Limited Volume Control

[Double_H]

Hello,

I recently installed 5.2 X64 and have a nagging sound issue pertaining to a very small volume control range.  Sound can only be adjusted on external USB speaker from 98-100% on the volume control slider in the bottom right of the system tray.  Any setting below 98% sound cannot be heard at all.  Speaker is displayed as "USB 2.0 Device Analog Stereo" with port set to "Analog Output".  This extremely limited volume control range makes the speaker seem like its either off or 100% volume.

I didn't come across anything in the help manual under sound configuration and google/forum searches didn't turn up much.  Thanks in advance for any assistance provided.

[Valtam]

Does the Output tab have 100% for that device?

[Double_H]

Yes, below is what output tab shows:

[Valtam]

Run alsamixer in the Terminal. Set volumes there with , F6 to select the default sound device, arrow keys and space bar for levels etc.

[Double_H]

Ok, I have full volume control range of USB speaker in alsamixer, I guess I will just adjust volume in there.  Interesting that my 3.5mm headphones can be adjusted with the volume slider but USB speaker needs adjustment in alsamixer.

[bitsnpcs]

Ok, I have full volume control range of USB speaker in alsamixer, I guess I will just adjust volume in there.  Interesting that my 3.5mm headphones can be adjusted with the volume slider but USB speaker needs adjustment in alsamixer.

I don't know the technical names for it, but I think it may be because the headphone, line in, line out, are ports directly in/out of a sound card, or sound chip circuitry, these contain a pre-amplifier circuit, where as the USB port connects in a different way as it can be used for non sound such as a flash drive, so the USB port is processed on main board.

One option is you can use a usb to 3.5mm audio connector, plug the speakers in to that, then plug a 3.5mm cable to the other end of that, the other end of the 3.5mm cable goes in to a multi 3.5mm connector, a cable goes from that to line out, if you have no line out only a headphone out, then that cable goes in to your headphone out, and your headphone jack is also plugged in to the multi 3.5mm connector, then sound will come out of headphones and speakers at same time if both are plugged in to the multi connector, and controlled by the computer volume control slider.

Example - I use a multi 3.5mm connector lots of input/output like a * shape, mostly they are described as a  "3.5mm starfish", its about 1 GBP/Euro/USD to buy it.
How I set it up, as an example - 

1/ 3.5mm cable from line out of desktop in to starfish, 1 of these for each of 2 desktop computers (both are Linux, one is LL).
2/ powered small logitech speakers plug in to starfish. Speakers have a headphone socket on the front, headphones are usually always plugged in to that, it means no system sounds, and when I want to hear sound I put the headphones on, such as music.
3/ from starfish 3.5mm cable goes in to the pc input of an amplifier on my desk, this is powered itself, it outputs to 2 floor speakers, each are having 2 of 10" bass cones. Usually the amplifier front power switch is turned to off. When I turn it to on I can hear music through the floor speakers that is being played on my computer, or online, it has 350W each channel, volume control dials on front of amplifier go to 10 in 0.5 increments, I usually use just second increment so number 1 on each speaker, this is still very loud (on 1 I can hear every vocal and feel the bass downstairs at the other side of the house), I don't use high volume my cousin said it would blow the glass out of the windows in the bedroom. On the front of the amplifier is a mp3 input jack, I have a short cable this goes from the phones headphone jack to that, it means I can play music from my phone at up to 700W, but more importantly I can play it on low volumes but have nice bass sound under my feet as speakers under the desk.
I can add an additional sound source in to the amplifier directly.
4/ other end, I have microphones for vocal and bass, these go in to the mixer , the mixer enables sound changes, and also has special FX options, from the mixer it goes in to the line in of the computer. On mixer I have another pair of headphones plugged in so if not recording I can listen to sound going in to the mixer. I can also attach speakers to output directly from the mixer called monitors, like on the stage it plays back for the singer/instrument player/band. I don't have a need for these, so do not have any.
Mixer can also power things needing, phantom power.
5/ I also have a UCA222 analogue to digital this allows the mixer/and hence mics/headphones to be connected to my netbook (Linux) by USB for recording using Audacity.

Other than the netbook/UCA222, it works connecting wise just because of the small 3.5mm multi connector.
If I hot switch using kvm between computers I do not need to move any cables (like I did to begin with, until I thought to use this solution to save having to do that, before that I used 1 in to 2 way cables and chained them in an ever more intensive way, and ever bigger ball of cables under the desk)  they all have sound through the starfish connect up.

[Double_H]

bitsnpcs, thanks for the detailed response and additional info.  It did come across my mind that the issue with the speaker may be related to power and audio coming through a single USB connector.  I would wager that speakers that are powered by USB but receive audio through 3.5mm and connect to the motherboard audio-out jack would work just fine.  I mostly use headphone for audio and those work in the volume system tray just fine, for the occasional use of external speaker I'm fine with having the terminal open and adjusting volume in alsamixer.

[bitsnpcs]

Double_H, I mostly use the headphones for audio too. I can see how your chosen method will work well for you. There is a way to get alsamixer to remember the settings after reboot so it doesn't need to be open in terminal, a template, I remember looking at it in the past but it seemed too complex for me to try to do it at the time, and I could not get alsamixer to remember the settings on reboot, so I would use alsamixer with it open in terminal on that computer the same as you do. I mention it just in case at a future time you decided this may be of interest to look in to.

Edit, it is just a thought/idea -
When I was making app in the past, I done a desktop icon and used this to make the terminal "silent" (not visible on the desktop) , clicking the icon ran the app gui, but didn't display the terminal, before I made the icon I typed commands in to the terminal and both the terminal and the app gui displayed on the desktop.
So I know that can be done, my idea is that I think it could be possible to somehow have a script with the alsamixer settings of your choice in it, and an icon on the desktop, menu or panel.
When the icon is clicked it will run alsamixer with the chosen settings, and the terminal will not be visible on the desktop, it will still be running in the terminal of course just it is not visible on the screen.
In such a case then to edit the alsamixer settings the script could be altered.
I don't know the workings of alsamixer, but if someone did, then this can be possible to create.
The default sound settings set the app to run on boot.
Or better to have a basic gui to select a users sound scheme by name or number, headphones, speakers, or for specific music genre, or other types of audio schemes they have saved in to the script.
Meaning that users would not need to know/or feel comfortable to use the terminal, or to edit scripts, to make use of the app for script controlling of alsamixer.