---
categories:
- software
date: 2015-11-28
title: Route audio output to input
---

To be able to visualize my laptop's sound output with a python script, I needed an extra audio input that made it possible to capture the system's audio output.

To achieve that, I did the following on my Raspberry Pi:

  * install alsa-utils and pulseaudio
  * get the pulseaudio init script [here](https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=619713#p619713)
  * add the users to the group "pulse-access", I got `ALSA lib pulse.c:243:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect` without it even as root
  * [create an ALSA monitor source](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio/Examples#ALSA_monitor_source)