Volume difference between programs due to pulseaudio

aardwolf · 2014-07-06 19:00:01

Hello,

I recently had to install pulseaudio because Skype required it. So now I think every application is using pulseaudio... I used to use ALSA before.

Anyway, it seems that there is a volume difference between applications: I have to turn up my volume quite loud to hear music played by XMMS (with XMMS's slider already at max). But when then KDE makes an alert sound for a dialog, I almost jump out of my chair because of how loud it is!!

Even stranger is that withing XMMS, switching to a next song causes a volume difference as well that didn't use to be there.

With ALSA, all applications had more similar sound levels.

Is there some way to fix this with pulseaudio?

Thanks!

Last edited by aardwolf (2014-07-06 19:00:58)

karol · 2014-07-06 19:21:25

See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pu … k_properly and some other topics in the troubleshooting section.

Changes from song to song may be due to lack of normalization.

aardwolf · 2014-07-06 20:59:36

The wiki says something about enabling or disabling flat volumes.

So pulseaudio has some kind of per-application audio setting?

Can that be turned off completely? I want only one volume slider: the master volume. Nothing else, no stupid trickery, no auto adjusting things.

I don't need an audio driver to think it's smart for me, especially not if it's stupid and automatically makes my music too soft and KDE notifications way too loud!

Thanks!

Last edited by aardwolf (2014-07-06 21:03:42)

emeres · 2014-07-06 22:59:12

aardwolf wrote:

So pulseaudio has some kind of per-application audio setting?
Can that be turned off completely? I want only one volume slider: the master volume. Nothing else, no stupid trickery, no auto adjusting things.

That would be a case for alsa only, but you want latest skype running. I am not aware of any pulseaudio wrappers for alsa and I doubt skype would fall back to oss, which has a wrapper for alsa.

My advice is to contact skype/microsoft about this. The choice was made by them and since probably they will not change anything, look for alternatives to skype (which has a shabby history by itself already without microsoft) like tox.

aardwolf · 2014-07-07 14:39:01

Do you mean, it is impossible to configure pulseaudio to NOT do per-application volumes?

How does a per-application volume work? I have one volume adjuster in the tray of my desktop, which is supposedly the master volume. How can you then set the per-application volume of, e.g., KDE notifications? Or how can you set the application volume of some SDL game I programmed whose binary is a ./a.out file I just compiled to some random place?

Thanks.

Last edited by aardwolf (2014-07-07 14:45:27)

emeres · 2014-07-07 14:52:32

I meant, alsa alone is suited best for your requirements beside skype. There should be a possibility for this in pa, probably one of the pa modules, look through its wiki and manuals. I stopped using it some time ago.

In alsa you can set sound volume using softvol plugin and environment variables setting the default output device for almost if not all applications.

Last edited by emeres (2014-07-07 14:52:55)

Darkcloud · 2014-07-07 18:21:53

aardwolf wrote:

Do you mean, it is impossible to configure pulseaudio to NOT do per-application volumes?
How does a per-application volume work? I have one volume adjuster in the tray of my desktop, which is supposedly the master volume. How can you then set the per-application volume of, e.g., KDE notifications? Or how can you set the application volume of some SDL game I programmed whose binary is a ./a.out file I just compiled to some random place?
Thanks.

Take a look at pavucontrol.
You can adjust the individual volume levels of running applications there (of course they have to use sound/output something).
Normally the levels of (new) applications should be at 100% (0dB). At least that has always been the case for me.

I don't know whether or not it's possible to tell pulseaudio not to do per-application levels. Haven't read into that.
And tbh, for me that's one of the features of pulseaudio I really like.

V1del · 2014-07-08 17:15:20

I suppose disabling stream restore as per https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pu … _respected would also help to make sure that every stream initializes from scratch and adjusts to the master volume, but don't take my word on that. This may or may not be also of interest

That said, you should give pavucontrol a try as suggested above as it will help you understand the concept better, kmix would have most of its functionality as well but i ain't sure what you're using as you would definitely be able to see more streams in kmix. The fact that KDE notifications may blast at full volume anyway is a known problem though and should be fixed on KDE/Phonon's side afaik

emeres · 2014-07-08 17:50:07

@V1del: Do you know if disabling per application volume control within pulseaudio is possible? Aardwolf mentioned turning it off completely.

@aardwolf Should the notification volume remain a problem, you could try running it through a wrapper or through a newly defined softvol plugin set up with proper volume level using alsa environments variables. Last option however, would require adding runtime arguments to pcm.default in /etc/asound.conf.

V1del · 2014-07-08 20:08:46

@emeres I don't, thats why I gave possible workaroundish solutions, the usecase never occured to me and a google search doesn't turn anything up apart from what I posted, the second link looks somewhat like it goes into this direction but i think its only valid for the card control and has no bearing on per application volume per se

mandog · 2014-07-10 00:51:42

Every application running has its own vol slider in pavcontrol under applications when running and should be saved, system sounds has its own under sound effects output, the mic also has its own slider, same with output, some times alsa decides not to play well and drops the volume settings this can be cured with xfce mixer and setting playback to pulse instead of Alsa.

hybrid · 2014-07-11 18:01:03

I so feel ya aardwolf!
I "switched" from alsa to pulseaudio a while ago, don't really remember what made it necessary for me, but anyhow. I've been through the same as you're going through these days. Unfortunately I haven't found any solutions.
There doesn't seem to be a way for either turning off the per application sound levels (well I guess that's the feature that justifies the need for an otherwise useless sound server, so "of course" that can't be turned off), nor a way for implementing a reliably working master slider.
Why do I say reliably working master slider? You can for example go to the output tab in pavucontrol, lock the channels together and use that as a master control. Or maybe not because all sorts of funny shannanigans are happening if you're doing that, such as sometimes it's working, other times it doesn't and other times these sliders jump to a random position. For example Amarok liked doing that on my machine: changing from one track to a different one sometimes caused the sliders to a much different random position and wrecking your nerves.
So I would suggest to get pavucontrol to be able to adjust the sound levels for every application, then get e.g. pulseaudio-ctl to raise/lower/mute all active applications sound levels at once. That's the closest to having a real master slider. Every so often you'll probably have to readjust your per application levels because this way only your currently running applications are getting adjusted. So for example your skype and xmms levels sit both at 80 percent. Skype is not running, xmms is running. You turn xmms down to 50percent and crank your speakers up. When you then start skype it'll be at 80 percent. Since you mentioned kde: the kde system sounds will always be at 100percent and always blow your ears off. So yeah, welcome to the new linux world where shitty bloated and unnecessary software is deemed the new standard to mimic the poor behaviour of other operating systems.
Alright before I get carried away too much: Good luck experimenting with pulseaudio. Maybe you will find the solution I couldn't find, I'll cross my fingers for you. Or get used to being able to adjust multiple sound levels and do so recursively (in pavucontrol playback, in pavucontrol output and in application - per application of course...). Or maybe run skype through wine (dunno if that's possible) and get rid of that unnecessary sound server - though I'm pretty sure that would only prolong things: eventually in a couple months you'll be forced to use pulseaudio again by some other program you're using. In any way: Get your frustration resistance up.
Good luck.

progandy · 2014-07-11 18:05:37

If you are looking for a simpler master volume, try to disable flat-volumes. Then always set the per-application volume to 100% and only adjust the master volume with pavucontrol or your volume hotkeys.

emeres · 2014-07-11 19:42:38

Using skype through wine, preferably in its own prefix, is quite an good idea to try out. Could be run by an alias for convenience if it works as expected. Only thing is that apparently no version works at a satisfactory level. Still worth a try though.

@hybrid: If you are that dissatisfied, write pulseaudio developers and those who push/force the user to use pa in the first place, otherwise nothing will change.

A workaround for jumping volume levels could be a script daemon setting them to appropriate level periodically.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-07-06 19:00:01

Volume difference between programs due to pulseaudio

#2 2014-07-06 19:21:25

Re: Volume difference between programs due to pulseaudio

#3 2014-07-06 20:59:36

Re: Volume difference between programs due to pulseaudio

#4 2014-07-06 22:59:12

Re: Volume difference between programs due to pulseaudio

#5 2014-07-07 14:39:01

Re: Volume difference between programs due to pulseaudio

#6 2014-07-07 14:52:32

Re: Volume difference between programs due to pulseaudio

#7 2014-07-07 18:21:53

Re: Volume difference between programs due to pulseaudio

#8 2014-07-08 17:15:20

Re: Volume difference between programs due to pulseaudio

#9 2014-07-08 17:50:07

Re: Volume difference between programs due to pulseaudio

#10 2014-07-08 20:08:46

Re: Volume difference between programs due to pulseaudio

#11 2014-07-10 00:51:42

Re: Volume difference between programs due to pulseaudio

#12 2014-07-11 18:01:03

Re: Volume difference between programs due to pulseaudio

#13 2014-07-11 18:05:37

Re: Volume difference between programs due to pulseaudio

#14 2014-07-11 19:42:38

Re: Volume difference between programs due to pulseaudio

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