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Multi-Device Audio Routing Setup

SwiftMac now supports routing speech and notifications to different physical audio devices!

How It Works

Emacspeak spawns two separate swiftmac processes:

  1. Speech Process: Handles regular speech output
  2. Notification Process: Handles notification/auditory icon output

Each process can be configured to use a different audio device and channel.

Configuration

In Your Emacs init.el

Add these environment variables BEFORE loading emacspeak:

(use-package emacspeak
  :ensure nil
  :init
  (setopt load-path (cons "~/.emacspeak/lisp" load-path))
  (setopt emacspeak-directory "~/.emacspeak")

  ;; Configure multi-device routing
  ;; Speech -> Audioengine D1 (device 125), both channels
  (setenv "SWIFTMAC_SPEECH_DEVICE_AND_CHANNEL" "125:both")

  ;; Notifications -> LG Ultra HD (device 110), left channel only
  (setenv "SWIFTMAC_NOTIFICATION_DEVICE_AND_CHANNEL" "110:left")

  :config
  (setopt dtk-program "swiftmac")

  ;; Enable notification server (spawns second swiftmac process)
  (setopt tts-notification-device "notify")

  (require 'emacspeak-setup))

How Emacspeak Uses These Settings

When tts-notification-device is set to a non-default value:

  1. Speech Process (main):

    • Started normally by Emacspeak
    • Reads SWIFTMAC_SPEECH_DEVICE_AND_CHANNEL
    • Outputs to configured speech device

  2. Notification Process:

    • Spawned by dtk-notify-initialize
    • Emacspeak automatically sets SWIFTMAC_AUDIO_TARGET to the value of tts-notification-device
    • Now also sets SWIFTMAC_NOTIFICATION_SERVER=1 (triggers notification routing)
    • Reads SWIFTMAC_NOTIFICATION_DEVICE_AND_CHANNEL
    • Outputs to configured notification device

Finding Your Device IDs

Run this command to list available audio devices:

make list-devices

Example output:

DeviceID: 110 | "LG Ultra HD" | Channels: 2
Config (both channels): 110:both
Config (left only):     110:left
Config (right only):    110:right

[DEFAULT] DeviceID: 125 | "Audioengine D1" | Channels: 2
Config (both channels): 125:both
Config (left only):     125:left
Config (right only):    125:right

Configuration Format

SWIFTMAC_*_DEVICE_AND_CHANNEL="<deviceID>:<channel>"

  • deviceID: Numeric ID from make list-devices (or 0 for system default)
  • channel: left, right, or both

Testing

Simple test in Emacs:

;; Test speech (should come from speech device)
(dtk-speak "This is speech")

;; Test notification (should come from notification device)
(emacspeak-auditory-icon 'select-object)

Common Configurations

Separate Devices

;; Speech to headphones, notifications to speakers
(setenv "SWIFTMAC_SPEECH_DEVICE_AND_CHANNEL" "125:both")
(setenv "SWIFTMAC_NOTIFICATION_DEVICE_AND_CHANNEL" "89:both")

Same Device, Different Channels

;; Both to headphones, but speech in both ears, notifications in left only
(setenv "SWIFTMAC_SPEECH_DEVICE_AND_CHANNEL" "125:both")
(setenv "SWIFTMAC_NOTIFICATION_DEVICE_AND_CHANNEL" "125:left")

Speech Only (No Separate Notifications)

;; Don't set tts-notification-device, or set to "default"
(setopt tts-notification-device "default")

Troubleshooting

Problem: Both speech and notifications come from same device

  • Check that tts-notification-device is set to a non-default value (e.g., "notify", "left", or "right")
  • Verify environment variables are set BEFORE (require 'emacspeak-setup)

Problem: No audio at all

  • Run make list-devices to verify device IDs are correct
  • Check device IDs haven't changed (can happen after system updates)
  • Try device ID 0 (system default) to test

Problem: Emacspeak says "notification mode on" but using wrong device

  • The notification server needs SWIFTMAC_NOTIFICATION_SERVER=1 to be set
  • This should be automatic when Emacspeak spawns the notification process
  • Check if you're running an updated version of emacspeak/dtk-speak.el