How to play music in the CLI with an equalizer
published: 2020-04-10
- Install VLC.
sudo apt install vlc
- Open VLC and drag some music in.
- While playing some music, open the Tools > Effects and Filters menu. Play around with the presets until you find one that sounds good.
- Write down the name of the preset you used and then close VLC.
- In a terminal,
cd
to where the music you want to play is. - In that terminal, execute this command:
cvlc --equalizer-preset=INSERT_PRESET_NAME_HERE -I ncurses *.flac
INSERT_PRESET_NAME_HERE
should be in all lowercase. For example, the “Headphones” preset (which is what I use) would be --equalizer-preset=headphones
.
The full list of valid possibilities is:
- flat
- classical
- club
- dance
- fullbass
- fullbasstreble
- fulltreble
- headphones
- largehall
- live
- party
- pop
- reggae
- rock
- ska
- soft
- softrock
- techno
If your files are MP3 or some other format, replace the flac
in *.flac
with the actual file type.
- Press the “h” key to open the help menu, which will show you the player controls.
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 © Vane Vander