volume control extremely sensitive (kmix)

[Christopher J. Bottaro]

Kanwar Ranbir Sandhu wrote:

> On Mon, 2004-09-13 at 12:42, Christopher J. Bottaro wrote:
>> anyways, the problem is that tiny adjustments to volume slider create
>> massive changes in volume.  also, if i bring the volume below about 60%,
>> it
>> becomes very very low, basically muted.  so all the volume control
>> happens at the top 40% of the slider and each increment in that range is
>> dramatic.
>> 
>> in kmix, all my output volume sliders are at about 66-75%.  the problem i
>> describe above is when i'm moving the "master" slider.
> 
> I've been experiencing the same problem since RHL 7.3 and still do with
> FC2, but with Gnome: it has been a irritation since the beginning.  I've
> never been able to figure why it does that.
> 
> I've had to juggle the volume in Gnome and on my speakers, which is for
> the most part ok.  But, it's never quite right.
> 
> The only "workaround" (in Gnome at least) that I've come up with is to
> jack the master volume to max.  I then change the volume control
> applet's properties to control the PCM channel, which doesn't suffer the
> massive drop off that the master channel does.
> 
> In apps where I can choose which channel the volume should control, I
> make sure to pick PCM (e.g. XMMS).
> 
>> a little off topic, but i've always wanted to know:  why does having the
>> PCM volume turned all the way up distort the sound?
> 
> This one is a mystery to me.  Again, I've been experiencing this for a
> long time as well.  I've just learned not to turn the PCM channel all
> the way to its maximum.

heh, i'm actually kind of glad i'm not the only one with the problem...not
that i'm glad you have the problem though.  anyways, please lets me know if
you find a solution to it.

i kind of think it has to do with the snd-intel8x0 driver.  if i install the
nforce drivers, not only does the volume problem go away, but the sound
quality improves dramatically also.  obviously i'm using an nforce
motherboard (nforce2 ultra 400 mcp-t).  one other thing to note is that
using the nforce drivers, kmix only has 3 output volume sliders:  Volume,
Speaker, PhoneOut.  when using the snd-intel8x0 driver, there are TONS of
volume sliders.

hth, bye.