Bug 695316

Summary:	sudden volume changes when pulseaudio mixes streams
Product:	[Fedora] Fedora	Reporter:	Pierre Ossman <ossman>
Component:	pulseaudio	Assignee:	Lennart Poettering <lpoetter>
Status:	CLOSED WONTFIX	QA Contact:	Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity:	low	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	14	CC:	drees76, lkundrak, lpoetter, maxine.bouffard
Target Milestone:	---	Flags:	maxine.bouffard: needinfo+
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	x86_64
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2012-08-16 16:48:37 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:

Description Pierre Ossman 2011-04-11 11:35:18 UTC

I'm having the very annoying problem of the volume not staying at a consistent level as PulseAudio mixes together streams of varying volume. The scenario which produces this is as follows:

I have a audio player running (audacious), set to a low volume so that notification sounds will be easily noticeable.

Whenever something else starts to play, the volume of the audio player spikes. It doesn't clip, but the sudden increase is at best very annoying.


My guess is that this is caused by PulseAudio's tendency to manipulate the sound card's volume control in order to have as much dynamic range in the sample data as possible. The volume spike would then be caused by data already in transit and not scaled properly for the new hardware volume setting. This theory is also supported by a dip in volume as the secondary sound source disappears.


My sound hardware:

00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801JD/DO (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller [8086:3a6e] (rev 02)


The files in /etc/pulse are all stock.

Comment 1 David Rees 2011-07-23 03:31:29 UTC

I see this too on an Intel system.  Seems to be most noticeable when playing Pandora music in the background and a Skype sound effect plays.  Can also reproduce it by using the gnome sound preference speaker test buttons.

Let me know what information is needed.

Comment 2 Fedora End Of Life 2012-08-16 16:48:40 UTC

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