Disable PulseAudio flat volumes to prevent it from pushing volume level to max

[Andrew Lutomirski]

On Thu, Sep 17, 2015 at 11:59 AM, Germano Massullo
<germano.massullo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Today I had a scary experience with the audio of my computer.
> I was listening to music with Amarok, using my headphones... The KMix volume
> level was ~ 35%. When I logged into a video conference application, the
> volume suddenly reached the 100%. I was shocked, having the maximum audio
> level shooted in your ears is a painful experience.
> The conference application that triggered PulseAudio pushing volume to
> maximum level probably should have never asked the system for a 100% audio
> level, but on the other hand, PulseAudio should never allow an application
> to make such sudden changes.

To clarify: did you get blasted by music or by video conference
sounds?  If the music volume got louder, then it sounds like either a
straight-up bug in PulseAudio (and a severe and dangerous one at that)
or a serious bug in your video conference volume in which it adjusts
the volume of streams other than its own.

If you got blasted by video conference sounds, then I'd say it's a
serious design flaw in PulseAudio.  PulseAudio should offer an
easy-to-configure maximum volume (probably A-weighted power, but peak
level works, too, if considerably less well) on a per-output basis
with which to protect your ears.

--Andy