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sophiecomputer

Member

Registered: 2024-09-04

Posts: 2

[SOLVED] Headphone volume quiet on only one program

When playing audio out of my laptop speakers, the volume on every program is normal. Although, when plugging in my earbuds and fiddling with alsamixer and pavucontrol, all programs have a normal volume except for zoom, which is very quiet. How can I make a single program much louder (e.g., past the 150% limit that pavucontrol imposes) only while headphones are plugged in?

Extra details: I use cheap 3.5mm earbuds. My microphone quality is fine. Zoom is the only program (that I have noticed) that is very quiet. Additionally, I can't simply make wpctl's volume limit be something like 500% while the rest of the programs are at 100%, because zoom makes a crackling sound at certain times past 100% volume (as if the audio is peaking, despite the fact its still very quiet). Any help is appreciated! :+)

Last edited by sophiecomputer (2024-09-04 14:35:57)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,430

Re: [SOLVED] Headphone volume quiet on only one program

Check whether zoom has a built-in mixer that's not getting reflected to the outside. You are "peaking" the audio when overdriving past the 100% limit, there's not much you can do about that, but check whether zoom has an internal mixer that lowers the volume which you then try to overcompensate for.

sophiecomputer

Member

Registered: 2024-09-04

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] Headphone volume quiet on only one program

Thanks, V1del! I was toying around inside Zoom and found that setting Zoom's output to "Easy Effects Sink" lets me use my Easy Effects plugins to change the volume, just like the rest of the programs on my computer. My assumption is that Zoom only sounded quiet because it might have been the only program not using Easy Effects. (I haven't tried this before because Easy Effects says "it's recommended to NOT set easy effects sink/source as default device in external applications." I'll ignore that warning for now because it seems to fix my problem? I might also be misunderstanding the warning. I'll post an update later if this wasn't a good solution!) :+)