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

[Thomas Daede]

I also absolutely hate flat-volumes. Often I have trouble getting an
application loud enough, and discover that it's too low in the mixer.
The idea of flat volumes is to avoid a global volume, but the way it
interacts is super confusing and unlike any other system people use
(except maybe Android, but all of its "content" apps are still coalesced
under one mixer).

That said, apps shouldn't be setting their own Pulseaudio volume in
general. Firefox did that for a while and ran into a similar bug as you
got with Amarok, so they implemented their own internal soft volume
rather than adjusting their Pulseaudio volume.

That said, flat-volume is the upstream default so we might want their
input, as well as looking at what other distros do.

On 09/17/2015 11:59 AM, Germano Massullo wrote:
> =======
> Definition of flat-volumes from [1] : it scales the device-volume with
> the volume of the "loudest" application. For example, raising the VoIP
> call volume will raise the hardware volume and adjust the music-player
> volume so it stays where it was, without having to lower the volume of
> the music-player manually.
> =======
> 
> 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 avoid that, you have to set
> flat-volumes = no
> in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
> 
> I found many users stories complaining about this default setting [2]
> [3] [4] and you can easily find other by searching "pulseaudio flat
> volumes".
> I completely agree with user gaggra comment at [3]
> 
> <<This is an interesting issue because it is one of the rare times
> misbehaving software can /physically hurt you/. You would think that
> once that was understood, the design of this sort of behaviour would be
> treated in a very conservative, careful manner.>>
> 
> Moreover this default setting can cause sound crackling [5].
> 
> So I would like to start a discussion about disabling this default
> behaviour for the mentioned reasons.
> 
> 
> [1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio
> [2]
> https://major.io/2015/06/08/pulseaudio-popping-with-multiple-sounds-in-fedora-22/
> [3]
> https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/2rjiaa/horrible_decisions_flat_volumes_in_pulseaudio_a/
> [4]
> http://awesomelinux.blogspot.it/2013/06/pulseaudios-dynamic-volume-levels-are.html
> [5] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1264177
> 
>