How do I make my volume indicator operate in decibels instead of percentage?
When I want to adjust the volume of anything I'm doing, I find that using the volume controls built into Ubuntu is little but confusion. When the volume is around 100%, dropping it several increments has almost no effect on apparent volume, but when it's around 0%, the effect of one click of my mouse wheel is probably a good 3 decibels. I have observed this behavior on tens of different UC's, since I convert about one Ubuntu user a month (NE team contact).
This has proven so frustrating to me that I tend to use the volume knob on my guitar amp ( mono audio :| ) instead of the volume indicator. What can I do to make my volume indicator behave properly until this is fixed? I want each volume increment to be one half or one third decibel.
Is there a different piece of software I should use for system volume configuration perhaps?
Solution 1:
According to pulseaudio's volume control page:
http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/pulseaudio/doxygen/volume.html
The first problem might be the software doing some log calculations it's not supposed to do. (if it is then we need a bug report for that)
The second problem is impossible to fix, and that's the fact that the software can't know for sure what effect changing the volume by one degree will have in the real world. It can't know because of all sorts of factors.
Solution 2:
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/5314/
547 Ubuntu users have voted in favor of resolving this issue, and I think its about time that someone did something about it..
Maybe the problem is being caused by a log calculation happening twice, at two different places in the chain. I'm not an audio engineer (or a mathematician), so correct me if I'm wrong, but heres how I understand it:
A linear scale would be quiet from 0% ~ 85%, and most of the control would be within the 85% ~ 100% bracket.
A logarithmic scale would cause the dB or 'loudness', to increment evenly for each step of the slider.
A 'double' logarithmic scale would overcompensate, and cause the effect of a linear scale in reverse (ie. the 0% ~ 15% bracket controls most of the volume).
This is what the Ubuntu volume slider seems to be doing at the moment. Again, I'm not an expert. I just know that theres a problem, and me and 547 other users would like it to be fixed :)