PulseAudio

[Llama]

Hi,

Is it a recommended way with Pardus? I never used it; actually I've no idea what it is . I can't even tell whether it's already running... A For Dummies briefing is extremely welcome .

[MitraMai]

You have manually choose pulse audio if you want it instead of ALSA or OSS for the base system. You do it in TASMA => SOUND & MULTIMEDIA => SOUNDCONFIGURATION. If you want Amarok to use Pulse Audio you have to set it in Preferences => configure Amarok (I think it is, my tabs are all in swedish so I don't know the equivalent in english). I think the same goes for smplayer, kaffeine etc.

I can't tell the difference between them all, they just "sound"!

[Llama]

Thanks, MitraMai! Do you by any chance use a mike? So far I never managed to get one single squeak out of it in Linux . Naturally, I'm worrying about a right configuration...

[PhiX]

Wow there !
Pulse Audio is not a replacement of ALSA (nor it is of OSS). It is a software layer that sits on top of them.
If your sound works, do not touch anything unless you know what you are doing, or you will be facing trouble.

What Is PulseAudio?

PulseAudio is a sound server for POSIX and Win32 systems. A sound server is basically a proxy for your sound applications. It allows you to do advanced operations on your sound data as it passes between your application and your hardware. Things like transferring the audio to a different machine, changing the sample format or channel count and mixing several sounds into one are easily achieved using a sound server.

Source : the pulseaudio project website.

[Llama]

If your sound works, do not touch anything unless you know what you are doing, or you will be facing trouble.

I'd be only too happy to leave 'em alone . I just have to make choices. What am I supposed to put into tray: KMix or PulseAudio Volume Control ?

[PhiX]

Only KMix.

[Llama]

Only KMix.

Thanks! KMix did me a lot of good (normal volume levels). Still, I'm curious about what I see...

alsamixer says:

Card: PulseAudio
Chip: PulseAudio
View: [All]

<Master> <Capture>

Mixer (KMix) looks (and feels) the way I used to see it:

<Master> <PCM> <Front> <Mic> <Mic Boost> <Capture>


Who is in control of my audio, then ? Should I leave it "as is", or should I enable/disable something ?
It's a lack of understanding, you know...

[PhiX]

A sound card has input channels and output channels.

Master: controls the volume of the master output channel.

PCM (Pulse-Code Modulation) : controls the volume of the analog/digital signal conversion.
[More info]

Front : controls the volume of the output channel.

Mic : controls the volume of the microphone.

Mic boost : I don't have that one. It may be a feature of your sound card allowing an increase of the sound volume of a recording.

Capture : controls the volume of the input channel.

NB : From a basic user perspective, Master, Front and PCM are equivalent to "volume control".

[Llama]

Thanks! So it's OK that alsamixer and Mixer show different things?..

[PhiX]

Yes. Alsamixer shows that it sees Pulse Audio. It is normal.