cmus, pulseaudio and skype

[Sergiy Kukunin]

Good morning. Does someone get some problems with cmus with pulseaduio
output plugin and skype? cmus is muted while skype sound appears.

I've checked the different cases: VLC and cmus work fine simultaniously,
VLC and skype work too. Skype and ALSA plugin works too. All cases are work
expect cmus and skype.

I've watched on the pulseaudio monitor (pavucontrol), and cmus gets muted,
when skype notification is appear and gets unmuted, when notification ends.
It's like a feature to mute cmus while other app sound appears.

Currently, I use the alsa output plugin, which internally redirects to
pulseaudio - all work fine.

[Gregory Petrosyan]

Post by Sergiy Kukunin
Good morning. Does someone get some problems with cmus with pulseaduio
output plugin and skype? cmus is muted while skype sound appears.
I've checked the different cases: VLC and cmus work fine simultaniously, VLC
and skype work too. Skype and ALSA plugin works too. All cases are work
expect cmus and skype.
I've watched on the pulseaudio monitor (pavucontrol), and cmus gets muted,
when skype notification is appear and gets unmuted, when notification ends.
It's like a feature to mute cmus while other app sound appears.
Currently, I use the alsa output plugin, which internally redirects to
pulseaudio - all work fine.

Hmm, this sounds like a *feature* — like on OS X, Skype has an option
to mute iTunes when the call appears. Can you please check Skype/PA
preferences for this kind of option?

I am sure there is nothing wrong on cmus' side, and nothing that can
be done with cmus to alter this (except for not using PA output
plugin).

Gregory

[Jason Woofenden]

Sergiy,

It sounds like you're describing exactly what is supposed to
happen.

I think that cmus is being muted by pulseaudio. You may find
something like this it /etc/pulse:

load-module module-cork-music-on-phone

Most people want music muted while they're on the phone so they can
hear the other person.

The difference with the cmus alsa vs pulseaudio output plugin is
probably that the pulseaudio output plugin reports cmus as a music
player (but in alsa, there's no way to report such things.)

If you need further information/help, please describe how you would
like it to work (not just how it currently does.)

- Jason

[Mirko Augsburger]

Hi everybody,

I am having the same issue and it is just annoying that skype is muting
my music even without a call just because someone went online, this
something skype is responsible though.

Post by Jason Woofenden
Most people want music muted while they're on the phone so they can
hear the other person.

This brings me to an idea:

I prefer cmus being paused insted of muted.
Is it possible to pause cmus when it is muted and unpause when it is
unmuted?

Thanks,
mist

[Gregory Petrosyan]

Post by Mirko Augsburger

Post by Jason Woofenden
Most people want music muted while they're on the phone so they can
hear the other person.

I prefer cmus being paused insted of muted.
Is it possible to pause cmus when it is muted and unpause when it is
unmuted?

Extremely unlikely — it happens at PulseAudio layer (as it is
responsible for mixing all the audio streams in the system), and cmus
has no knowledge of this kind of PA actions. I think other music
players, if they properly advertise themselves to PA as "music
players", are muted as well, and can do nothing about it, either.

As has been said, proper solution is to configure PulseAudio accordingly.

Gregory

[Jason Woofenden]

Correction: I think PulseAudio "corks" (not mutes) music players
when "phone" applications make noise. Isn't that more like pausing
than muting?

The PulseAudio module is named "module-cork-music-on-phone".

Cmus could perhaps be made to notice when it is corked, but I don't
think it needs to, because if I understand correctly, corking
pauses the audio stream.

Are you sure it isn't already working the way you want? (ie pausing)

And again, this is all PulseAudio. All cmus is doing is reporting
itself as a music player. If you don't like what PulseAudio is
doing, then you should fiddle with your PulseAudio settings.

- Jason