How can I turn my keyboards NumPad into an Audio mixer in windows 7?

Question

I have been using a program called Sound control in XP to Layout the whole of the keyboard NumPad to be an audio mixer device with OSD .

• CTRL[7] <-- vol up Main . . . CTRL[8] <--Cd vol up
• CTRL[4] <-- mute/unmute . . CTRL[5] <--Cd Vol Mute
• CTRL[1] <-- Vol down Main . CTRL[2] <---Cd Vol Down

Etc. for cd volume, mic volume, wav, external input volume , or any other volume as was controlled by the audio card itself (not the system).

[|||||||||-50%-||__________] <-- OSD item

the program that did that in XP is useless in windows 7 , because the entire method of control has changed, and per program control is being applied. (plus CD is now digital data through the system instead of zero processor analog passthrough)

The replacements I find on the web control only the MAIN volume. which is wholey useless for turning down system sounds, while turning up a Movie, or music. The use of per-program control is great, the access to the controls is not great.

How can I turn my NumPad into a Audio mixer all over again?

To simplify the question, if you click on Volume, and bring up the win7 "mixer" pannel, I would like to have Keyboard shortcuts for the first 3 mixers, and it would not matter what is in those 3 mixers. that would be perfect for me. I would be so happy with that.

I do not normally use things like winamp, zune, foobar, itunes, or skype, or any of that stuff that often is controlled by 3rd party tool items, Whatever method would have to be User configurable, and work with the system controls.

Answer 1

Sound Control has now been updated for Windows 7.

You may download it from here. Please pay attention to the following support article
I Have Upgraded To Windows Vista/7 And Sound Control No Longer Changes The Volume :

Ensure you are using the latest version of Sound Control available in the Current Downloads section. You also need to follow the instructions given on the compatibility notes page. Windows Vista/7 has changed the method of controlling the volume mixers and enabling the appropriate compatibility mode will allow Sound Control to correctly control the volume levels again. In addition once you have set the appropriate compatibility level the User Account Control confirmation prompt will also not display or an option to stop the prompt being displayed again will be available.

Answer 2

I have a similar problem (can't change Windows master volume instead of application volume.) I considered using AutoHotkey (AHK) to map key presses into audio mixer commands. I looked into it briefly but decided it's too much of a hassle compared to my work-around (I first click outside/inside the application before changing the system/application volume.)

I'll share my progress in case someone else can use it:

1. Use a version of AHK than can access the Vista Audio Control API, like AutoHotkey_L. The current standard AHK can only change its own volume settings; not system/other applications' settings.
2. Install the AHK script that wraps the Vista Audio Controls API: Vista Audio Control Functions v2.1
3. Write an AHK script that remaps the numpad keypresses to audio control actions. The key names for the num pad are like Numpad0, Numpad1, Numpad2...

This blog post gives a detailed description of how to accomplish a different, but very similar task: Automatically Mute Microphone on Keyboard Activity with AutoHotkey. Unfortunately, the links to scripts which would have served as very good starting points no longer work...

Answer 3

Try NirCmd. It can change you main volume as well as subunit volume sliders.

NirCmd is a command line tool so you'll have use another program to make keyboard shortcuts. You can probably use AutoHotKey or some other program for this.

To do what you asked you'll need to make nine shortcuts, one for each key, with settings that look something like these:

7 Increase the system volume by 2000 units (out of 65535) nircmd.exe changesysvolume 2000 4 Decrease the system volume by 5000 units (out of 65535) nircmd.exe changesysvolume -5000 1 Switch the system volume between the mute and normal state. nircmd.exe mutesysvolume 2

And for 8, 5, 2:

nircmd.exe setsubunitvolumedb "Speakers" "Wave" -10,

nircmd.exe mutesubunitvolume "Speakers" "Wave" 2 (2 for toggle, 1 is on and 0 off)

and other for volume down and the third volume slider you want to control, you get the picture.

Just make sure you have the right device names (ie Speakers, Wave, Line in and so on). You can find the right names in the sound properties as described in this blog post.

Edit: I have no experience with AutoHotKey but it'll go something like this:

Numpad3::Run nircmd.exe setsubunitvolumedb "Speakers" "Wave" -10,,Hide