What is the point of PulseAudio?
Posted: 2018-04-15 10:03
Lately, I moved my Debian box from Jessie to Stretch. I use this box for android dev and wine-based gaming. I bind my physical vol-/+ buttons to the pulseaudio master sink and leave specifics programs levels at 100%.
1. The sound from a game (through wine) was very faint although I was spamming vol+ button. According to pulseaudio gui interface, nothing was muted but the volume was ~600% (yes, 600%! not 60%) and increasing each time I would push the vol+ button.
Using the mouse to move the slider suddenly brought volume to 90-100% range and also, blasted my ear with full volume.
2. Trying to set my game to 100% AND my master/sink volume to ~20%, I quickly discovered that they were "linked" and couldn't be dissociated.
The solution lies in PA config file, where you have to disable "flat volumes".
I though that pulseaudio was about providing a cool interface for input and output devices, like earphones maybe. But
- allowing volume to go up "silently" to 600%, then suddenly go "full blast" while the user bring back the slider seems very un-userfriendly to me.
- about "flat volumes", what is the point of providing an interface where you can control each program input/output separately, but at the same time, remove the possibility to control volume separately? What is left? I am missing something?
I tried to give pulseaudio a fair trial.
- As a noob, I want audio to work and easy interface if I need to set things up. Pulseaudio failed here, messed up the process of simply settings audio volume.
- As an experimented user, maybe I want full control on how to connect my programs. Jack is already there and doing the job just fine.
So pulseaudio breaks things compared to a pure ALSA setup. My question is does it bring any value? Is someone using it to make easy something that was hard with ALSA? Bluetooth maybe?
1. The sound from a game (through wine) was very faint although I was spamming vol+ button. According to pulseaudio gui interface, nothing was muted but the volume was ~600% (yes, 600%! not 60%) and increasing each time I would push the vol+ button.
Using the mouse to move the slider suddenly brought volume to 90-100% range and also, blasted my ear with full volume.
2. Trying to set my game to 100% AND my master/sink volume to ~20%, I quickly discovered that they were "linked" and couldn't be dissociated.
The solution lies in PA config file, where you have to disable "flat volumes".
I though that pulseaudio was about providing a cool interface for input and output devices, like earphones maybe. But
- allowing volume to go up "silently" to 600%, then suddenly go "full blast" while the user bring back the slider seems very un-userfriendly to me.
- about "flat volumes", what is the point of providing an interface where you can control each program input/output separately, but at the same time, remove the possibility to control volume separately? What is left? I am missing something?
I tried to give pulseaudio a fair trial.
- As a noob, I want audio to work and easy interface if I need to set things up. Pulseaudio failed here, messed up the process of simply settings audio volume.
- As an experimented user, maybe I want full control on how to connect my programs. Jack is already there and doing the job just fine.
So pulseaudio breaks things compared to a pure ALSA setup. My question is does it bring any value? Is someone using it to make easy something that was hard with ALSA? Bluetooth maybe?