Alternate mike / speakers

Question

I'd like to switch off/on alternatively the microphone and the speakers with a simple click to avoid looping the voice in the speakers in a conversation.
Is there such a possibility in a easy way ?
I thought maybe about a script, but in this case what are the bash commands to switch off/on the microphone and the speakers and how to test witch are on ?
Ubuntu 18.04 with Alsa.
Thank you.

AdminBee · Answer

There is a command-line tool amixer which should allow you to perform the necessary tasks.
First, run
amixer controls

to get a list of control options. You will likely get output like
numid=XX,iface=MIXER,name='Master Playback Switch'

...

numid=YY,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Switch'

You can get the status of the control option with
$ amixer cget name='Master Playback Switch'
numid=XX,iface=MIXER,name='Master Playback Switch'
  ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=1
  : values=off

To set, use
$ amixer cset name='Master Playback Switch' 'on'      
numid=XX,iface=MIXER,name='Master Playback Switch'
  ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=1
  : values=on

So, to switch to "speak" mode, you could use
amixer cset name='Master Playback Switch' 'off'; amixer cset name='Capture Switch' 'on'

and to switch to "listen" mode:
amixer cset name='Capture Switch' 'off'; amixer cset name='Master Playback Switch' 'on'

Alternate mike / speakers

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