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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.

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  • 2
    Does this answer your question? Can I downmix stereo audio to mono?
    – mchid
    Commented Feb 16, 2022 at 2:18
  • @mchid does one really need to resort to scripting to achieve this?
    – vanadium
    Commented Feb 16, 2022 at 9:22
  • @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
    Commented Feb 16, 2022 at 9:38
  • @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
    Commented Feb 16, 2022 at 9:50
  • 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
    Commented Feb 16, 2022 at 19:42

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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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

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    That seems to have done the trick, and it's persistent after a reboot. Thanks for your help.
    – Freshmaker
    Commented Feb 17, 2022 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
    Commented Feb 17, 2022 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
    Commented Mar 9, 2023 at 10:52

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