Soundpad_Linux

A soundboard for Linux and an alternative to Soundpad. It plays sounds through a virtual microphone that also carries your real microphone (e.g. EasyEffects), so others in Discord, TeamSpeak or your game hear both. Existing Soundpad sound lists (.spl) can be imported directly.

Linux only. The virtual microphone is built on PipeWire/PulseAudio. On Windows, use the original Soundpad.

Unofficial project, not affiliated with Soundpad or Leppsoft.

Features

• Sound list with number, title, category, duration and play count, plus search and sorting
• Categories with custom colors and emoji icons. Drag sounds onto a category to move them
• Import of Soundpad .spl files including categories and play counts. Windows paths (C:\…) are matched to files in a Linux folder by file name
• Add sounds as files, whole folders or via drag and drop
• Two audio modes: a virtual microphone Soundpad_Linux-Mic (your microphone + sounds), or injecting sounds straight into your existing microphone without creating a new device (experimental)
• Separate volume for others and for yourself, optional self-monitoring on any output device
• "Play only for me" to preview sounds
• Command line control for global hotkeys (works on Wayland too)
• Dark, light and system theme
• English and German interface
• Tray icon (optionally minimize to tray on close)

Requirements

• Linux (Windows and macOS are not supported) with PipeWire (incl. pipewire-pulse) or PulseAudio
• Python ≥ 3.10 with PySide6
• ffmpeg/ffprobe and pactl/pacat (package pulseaudio-utils)
• for inject mode: pw-dump, pw-link, pw-cat (package pipewire-utils, PipeWire only)

Installation

Download (Fedora/Nobara)

1. Download soundpad_linux-<version>.tar.gz from the latest release
2. Extract it and run the installer:

tar xzf soundpad_linux-*.tar.gz
cd soundpad_linux-*/
./install.sh

From the repository

git clone https://github.com/newtox/soundpad_linux.git
cd soundpad_linux
./install.sh

The script installs missing packages with dnf, copies the program to ~/.local/share/soundpad_linux, creates the soundpad_linux command in ~/.local/bin and adds an entry to your application menu.

To update, run ./install.sh from a newer release (or after git pull). Uninstall with ./install.sh --uninstall.

On other distributions, install the packages listed under Requirements first, then run the script.

pipx

pipx install git+https://github.com/newtox/soundpad_linux.git

Or install the .whl file from a release: pipx install soundpad_linux-<version>-py3-none-any.whl

ffmpeg and pulseaudio-utils still need to be installed through your package manager.

Run without installing

PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m soundpad_linux

Audio modes

Choose the mode in the Audio section of the window.

Virtual microphone (default)

On startup Soundpad_Linux creates three modules via pactl:

Microphone (e.g. Easy Effects Source) ──loopback──┐
                                                  ├──> Soundpad_Linux-Mix ──> Soundpad_Linux-Mic  (select in Discord/game)
Sounds (volume "for others") ─────────────────────┘
Sounds (volume "for me") ──> your headphones

The modules are removed again when the app quits. Select Soundpad_Linux-Mic as the input device in Discord, TeamSpeak or your game, and others will hear you and your sounds.

Inject into my microphone (experimental)

No new device is created. You keep your usual microphone in Discord (e.g. "Easy Effects Source" or "Default"), and Soundpad_Linux sends each sound directly to every app that is currently recording from the microphone you selected – similar to how Soundpad works on Windows.

Under the hood each sound is played with pw-cat without a target and then linked with pw-link to the input ports of those apps (found via pw-dump). This requires PipeWire. Apps that start recording while a sound is already playing only hear the next sound.

EasyEffects

Choose "Easy Effects Source" as the microphone. It is picked automatically on first start if EasyEffects is running. If you start EasyEffects after Soundpad_Linux, click Reconnect.

Tips

• Discord's own noise suppression (Krisp) can filter out sound effects. If sounds are cut off or very quiet for others, turn it off in Discord and use EasyEffects for noise reduction instead.
• If nothing arrives, check the status line at the bottom of the window and click Reconnect.

Importing a Soundpad list

1. In Soundpad on Windows: File → Save sound list as … (or use your existing soundlist.spl)
2. Copy the sound files to Linux or mount your Windows partition
3. In Soundpad_Linux click Import .spl, choose the file, then choose the folder that contains your sounds

Files that couldn't be found are shown in red. Use Find missing to search more folders, or right-click a sound → Relink file to pick a file manually.

Categories

• New category in the toolbar or right-click the category list
• Double-click a category (or right-click → Edit category) to change its name, color and icon
• Drag sounds from the list onto a category to move them, or right-click → Move to category
• New sounds are added to the currently selected category

Hotkeys

Global hotkeys are set up in your desktop environment. In KDE Plasma go to System Settings → Keyboard → Shortcuts → Add New → Command or Script and use:

soundpad_linux --play 12          # sound no. 12
soundpad_linux --play-title bruh  # by title
soundpad_linux --random           # random sound
soundpad_linux --stop             # stop everything

Right-click a sound → Copy hotkey command puts the matching command on your clipboard.

Inside the window: Enter/double-click play, Esc stop, F2 rename, Del remove, Ctrl+F search (Enter in the search box plays the first match), Ctrl+R random sound.

Language and theme

Switch both under View. The default language is English; changing it requires a restart (the app offers to do that for you).

Files

• Settings, categories and sound list: ~/.config/soundpad_linux/config.json
• Supported formats: anything ffmpeg can read (mp3, wav, ogg, opus, flac, m4a, …)

Development

python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"
ruff check .
pytest

Releasing a new version

1. Bump __version__ in src/soundpad_linux/__init__.py and commit
2. Tag and push:

git tag v0.2.0
git push origin v0.2.0

GitHub Actions runs the tests, builds the release archive and the wheel, and publishes the release with generated notes.

Project structure

src/soundpad_linux/
├── app.py              entry point and command line
├── constants.py        names, device labels, file formats
├── config.py           loading/saving settings, categories and sound list
├── categories.py       category colors and icons
├── i18n.py             translations
├── locales/            translation files (de.json, …)
├── theme.py            dark/light theme
├── spl.py              Soundpad .spl parser and file matching
├── audio.py            virtual microphone via pactl (PipeWire/PulseAudio)
├── pwgraph.py          inject mode: reading the PipeWire graph and linking ports
├── player.py           playback via ffmpeg + pacat
├── ipc.py              controlling a running instance (hotkey commands)
├── models.py           table model and filter
├── util.py             helpers
└── ui/
    ├── main_window.py    main window
    ├── category_dialog.py  category editor
    ├── delegates.py      colored category chips
    └── widgets.py        smaller widgets

Adding a translation

1. Copy src/soundpad_linux/locales/de.json to <code>.json (e.g. fr.json)
2. Set _language_name and translate the values. Keep {placeholders} unchanged
3. Run pytest. It checks that every string is translated and the placeholders match

The new language shows up under View → Language automatically.

License

This project is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) License.

• License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Contact

Justin – justin.lys26@gmail.com