Simple bash script to allow for control of pulseaudio without alsautils. Simply map the following to keyboard shortcuts in your DE or WM. Xfce4 allows for this under Settings > Keyboard > Application Shortcuts.
/usr/bin/pulseaudio-ctl mute ==> Toggle status of mute
/usr/bin/pulseaudio-ctl mute-input ==> Toggle status of mute for mic
/usr/bin/pulseaudio-ctl up ==> Increase vol by 5 %
/usr/bin/pulseaudio-ctl up 25 ==> Increase vol by 25 %
/usr/bin/pulseaudio-ctl down ==> Decrease vol by 5 %
/usr/bin/pulseaudio-ctl down 50 ==> Decrease vol by 50 %
/usr/bin/pulseaudio-ctl set 40 ==> Set vol to 40%
/usr/bin/pulseaudio-ctl atmost 30 ==> Set vol to 30% if current higher than that
A config file resides in ~/.config/pulseaudio-ctl/config and allows for some options including:
Example:
# The default setting is for pulseaudio-ctl to NOT increase to volume level
# above 100 % but Some users may wish exceed this level. If this describes
# your use case, uncomment the UPPER_THRESHOLD variable below setting it to
# the new upper threshold.
#
UPPER_THRESHOLD=150
# Push output through libnotify. Set to any value to enable this feature
# and note that you must have /usr/bin/notify-send to use this. On Arch
# libnotify provides this. Other distros may not name it as such.
NOTIFY=yes
# Show a graphical progress-bar type visualization of the volume level in
# libnotify. No setting or commented out will show a simply percentage but
# a setting will convert the percentage to a progress-bar in libnotify.
#
BARCHART=yes
# Use KDE OSD notification. Set to any value to enable this feature.
KDE_OSD=yes
If config file isn't present script uses default value 100 for the UPPER_THRESHOLD and notifications are disabled by default.
AUR package: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/pulseaudio-ctl