HeadsetControl

A cross-platform tool to control USB gaming headsets on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Manage sidetone, battery status, LED lights, equalizers, and more.

Features

Sidetone - Hear your own voice without latency (unlike software loopback)
Battery Status - Monitor charge level, voltage, and time remaining
LED Control - Toggle lights on/off
Equalizer - Presets and custom EQ curves (including parametric EQ)
Inactive Time - Auto power-off timer
Chat-Mix - Game/chat audio balance
Microphone - Volume, mute LED brightness, rotate-to-mute
Voice Prompts - Enable/disable audio cues
Bluetooth - Power-on behavior, call volume

Supported Devices

Device	Platform	sidetone	battery	notification sound	lights	inactive time	chatmix	voice prompts	rotate to mute	equalizer preset	equalizer	parametric equalizer	microphone mute led brightness	microphone volume	volume limiter	bluetooth when powered on	bluetooth call volume	microphone noise filter
Logitech G522 LIGHTSPEED	All	x	x			x							x
Logitech G533	All	x	x			x
Logitech G535	All	x	x			x
Logitech G633/G635/G733/G933/G935	All	x	x		x
Logitech G431/G432/G433	All	x
Logitech G930	All	x	x
Logitech G PRO X 2 LIGHTSPEED	All	x	x			x				x	x	x
Logitech G PRO Series	All	x	x			x
Logitech Zone Wired/Zone 750	All	x						x	x
Corsair Headset Device	All	x	x	x	x
Corsair Wireless V2 Headset Device	All	x	x
SteelSeries Arctis (1/7X/7P) Wireless	All	x	x			x
SteelSeries Arctis (7/Pro)	All	x	x		x	x	x
SteelSeries Arctis 9	All	x	x			x	x
SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless	All	x	x			x
SteelSeries Arctis Nova 3	All	x								x	x		x	x
SteelSeries Arctis Nova (5/5X)	All	x	x			x	x			x	x	x	x	x	x
SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7	All	x	x			x	x			x	x		x	x	x	x	x
SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P	All		x			x				x	x		x	x	x	x	x
SteelSeries Arctis 7+	All	x	x			x	x			x	x
SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless	All	x	x		x	x				x	x
SteelSeries Arctis Nova 3P Wireless	L/M	x	x			x				x	x	x		x
HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless	All	x	x			x		x
HyperX Cloud Flight Wireless	All		x
HyperX Cloud II Wireless	All		x			x
HyperX Cloud 3	All	x
HyperX Cloud II Wireless (Kingston)	All	x	x			x
ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air	All				x	x
ROCCAT Elo 7.1 USB	All				x
Audeze Maxwell	All	x	x			x	x	x		x					x
Audeze Maxwell 2	All	x	x			x	x	x		x								x
Lenovo Wireless VoIP Headset	All	x	x			x		x	x	x			x		x
Sony INZONE Buds	All		x
HeadsetControl Test device	All	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x

Platform: All = Linux, macOS, Windows | L/M = Linux and macOS only

Note: Some Corsair headsets may need additional configuration - see Adding a Corsair device. Some headsets (HS80, HS70 wired, RGB Elite, Virtuoso) expose sidetone via ALSA mixer instead.

Installation

Package Managers

macOS (Homebrew)

bash
brew install sapd/headsetcontrol/headsetcontrol --HEAD

NixOS

nix
# configuration.nix
environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.headsetcontrol ];
services.udev.packages = [ pkgs.headsetcontrol ];  # For udev rules

Or run without installing: nix run nixpkgs#headsetcontrol

Gentoo (nitratesky overlay)

bash
eselect repository enable nitratesky
emerge -a app-misc/headsetcontrol

Building from Source

Requirements

C++20 compiler (GCC 10+, Clang 10+, MSVC 2019+)
CMake 3.12+
HIDAPI library

Install Dependencies

<details> <summary>Linux</summary>

Debian / Ubuntu

bash
apt-get install build-essential git cmake libhidapi-dev

Fedora

bash
dnf install cmake hidapi-devel g++

Arch Linux

bash
pacman -S git cmake hidapi

CentOS / RHEL

bash
yum install epel-release
yum groupinstall "Development tools"
yum install git cmake hidapi-devel

openSUSE

bash
zypper in -t pattern devel_basis
zypper in cmake libhidapi-devel

FreeBSD

bash
pkg install hidapi cmake

</details> <details> <summary>macOS</summary>

bash
brew install hidapi cmake

Note: Xcode (from App Store) is required for compilers.

</details> <details> <summary>Windows</summary>

Pre-built binaries are available on the releases page.

For compilation using MSYS2/MinGW, see the Development Guide.

</details>

Build

bash
git clone https://github.com/Sapd/HeadsetControl && cd HeadsetControl
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make

Install

bash
sudo make install

On Linux, this also installs udev rules for non-root access. Reload them with:

bash
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger

Usage

bash
# Show available options for your headset
headsetcontrol -h

# Show all options
headsetcontrol --help-all

# Get battery status
headsetcontrol -b

# Set sidetone level (0-128)
headsetcontrol -s 64

# Turn off LEDs
headsetcontrol -l 0

# Set auto-off timer (minutes, 0 = disabled)
headsetcontrol -i 30

# List device capabilities
headsetcontrol --capabilities
# or shorthand
headsetcontrol --caps

Output Formats

For scripting and integration with other tools:

bash
# JSON output
headsetcontrol -o json

# YAML output
headsetcontrol -o yaml

# Environment variables
headsetcontrol -o env

See docs/LIBRARY_USAGE.md for building applications on top of HeadsetControl.

Developer Mode

For debugging and reverse-engineering headset protocols:

bash
# List all HID devices
headsetcontrol --dev -- --list

# Send raw HID data
headsetcontrol --dev -- --device 0x1b1c:0x1b27 --send "0xC9, 0x64" --receive

Library API

HeadsetControl can be used as a library with C++ and C APIs. Build with shared library support:

bash
cmake -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBRARY=ON ..
make

See docs/LIBRARY_USAGE.md for complete documentation.

Test Device

For development without hardware:

bash
headsetcontrol --test-device -b

GUI Applications

Linux

gnome-shell-extension-HeadsetControl - GNOME shell extension (GNOME 42+)
headset-charge-indicator - System tray with controls (Python)
headset-battery-indicator - Tray icon with ChatMix, Sidetone controls (Python/Qt)
headsetcontrol-notificationd - Battery notifications (PHP)
HeadsetControl-GUI - System tray and window with controls; x86-64 and ARM64 builds (Python/Qt6)

macOS

HeadsetControl-MacOSTray - Menu bar app (macOS 14+)

Windows

QontrolPanel - Quick access / settings panel (Qt C++/QML, also works on Linux) - ARCHIVED
QontrolPanel - Quick access / settings panel (Qt C++/QML, also works on Linux) - FORK from Odizinne
HeadsetControl-GUI - Simple GUI (Qt C++)
HeadsetControl-SystemTray - System tray (Python)
headset-battery-indicator - Native tray icon (Rust)

Contributing

Want to add support for a new headset or improve the software? See the Development Guide.

Adding a new device requires capturing USB traffic between the headset and its Windows software using Wireshark or USBlyzer (a VM with USB passthrough works well).