Can't get volume down

dman777 · Veteran Joined: 10 Jan 2007 Posts: 1004

I am using an external USB audio device with ALSA drivers in my kernel. Everything sounds great. There is one problem though. The volume is to high and hard and distorts my speakers. In my alsamixer window, I have just one volume slide bar showing. It is called PCM. When I adjust it, it has no effect on the volume. I am using Audacious with the ALSA output plug in. Even though I can lower the volume with ALSA, the volume is still to strong at the source and distorts my speakers. How can I lower the volume?

bob doe · Apprentice Joined: 11 Jun 2007 Posts: 207

Your alsamixer should have several bars, not just PCM. Did you follow the HOWTO on gentoo-wiki?

bunder · Bodhisattva Joined: 10 Apr 2004 Posts: 5934

check with alsamixer -c # (# being 0 and 1)... it could be possible you're setting the wrong one.
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dman777 · Veteran Joined: 10 Jan 2007 Posts: 1004

Yea, I just have one soundcard showing and it is counted as 0. The problem is that the PCM volume has no effect as the master volume. I also muted it, did a amixer and it showed as:

Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 128
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-128.00dB] [off]
Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-128.00dB] [off]

And I still have volume. So, it had no effect on my volume.

Any ideas on why the pcm isn't effecting the master volume?

dman777 · Veteran Joined: 10 Jan 2007 Posts: 1004

dman777 · Veteran Joined: 10 Jan 2007 Posts: 1004

bump

jcat · Veteran Joined: 26 May 2006 Posts: 1337

Which guide did you follow?

I find this one to be the most useful...

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_ALSA_sound_mixer_aka_dmix

Cheers,
jcat