Re: Hearing feature request

[Luke Yelavich <themuso ubuntu com>]

On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 11:30:41PM AEDT, Nico Rikken wrote:
> Dear list members,
>
> I've been wanting to commit a feature request for a while now, but in
> order to make sure I address all aspects, I thought I'd drop it on the
> mailing list first.
>
> The hearing of my left ear has been decreased many years, resulting in
> an overall lower reduced hearing level and a modified frequency
> response. Normally this isn't a problem, and in a sense it seems that my
> right ear is mainly processing the sound and my left ear is contributing
> the spatial component.
> This however becomes cumbersome when parts of the sound have a strong
> focus on the left and I'm wearing headphones of some sort. Especially
> when listening to an interview which is mixed with a right- and left
> speaker, or listening to mono-recorded video's which only feature sound
> on the left channel (legacy default), this becomes cumbersome. I either
> have to switch ear-buds around or start using the laptop speakers.
>
> In this regard it would be great if there would be a mono-audio option
> available via the accessibility menu, which would allow my right ear to
> take part as well. I have worked with the balance option in the
> equalizer in the past, but that doesn't result in any cross-feed between
> the channels.
>
> Is this enough detailed information for a feature request? And how would
> I be able to contribute in order to make this a reality?

This is something that would have to be done in PulseAudio. PulseAudio is rather modular, so it may be as 
simple as writing a pulseaudio module to do what you wish.

I suggest asking on the pulseaudio discussion list, 
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/pulseaudio-discuss, and I am sure someone on that list would be 
happy to help you.

Luke