Using the Volume Control


Before you play or record any sound at all, it's important for you to become familiar with the volume controls in Fedora Core 4. To start the volume controls, either right-click the speaker icon at the far right of the menubar and choose Open Volume Control, or choose Applications, Sound & Video, Volume Control. The Volume Control application appears, as shown in Figure 15.1.

Figure 15.1. The Volume Control application's Playback tab contains sliders that adjust volume settings for your sound hardware.


You'll notice that the Volume Control application has two tabs, Playback and Capture. The Playback tab contains volume adjustments for sound output, such as your speakers or your computer's audio (wave) generator, while the Capture tab, shown in Figure 15.2, contains volume adjustments for sound sources, such as microphones or CD players.

Figure 15.2. The Capture tab contains sliders that adjust volume settings for sound sources.


Not All Sound Hardware Is the Same

Because different makes and models of PC sound hardware often enjoy different capabilities, your Volume Control application might not quite match the appearance of the Volume Control application shown in Figures 15.1 and 15.2. This is normal, and you shouldn't worry too much about it; we deal only with the master volume (Master), wave output (PCM), and microphone (Microphone) adjustments in this chapter anyway.


The Volume Control application contains a number of different sliders related to various capabilities and features of your sound hardware. For the purposes of this chapter, we're interested in only three of them:

  • The master volume (Master) control on the Playback tab adjusts the output volume of all the sounds processed and output by your sound card. This control is not to be confused with the volume knob on your computer's speakers, if they have one; the volume slider adjusts the level of the signal that your computer sends to your speakers or earphones. You can turn it up or down as needed, but you should never turn it all the way up, or your sound quality will degrade and you may risk damaging your speakers or earphones.

  • The wave output (PCM) control on the Capture tab adjusts the volume of only the portion of the card that generates sound from digital data supplied by programs or stored on your hard drive. This volume control does not affect audio stored on regular audio CDs, but rather audio from MP3 files, videos, or Internet audio. This volume control is secondary to the master volume control; that is, if the master volume is all the way down, no wave output is audible, no matter how high the wave output volume is set.

  • The microphone (Microphone) control on the Capture tab adjusts the input volume of microphone devices plugged into your computer's mic jack. A volume set too high lowers the quality of recorded sound, whereas a volume set too low might make recorded sound difficult to hear.

You will probably need to spend some time adjusting all three of these volume control sliders as you progress through this chapter. Because adjusting volume is not a science but a modest form of art, and sound hardware varies from computer to computer, you simply need to employ a trial-and-error process in adjusting volume until your computer's audio sounds the way that you want it to.

Feel free to leave the Volume Control application open on your desktop so that you can return to it if necessary as you work through this chapter.

Look for the Red X

If you find that parts of this chapter don't work for you (in particular, that you don't hear sound when you believe you should), look for red X marks over the icons near the bottom of your Volume Control application. These red X marks indicate that the volume control in question is muted. Click on the X to unmute the control.




    SAMS Teach Yourself Red Hat(r) Fedora(tm) 4 Linux(r) All in One
    Cisco ASA and PIX Firewall Handbook
    ISBN: N/A
    EAN: 2147483647
    Year: 2006
    Pages: 311
    Authors: David Hucaby

    flylib.com © 2008-2017.
    If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net