SimplySoundboard

A small, friendly Linux-only soundboard. Sounds live on cards; each card can have a global hotkey that works inside games. Sounds are mixed into a virtual microphone so teammates on Discord / in-game voice hear them.

• Global hotkeys read /dev/input directly (read-only, never grabbed) — they work on X11, on every Wayland compositor and while a fullscreen game has focus.
• Virtual mic "SimplySoundboard Mic" = soundboard sounds + optional pass-through of your real mic.
• Optional monitor so you hear the sounds yourself, and a Stop all hotkey.

What you need

PipeWire with the PulseAudio interface (the default on modern Fedora/Ubuntu/Arch desktops), plus pactl and pw-play:

Distro	Packages
Fedora	pipewire-pulseaudio pulseaudio-utils pipewire-utils
Ubuntu/Debian	pipewire-pulse pulseaudio-utils pipewire-bin
Arch	pipewire-pulse libpulse pipewire

Install

1. Package from the Releases page (recommended — hotkeys work immediately, no extra prompt):
   • Fedora / openSUSE: install the .rpm
   • Debian / Ubuntu: install the .deb
   • any distro: run the .AppImage (then click Enable hotkeys once)
2. Start SimplySoundboard from your application menu (or run the AppImage).
3. Add sounds, press Set key on a card and choose a key.

Building the packages yourself:

npm install
npm run tauri build      # writes src-tauri/target/release/bundle/{appimage,deb,rpm}

How to use it in a game

1. Install a package (or run the AppImage and click Enable hotkeys once — that installs a udev rule through a single password prompt and never prompts again).
2. Add your sounds and give the ones you need a Set key. Numpad keys or F13–F24 are the best choice: no game binds them, and the key still reaches the game (SimplySoundboard only listens, it never grabs).
3. In the game / Discord / OBS pick SimplySoundboard Mic as your microphone — or turn on Use as system default mic in the settings drawer, which is restored when you quit.
4. Press your keys. The Stop all key silences everything at once.

Troubleshooting

• Hotkeys do nothing → open the settings drawer → Hotkeys: the status line must say Enabled. If it does not, click Enable hotkeys. If it still fails, log out and back in once.
• Others cannot hear the sounds → check that the app/game input device is SimplySoundboard Mic, that To mic is not at 0, and that the virtual mic pill in the title bar is not red (then use Recreate virtual mic).
• You hear nothing yourself → turn on Hear sounds myself and raise Me.
• Anti-cheat → SimplySoundboard only opens keyboard devices for reading; it never injects input and never grabs a device, so keys behave exactly as before.

Development

sudo dnf install webkit2gtk4.1-devel openssl-devel curl wget file libappindicator-gtk3-devel librsvg2-devel pipewire-utils pulseaudio-utils
sudo dnf group install c-development

sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev build-essential curl wget file libssl-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev pipewire-bin pulseaudio-utils

sudo pacman -S webkit2gtk-4.1 base-devel curl wget file openssl libappindicator-gtk3 librsvg pipewire libpulse

npm install
npm run tauri dev

Checks:

cd src-tauri && cargo clippy -- -D warnings && cargo test
npm run build

Releasing: bump version in package.json, src-tauri/tauri.conf.json and src-tauri/Cargo.toml, commit, then git tag v0.2.0 && git push origin v0.2.0. The Release workflow builds the .AppImage, .deb and .rpm on Ubuntu 22.04 and attaches them to a draft release; review it on GitHub and click Publish.

License

MIT