My volume configuration for my 18.04 machine's built-in sound output currently looks like this after I've pressed the "voume up" button until it registers at 100%.
Sound preferences:
Indicator applet:
Onscreen volume control:
I can use the indicator applet slider control to raise the volume, but then if I press volume up again, the peak is reset, and the volume is actually lowered.
I'm sure it's a bit of a journey, but I'd like to get all three of these indicators synchronized, such that 100% means 100% in all of them (and 100% in one doesn't mean 70% in the other, etc). Has anyone else who has partaken in that journey got the knowledge?
1 Like
The 100% is what your computer’s sound card reports as the max unamplified volume. The extra range above that in the Sound Preferences and the indicator is amplified by your computer. (I’ve also seen it described as “overamplified”.) It can be helpful on e.g. some laptops to raise the volume above the 100% level, but it can also have a lot distortion.
I think the keyboard controls are playing it safe by sticking to the unamplified max, while the preferences and indicator give you more control. You can change the indicator to only go to 100% by running this command:
gsettings set com.ubuntu.sound allow-amplified-volume false
I don’t know an easy way to change the Preferences not to go above 100%, but it at least shows where 100% is. There’s probably a way to configure PulseAudio somehow that disables this feature
1 Like
I’m pretty sure that’s normal behavior.
Thanks, setting com.ubuntu.sound allow-amplified-volume false more or less synchronized the three slider visualizations. If I need it amplified further, I can use pavuctl to bump up that app’s output volume. When I’m at 100% according to the (now-synchronized) visualizations, and I use pavuctl to bump it up “past 100%” , and (mistakenly) hit volume up, it does not cause the volume to be reduced to the “unamplified max”, which is exactly what I’m looking for. Works great.
1 Like
