[ale] Let's discuss audio settings - why all the volume controls?!

[Steve Litt]

Allen Beddingfield via Ale said on Thu, 12 Aug 2021 19:19:39 +0000

>Something that drives me crazy is the number of places for adjusting
>the volume on a PC. For example, I'm currently listening to MP3s with
>Clementine player.
>
>1.  There is a volume control in the player
>2.  There is a volume control on the audio applet at the bottom of the
>screen 3.  My speakers have a volume knob
>4.  If I click the "mixer" button on the audio applet, there is an
>individual volume level for each running application, and "system
>sounds"
>
>That makes FOUR places to change the volume.  What do you do?
>Crank all the software volume controls to 100%, and change the volume
>with the mechanical knob?  Set them all at 50% and use the mechanical
>knob?  Set the mechanical knob to some sane midpoint, and control the
>volume with a software control (which one?) Is there an officially
>recommended procedure? What's the purpose of all of these?

The first thing I did was get rid of Pulseaudio. That reduces potential
volume controls, and also and more important, greatly reduces the
various mutes one sometimes has to diagnose. So I'm using Alsamixer
exclusively, and if a sound client can't use Alsamixer without
Pulseaudio, I just don't use it.

I think the volume control in your applet also adjusts the master
volume in your mixer: You can check on that, and if it's true, you're
down to 3 volume controls :-)

I don't have an applet. I set my Alsamixer master at 50%, and do
the rest with the amplifier volume control. That way, I can use
the mixer to adjust up or down without having to get up and
adjust the amplifier. As far as the sound application, I set them
pretty low, and try to set them so all the sound applications are about
the same volume.

One reason I set alsamixer at 50% is because I made myself an alarm
clock application that plays the song "Surfin Bird", at high
distortion, while increasing the master volume. So I need the master
volume to have room to increase, to be sure I get up right away. I
guarantee you when you hear "Surfin Bird" at distortion volumes, you'll
pop right out of bed and turn the thing off.

HTH,

SteveT

Steve Litt 
Spring 2021 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful
Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques