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

[alan at alanlee.org]

On 2021-08-12 15:19, Allen Beddingfield via Ale wrote:

> 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"

> What's the purpose of all of these?

They all have a specific purpose.  #4 gives you the ability to adjust 
the volume of different applications in the system relative to each 
other - essentially forming a mixer.  eg. You can set your Spotify app 
playing background music to be low while game audio in the foreground is 
high.

#2 is the overall level control for the output mix from number #4.  It 
is generally directly tied to a main hardware volume adjustment on your 
sound card.  If your sound card does not support hardware volume 
control, the OS will soft scale the output based on this setting.  It is 
to help you normalize levels going to your speakers or headphones.

#1 is just a convenience control to adjust the volume in the player's 
internal code before sending samples to the OS.  It is often easier to 
adjust controls like this than find app specific controls in an OS menu 
that are part of #4.

#3 isn't actually a part of your PC.

So there are 3:  Application scaling before the sound goes to the OS 
(#1), scaling as part of a multi-channel application mixer in the OS 
(#4), and final output scaling by the OS before leaving the PC (#2).

-A