Sound volume inconsistent between Linux and WinXP

Cid Highwind · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2002 Posts: 53

I have a Creative Soundblaster PCI card (ES1371 chip), and use the stock kernel driver under Gentoo (not ALSA), and the driver that came with XP in Windows. The sound output is much quieter in Linux than in Windows. Even if I set the software mixers at the same level (full volume for master and PCM channels) in both OSes, Windows is much louder. It's not a serious problem, because I can compensate by cranking my amplifier up so the sound is reasonably loud. The problem is, if I boot back into Windows, or switch the stereo over to the tuner or CD player input, it is eath-shatteringly loud. Is there some hidden mixer setting I can use to boost the sound card's output in Linux?

puddpunk · l33t Joined: 20 Jul 2002 Posts: 681 Location: New Zealand

You might find that there are more than one volume controllers for your sound cards volume.

You are using stock drivers, OSS, so open up kmix or something and change the DSP slider and the Master. That should change something.

oniq · Guru Joined: 02 Sep 2002 Posts: 597 Location: Connecticut

Give smixer a try, if you would a like a non-GUI based mixer. It'll give you what you need: the volume settings and nothing more. emerge smixer, then smixer -p to print out the values.
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