Sound ~ How To

There are a number of ways to regulate or control sound on your computer. Here we will look at some of them, with our main focus on "PulseAudio Volume Control" as the sound app to rule them all.

Volume Control

mixer icon

Mixer for Volume Control The volume control icon should sit at the lower right of the screen near the clock and other system icons. This icon provides access to system wide volume. Clicking on it opens the mixer. Here you can quickly adjust the volume. It's also a fast way to mute sound on the computer. Just set it to zero.

If you are not hearing any sound at all, this icon is the first place to check. However its function is very basic. If you want to fine tune or troubleshoot in depth, this is not the tool for you. For that you need PulseAudio Sound Control.

PulseAudio Sound Control

Open Pulse Audio

PulseAudio Volume Control, or Pavucontrol for short, gives you an in depth look at your sound system. It's worth every minute you spend to get to know it.

To open PulseAudio Volume Control, click on the icon in the far lower right corner of the screen and navigate to Sound & Video --> PulseAudio Volume Control.


Fine Tuning

Pulse Audio Playback

The Volume Control dialog will appear. This dialog contains a number of settings. To experience exactly what each setting will do, it's best to open an app that uses sound so you can hear changes as you make them. You should also add any devices you might want to try out, such as headphones, microphones, or speakers. Play a movie with VLC, open a YouTube video or a Netflix movie in Firefox, or play a music album with Clementine. While listening to the sound track from any of these, test out the various settings. Be sure to remember the original setting so you can return to it later if you need to.

Now we can start to explore the PulseAudio Volume Control interface. At the top of the dialog you'll notice the categories Playback, Recording, Output Devices, Input Devices, and Configuration.

Similarly you can click on any of the other tabs to see what settings are available. Which selections appear will depend on your particular setup. For example, if you don't have a microphone, that setting will not appear in Input Devices.

Playback gives you a way to regulate system sounds. System sounds are sounds your computer makes for alerts, system notifications, and sound effects such as closing a program or emptying the recycle bin. It also shows you what apps are using sound. In the example in this image, both Zoom and Firefox are using audio. Use the sliders to adjust each volume independent of the others. If there are no apps running using audio, none will appear here.

Recording gives you options if you are recording sound. Again, nothing will be listed if no apps are engaged in recording audio.


Pulse Audio Output Devices

Output applies to external speakers, headphones, or smartphone speakers if any of these are connected, sound going out. In the picture, The Output Devices tab is highlighted. Speakers is selected, meaning sound will be played using the speakers. Clicking on the inverted triangle at the right of the tab will allow you to select other options that might be available such as headphones. Below this tab is a slider where you can adjust the volume. Advanced configuration options may also be available.


Pulse Audio Input Devices

Input refers to sounds going in, and under this tab you would control microphones, for example.


Pulse Audio Configuration
Pulse Audio Configurations

Configuration is a little more complex and it's really recommended you leave this alone unless you have a very good idea of what you are doing, or nothing else you tried has worked. There may be quite a number of configurations to choose from but not all of them are going to work as it depends on your setup. Usually, as in the image, the configurations that won't work will be marked as unavailable.

If you do try any of these out, be sure to remember the configuration you started with in case you have to go back to it. If you end up with no sound, try opening the terminal and restarting PulseAudio by typing pulseaudio -k and pressing enter, logging out and back in, or restarting the computer.


Within the App

Audio apps or websites, such as VLC, Clementine, Netflix, or YouTube have ways of adjusting sound within the app or website itself. It's useful checking their volume settings if you are experiencing problems.