arduino-pulseaudio-controller

Very simple, very "boring" approach -- not fancy at all, but can be implemented very easily.

Only needs componets from the Arduino Starter Kit, and a bit of Python.

The approach is far from optimal, with the poller struggling to keep up with the serial input, no config options, and so on :)

If you'd like a robust, battle-tested approach, you should look at the excellent deej project: https://github.com/omriharel/deej

Parts

All included in the official Arduino UNO Starter Kit

Arduino code (print_potentiometer_values/print_potentiometer_values.ino)
- Very straightforward I think, if you have more potentiometers just increment the array sizes
Python code (poller.py)
- Customize the app mapping by altering the constants above. I used three pots:
  - One: things that play audio in the background -- Spotify, Firefox (for Twitch, Plex)
  - Two: things that play audio in the foreground -- Games
  - Three: meetings -- Discord, Chromium (for Teams in the browser, also Slack/Electron)
- To target apps, easiest thing is sink.proplist["application.name"] as name is mostly useless. You could also get fancy and target by PID.
Misc
- List current inputs by filter (dev_poll_inputs.py)
  - List pulsesecure sinks with their properties.