Ubuntu Multimedia :: Lower Volume Levels Have To Sound
Sep 29, 2010
I just recently installed ubuntu so I'm quite lost on some stuff. This little annoyance comes from the volume levels in Ubuntu 10.04. I have partitioned my computer to have dual boot into windows and ubuntu, so I know the problems are not related to the hardware itself as everything works just fine in windows. I am using a Dell Inspiron 9400, for reference.
The multimedia keys on the computer respond correctly but on the lower three volume settings sound completely drops out as if I had muted the computer. I went into the Alsa mixer to see if I could configure these sound levels and sure enough the master volume was down to zero, PCM and LFE are also low . I changed the settings of the lower levels but when I press on the volume up or down media keys to switch level the settings get reset. I tried just changing one level, exiting and saving through alsactl but it didn't stick. Even after reboot the settings are back to the zero volume on the first levels.
This is my third Ubuntu installation, and even with identical hardware, sound volume is dramatically less than under Windows. I turn every slider up all the way, and it is still less than half as loud as Windows.
The problem is some of the songs are louder than others, in other words set the volume and next thing a song comes along that scrambles your brains it's so loud, Or you get one you can't hardly hear.
I've used a couple of GUI's in the past, but all of them seem to do one song at a time. Not really an option with over 10,000 songs.
What would be nice is if I could pick one song as a base line and using terminal run a batch of say 500 songs through it.
Running 10.10 2 gig of memory
Use Rhythm box to handle music currently.
Been using since Dapper Drake, I'm not afraid of the command line, but I am far from an expert user, in other words I know just enough to be a danger to myself and others
I've never written a script file to automate anything but this may well be a time to learn one.
How might i be able to play a small blip/beep sound to let me hear/test the audio levels upon volume change? Mac OSX users may know what I'm talking about. I had a similar application in windows. It helps me guage my volumes before i play games/...../videos.
i have this weird problem with my pavucontrol. for some reason my input levels go up and down by themselves when i'm talking on skype...mostly up...and it's annoying because i'll be talking normally, but to the people i talk to on skype it sounds like i'm yelling, and i have to have pavucontrol open always to constantly keep the levels under control..i've made a short desktop recording showing what i mean.i didn't include sound, but as you can see, i'm not turning the levels up manually..i just talk and they go up by themselves
I am currently troubled with a very annoying problem - the volume level of the PC is jumping higher and lower at random intervals. It makes listening to music very difficult, as at times the music can go from just right to overly loud, just to fall right down so that it is hard to hear. I've only noticed this problem in the past few weeks, and I can definitely say it wasn't an issue in 9.10. This is a fresh install btw, not an upgrade.
Some details: Using motherboard sound, Realtek HD Audio, iirc. Below is the output of lshw, with the irrelevant parts cut out.code...
ALSA mixer resets my speaker volume to zero and changes my USB headset volume to a very low level. How can I get ALSA Mixer to remember my volume settings from last boot or if there's no other option, a way I can make it adjust the levels to a predetermined level automatically on startup. I'm using 10.10 with pulseaudio.
I am using UNR 9.04 with Alsa 1.0.22.1 For some reason everytime I reboot my volume levels reset to headphone & speaker muted and headphone/speaker/PCM levels all set to 0%.
Does anyone know if there something I can that will allow my levels to be the same after I reboot? or if there is a script out there that will set my levels on startup?
If there isn't a script what would I do to create my own? also what would I do to have it auto run at startup?
I don't really now where this goes but figured i start in the general forum, mods please move as needed.I got my f12 install up and running great. I recently burned an audio cd. when i used it in my car i noticed i had to turn the volume up a lot more then on my other burned cds. previously i used my mac to burn cds. the mp3 files are the same, they are located on a external hd that both computers access. the difference is significant. any ideas on why this is?
I ran openSUSE way back since version 7.3, before that I was on Redhat 6 and briefly at 5 before that. I know my way around Linux pretty well but two problems with Fedora are bothering me right now. I'll begin a separate thread for each one to keep things clear.The first problem is with sound. I remember having problems with the Intel ICH7 chipset and pulseaudio on openSUSE, but the problem I have with Fedora is different. Sound works, but each time after rebooting, I have to open alsamixer to turn the master volume up from zero. Being an openSUSE user, I am comfortable with KDE, so I am running KDE 4.6.1 as my DE.Two sound devices have been detected, one is the Intel soundcard, which is recognized as snd_hda_intel. The primary sound device, according to alsa, is my Logitech UVC cam.
I noticed that one DVD I encoded to ogg (vorbis) resulted in files with varying volume levels (some files have sound much softer than others... and the original DVD is not like that). I wonder if it's mplayer or oggenc's fault. I do it like this (suppose):
Code:
for i in 01 02 03 04 05 ; do mplayer-vc null -vo null -ao pcm:filename=$i.wav dvd:// -title $i-$i; oggenc $i.wav $i.ogg; rm $i.wav; done I'm doing it by memory so I could have a mistkate or two in the sequence of commands but the idea is very simple
- Output the sound to a wav file using mplayer - Encode it with oggenc - Delete the wav file.
I have a keyboard with media buttons on it which work fine. I do have a question about the 2 buttons for lower and higher volume. Pressing the higher volume button increases the volume with a maximum of 18 steps, where step 0 = mute and step 17 is maximum. I wonder if it is possible to increase the number of steps to make the volume change not so big per step. Now I have one step which is a bit too loud, and one step lower is not loud enough.
I am running Ubuntu 10.04 on a Sony Vaio EC laptop. I am having problems with my volume being very low under Ubuntu, even if I turn all the options to full, I can barely hear it. This happens both through the built in speakers and through headphones. I know it is not a hardware problem since both work fine in Win7 dual boot. Also, this problem occurs both in Rhythmbox and chromium.
I had a problem with sound, but after googling and installing a couple of files, I finally got sound from ..... and in aqualung. However, still nothing from audacious or amarok. When I open them with a terminal, there are no error messages. In audacious, the visuals show that the song is playing...the volume is at 100%, but no sound. Same with amarok.
my sound has been only turning on if i turn it up beyond about 10%. it didnt used to do this. This has been happening for quite a long time, i just now wanted to bring it to the forum.
I recently purchased an external USB audio card [URL] All worked fine except the volume that comes out is BLASTING, and changing the master volume does nothing. Individual applications let me change their volume, but this is extremely anoying and often leads to me accidently blasting the room.
When the opening little music plays during start up, the first half of it is loud, but halfway through, the sound cuts to about half volume. Everything else afterwards is also very quiet. After boosting the volume output to 150%, and boosting VLC's audio output to 200%, the audio is still barely audible on my laptop. I've gone into alsamixer, and it's at max. I once found how to reset the audio card, and the sound was normal again, but only until I shut the laptop off, and next time, it was the same as always.
I'm on Ubuntu 9.10, and using an old Toshiba Satellite laptop. Don't know what my sound card is.
Since a few days my audio volume adjusts itself while listening music (rythmbox) or watching a movie (vlc). Anyone else have these problems? It's really really annoying.
My system:
Ubuntu 10.04, 64 bit on intel i5 sound card: VIA VT1828S (onboard Asus P7P55D-E mainboard)
Upgraded via Update Manager from 9.10 sound-previously-working-just-fine-system. Now, for example, running any audio-producing app (Rythmbox is a good example but its the same for anything including out of a VirtualBox XP install or with MythBuntu): The main volume control functions, but goes from muted to full volume in just 4 steps; raising it higher has no effect. It gets stranger: in Alsamixer or gnome-alsa-mixer I can see that lowering the desktop volume control to mute causes Master, PCM, Front, Surround, Center, LFE, and Side all to go to zero. Raising the desktop control one step causes all of these but Front to go to 100% instantly. Increasing the desktop control by a few more steps causes Front to step to 100%, after which no further volume increase is perceived. It's as if each step in the desktop volume equals some 25% of the Front setting, and 100% of the others. The audio setting in System, Preferences, Sound, Hardware is "Analog Stereo Output."
If I click 'Mute' on Master in the mixer then all the speakers mute, but unmuting Master does not unmute anything else. Only after I move and release the mouse-down state from the master volume do the other channels unmute. The volume control in Rythmbox, on the other hand, works seemingly correctly (maybe its going thru Pulseaudio?) And as an aside, why are there no controls for Pulse if it sits on top of ALSA?
I'm really confused by this, as all of it work as "expected" while running 9.10. Here is some output from this system (an ASUS M4A78T-E):
I've got a Toshiba L650, Debian testing/unstable, KDE4.4.5. The sound worked when I first installed everything (played a movie in dragon player, etc), but shortly thereafter it stopped working. It seems like the hardware is okay (all hardware is recognized, all relevant modules loaded, volume in alsamixer at 100%, the system beep -- set in the BIOS -- works), but I still can't get sound to play. Once or twice, right before KDE shutdown, I could hear the exit sound, but that's it. Last night I exited KDE (without hearing a sound), shutdown kdm, then:
mv $HOME $HOME.backup mkdir $HOME and restarted kdm and kde...still no sound! I created another user, and still no sound!
I use headphones and have an MCP73 sound device; am running OpenSUSE 11.4.
On each restart, I get no sound. I have to go to YAST, Hardware, Sound, Other, Volume. The 'Other channels', Front slider is at 0%. If I slide it up to 100%, my headphones start working. At this point the Help text says to press 'Next' to save the settings, but there isn't a 'Next' button...just a Cancel and OK. OK keeps the new setting, but apparently doesn't save it permanently.
What can I do to avoid having to reset this slider every time ?
Does anybody know if it's possible to get the volume control knob (the one on the device) on the USB Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi device in Ubuntu 10.4? The sound is working great for me, but I actually bought it mostly for the volume so I'm hoping there's a way to fix it before I return it.
I'm not able to hear any sounds from my system. The panel does not have the volume control button anymore. I'm not able to run System -> Preferences -> Sound. I get an error saying "Waiting for sound system to respond" And if I run 'pavucontrol' in the terminal, I get "Connection failed: Connection refused"
Also recently I've noticed that when I run some commands in the terminal I often get this message "Home directory /root not ours." Can this be related to the sound problem? I am on the system as root.
Basically every time I boot into Ubuntu any sound will be vary loud until I move the volume slider, it doesn't matter how much I move the slider as long as it moves then all sound will play at the normal volume and volume control works like it's suppose too until I reboot. This problem started in 9.10 and still happens in 10.04 and 10.10(as of a couple days ago).As far as I can tell the issue only exists in Ubuntu, doesn't happen in Fedora(Gnome), OpenSuSE(KDE) or Kubuntu.Running 10.04.1 32-bit, Logitech Clear Chat USB Headset, don't have any speakers.
Recently I installed JACK and Ardour to try out. Later I decided against it and so I uninstalled them. After restarting my computer, I noticed that the sound applet has disappeared from the panel, although the battery and mail icons are still present. There is still sound coming out of my laptop speakers, but it is stuck at whatever volume I had it set on before the last time I shut down. Volume sliders inside Banshee and suchll function, but I cannot change the overall system volume, and my keyboard shortcuts for this have stopped working as well. When I go into System->Preferences->Sound, all I get is a message that says "Waiting for sound system to respond." and nothing happens. I've tried searching around for a solution, but nobody I could find seems to have had aimilar problem, and none of the various other solutions proposed have worked for me. I'm on Ubuntu 10.10 by the way.
i'm using opensuse 11.3 64bits and upgraded kde from 4.4.4 to 4.6.0 now i'm having some problems with audio. it seems kde have problems with audio-devices. sometime i message about none workin devices and ask me to remove it. i manage to get sound from amarok, but not from web-browser lika videos. the computer is a dell latitude d830 with intel hda-devices. computer is docked in a dell d-dock. i can't adjust master volume using computer buttons or kde-volume, so i have to use volume on external speakers.
I noticed that thare are different default priviliges for the user depending if I boot in run level 3 or 5. Normally I use init 5 and login in graphical mode straight to Gnome desktop. Then all my USB devices (memory and external USB sound card) are accessible and work. If I log in throught termina (init 3) then USB has to be mounted and the sound card is not recognized.
Is there any general rule for such behaviour? If I plan to use level 3 shall reconfigure the system go get immidiate acces to usb sound card?
I tried to add my wife , and when I put in a password for her, this error comes up."Please set a valid user name consisting of a lower case letter followed by lower case letters and numbers." I did all that and I still can't set a password for her.
I've got my xubuntu 10.10 install just about perfect on a little acer aspire d250, apart from a small sound useability issue: In the interests of simplicity and resource usage I removed pulseaudio. After a bit of fiddling I got it so that my USB soundcard (ProDac) is recognized and automatically set as the default soundcard when plugged in. Any sound applications automatically use the USB sound if it present, no need to around with pulse. The only problem is that my netbook's volume control keys still only control the master volume of the inbuilt soundcard, and have no effect on the usb sound. Does anyone know of a way to change which sound device these keys actually effect? I'd like to write a little script so that when the usb device is detected the keys are remapped.
I'm running Kubuntu 10.10 32 bit on an old DFI KT600AL motherboard based system using the onboard VIA 3058 AC97 audio (because it supports front panel audio connections and none of the add-in PCI soundcards I have do). I have an old Gateway/STB TVPCI TV tuner card (mainly wanted the FM radio part to work) hooked up to the cd audio connector on the motherboard because the digital audio over the pci bus apparently isn't supported for this card (neither is the onboard analog mixer on the tv tuner card, I had to hack a CD-ROM audio cable and solder it to the audio outputs of the tv tuner module on the TV tuner card). When I use the master channel as the master channel (selected in Kmix) then as one would expect it affects the output volume of all other audio playing on the system except that which is being handled by the PCM channel. On Windows the PCM channel was also affected by the "Volume Control" slider such that ALL volume levels were reduced when moving the slider. I'm hoping someone can help me figure out how to make it work like this on Kubuntu.
First off I should warn you that I (like many users of older hardware that is not properly supported under PulseAudio) have uninstalled PulseAudio (because it's garbage) and am using Alsa to manage my audio hardware. I would think that there would be some way to do this using the 'amixer' application to add the PCM channel as a component of the 'Master' channel so that when the volume is turned down using the 'Master' channel control it will affect the PCM channel too (at least the output to the speaker jack, not necessarily the capture or mix volume though), but I'm not really any good at doing things from a terminal window and the options for the amixer command kind of confused me.
