🎧 PipeWire Dual PC Audio Setup

This repository documents and provides scripts for a dual-PC audio setup using PipeWire, where:

• 📺 Streaming PC acts as the main audio server
• 🎮 Gaming PC connects to the streaming PC as a PipeWire/PulseAudio client

With this setup, audio from and to your streaming PC can be captured, routed, and monitored from your main machine using native PipeWire modules.

This will give instrutions on how to replicate, but i recommend using this as reference for your own network setup.

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🚀 Features

• Automatic detection of client/server availability via ping
• Uses PipeWire + PulseAudio tunnel modules for source/sink routing
• Configurable qpwgraph wiring for dynamic patching
• Uses a load and save script for PipeWire connections
• Persistent reconnection logic and fallback handling
• Desktop notifications for connection status
• Included PipeWire configuration files for all virtual devices

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🖥️ System Overview

Gaming PC (Client)
    PipeWire / PulseAudio
        module-tunnel-{source,sink} ◄──────┐
                                           │
Streaming PC (Server)            Network TCP (port 33478)
    PipeWire / PulseAudio                  │
        module-native-protocol-tcp  ◄──────┘

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📂 Repository Structure

.
├── pipewire-net-server.sh   # Run on the Streaming PC (server)
├── pipewire-net-server.png  # Shows my connection setup on the server
├── pipewire-net-client.sh   # Run on the Gaming PC (client)
├── pipewire-net-client.png  # Shows my connection setup on the client
└── pipewire.conf.d/         # PipeWire .conf.d files for both PCs

Additionally:

• pipewire-script.py - download here – Custom wiring script (used by both)
• Or disable pipewire-script.py in the scripts

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📦 Included PipeWire Config Files

Place these in:

~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/

Streaming PC (all virtual devices)

• 10-media-str.conf — Default output (e.g., videos)
• 20-them-str.conf — Used for Discord and similar apps on the streaming PC
• 50-merge-str.conf — Merges virtual outputs and distributes to speakers
• 60-out-str.conf — Microphone that gets media and game audio for easy sharing to websites like vdo.ninja
• 70-denoise-str.conf — Uses noise-suppression-for-voice to remove background noise from mic
• 80-game-str.conf — Populated via TCP connection to receive game audio
• 90-others-str.conf — Apps like Discord running on the gaming PC (via TCP connection)

Gaming PC (all virtual devices)

• 10-game-gam.conf — Main output sent over network
• 20-others-gam.conf — Discord and similar audio sent over network
• 30-media-gam.conf — Gets main audio from streaming PC via TCP
• 40-them-gam.conf — Gets Discord/voice chat audio from streaming PC via TCP
• 50-merge-gam.conf — Merges virtual outputs and distributes to speakers
• 60-out-gam.conf — Microphone that gets media and game audio for easy sharing
• 70-mic-gam.conf — Mirrors mic audio sent over TCP

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📡 Server (Gaming PC)

Run the pipewire-net-server.sh script on your gaming PC. It will:

• Wait for PipeWire to become ready
• Detect the presence of the streaming PC on the network
• Load the module-tunnel-{source,sink} modules targeting the streaming PC
• Set default source/sink
• Mount volumes (Not needed usefull for smb share auto mount)
• Restore your patch graph via qpwgraph

📝 Set the streaming PC IP in the script before running.

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🔌 Client (Streaming PC)

Run the pipewire-net-client.sh script on your streaming PC. It will:

• Wait for PipeWire to become active
• Wait for the gaming PC to come online
• Load module-native-protocol-tcp to accept incoming tunnel connections
• Automatically apply audio patches via qpwgraph and pw-link
• Set default source/sink for audio monitoring or recording

📝 Set the gaming PC IP in the script before running.

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🔄 Automatic Wiring

• The script applies the qpwgraph configuration (def.qpwgraph)
• Afterwards it calls pipewire-script.py -l to load previously saved wiring setups

💡 Note: qpwgraph alone won’t fully connect network-related cables — this is why pipewire-script.py is used in addition to qpwgraph.

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🎯 6-Channel Audio Mapping (Streaming PC Perspective)

Channels	Direction	Purpose
1+2	Send	Mic
3+4	Send	Media
5+6	Send	Them (e.g., Discord)
1+2	Receive	Game audio
3+4	Receive	Other audio (e.g., Discord from gaming PC)
5+6	Receive	Unused

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🧠 Important Notes

• To replicate this setup:

  1. Place the configs in ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/

  2. Run the server and client scripts

  3. Connect your virtual cables in qpwgraph

  4. Save the graph in qpwgraph and also with:

     pipewire-script.py -s

• You can modify the IPs if your local network uses different addresses.

• mount -a is used to mount any /etc/fstab smb shares.

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📸 Screenshots

Server (Streaming PC):

Client (Gaming PC):

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🧪 Troubleshooting

• Make sure firewall allows TCP port 33478 between machines.

• Ensure pipewire-pulse is running instead of PulseAudio.

• If qpwgraph crashes, try launching it manually to inspect output.

• Check module status with:

  pactl list short modules