Idea #10424: Volume-manager should fade to set volume

Written by jalla2000 the 28 Jun 08 at 14:30. Category: Multimedia.
Related to: Gnome. Status: New

Description

When i change the master volume with my keyboard's increase/decrease volume buttons i got only about 17 steps from no sound to full volume. That's fine. But the stepping is very hard and uncomfortable to my ears. What I would like to see is the volume manager fading between the volume steps. I suspect rhythmbox is doing this already. I'd like to see the volume manager displaying the set volume with an arrow or something and then showing a quick animation that fills the bar in about half a second or something depending on the amount of change in volume. This would not increase the amount of needed keypresses but would make a volume change sound much better. I'd like to see some simple adjustable preferences for the volume control as well (number of steps etc).

Tags: fade manager volume

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deadowl wrote on the 29 Jun 08 at 03:32

Not in all cases. A lot of people strongly prefer reactivity.

boteeka wrote on the 2 Jul 08 at 16:10

This is a great idea. I would like it implemented in Ubuntu, but only the fading part. I think it is not necessary to display the fading graphically. If the time period for this would be adjustable, then you can go from no fading to whatever fading time you want: everybody happy.

Endolith wrote on the 24 Sep 08 at 15:27

This has nothing to do with "reactivity". It should smoothly adjust from one gain to the next instead of jumping between levels.

Note that this is only possible for digital attenuators, though. If the gain is being changed by software, then it can be smoothly changed. If the gain is changing an electronic circuit in the sound card or USB device, then it's up to that device and we have no control over it. Some of these circuits will have zipper noise and some won't.

HaMF wrote on the 24 Sep 08 at 18:26

@soft stepping: -1
I prefer a "hard" stepping.
1. Want to know exactly by how much the volume increased. (ΔVolume :) )
2. I want to hear instantaneously what the new volume sounds like.
3. It might be that the "ideal Volume" is between two steps and I don't want to think "this volume level is perfect" and realize half a second later that I did not get exactly what I wanted. This would be frustrating.

@simple adjustable preferences for the volume-control: +1
A few options I would really like to see are:
[ ] channel to adjust (already done)
[ ] number of steps (as you suggested)
[ ] soft stepping (I kind of like your idea... But only as an option not as 'unalterable' default.)
[ ] alternative Volume-Control (Instead of discrete steps: Increase (decrease) the volume smoothly after pressing the volume-up-key; stop increasing (decreasing) the volume as soon as the key is pressed again.)
Imho this is worth a seperate idea :)

Note that either way it's quite tedious to implement this "minor enhancements".

summed up: ±0

Endolith wrote on the 24 Sep 08 at 20:54

What is this stuff about "half a second later"? Isn't the poster just asking to get rid of zipper noise? There would be absolutely no delay between when you move the slider and when the gain changes.

HaMF wrote on the 24 Sep 08 at 22:25

that's how I understood the idea:
Currently, when you press "volume up" on your keyboard (we don't talk about dragging a slider with the mouse) the volume jumps from let's say 76% to 80%. So you press the button and the volume is ajusted instantaneously.

jalla suggests to make the process smoother: You press "volume up" once and the volume is increased to 76.5% then to 77%, 77.5%, 78%,... 80% (maybe even smaller steps). This takes time. And that's where the mysterious "half a second" come from.

Btw. when posting my comment I did not remember that lalla wrote "half a second" too. If I had I would have written "0.3secs". :) (This might be misguiding!) (Does the sentence makes sense - grammatically?) (Why isn't there an edit button next to my comment?)

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