0003:4037:2804.0009: input,hidraw2: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [2.4G Composite Devic] on usb-
0000:00:14.0-4.2/input0
[  +0,002511] input: 2.4G Composite Devic Mouse as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-4/3-4.2/3-4.2:1.1/0003:4
037:2804.000A/input/input42
[  +0,000088] input: 2.4G Composite Devic Consumer Control as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-4/3-4.2/3-4.2
:1.1/0003:4037:2804.000A/input/input43
[  +0,050707] input: 2.4G Composite Devic System Control as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-4/3-4.2/3-4.2:1
.1/0003:4037:2804.000A/input/input44
[  +0,000053] hid-generic 0003:4037:2804.000A: input,hidraw3: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [2.4G Composite Devic] on usb-000
0:00:14.0-4.2/input1

And I don't have more message when plugging in the HDMI separetly.

I have found this topic: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=309588 and followed this article https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PipeWire#Simultaneous_output_to_multiple_sinks_on_the_same_sound_card but it seems that it creates two sinks but the HDMI one still doesn't work

pactl list sinks short  
57      alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo      PipeWire        s32le 2ch 48000Hz       IDLE
58      alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.hdmi-stereo        PipeWire        s32le 2ch 48000Hz       RUNNING

Basically, user A is running an app that may send an audio alert. When it does, I want to hear that alert even though I've switched over to using the user B account. The idea is that, at that point, I can go back to the user A account and deal with the alert.

I don't need this to be very fine grained since it's still a machine that is only ever used by me. If it's easier I'd just like to run pipewire in such a way that the sounds from all users are always played regardless of which user is currently using the console.

If it matters, I'm using KDE.