Re: Gnome-Shell max volume is low

[Jonathan Wilkes <jancsika yahoo com>]

> ________________________________
> From: Giovanni Campagna <scampa giovanni gmail com>
> To: Gabriel Rossetti <rossetti gabriel gmail com> 
> Cc: gnome-shell-list <gnome-shell-list gnome org> 
> Sent: Saturday, March 30, 2013 1:33 PM
> Subject: Re: Gnome-Shell max volume is low

[...]

> The 100% is referred to normal volume, ie volume that is not deamplified. Going above 100% is possible, by 
> amplifying the sound wave in software rather than doing it electronically in the sound card, but it distorts 
> the sound and reduces quality, which is why we don't expose it in the menu.

Please explain to me how a lecture recorded with peak amplitude that's 40% below
the maximum allowed value will distort when the user moves the "Sound Settings"
slider above 100%.

That's not an edge case, but a common example of user-transcoded/distributed content
which may be played back in any of a number of applications, most of which don't
(and shouldn't) do software amplification by default, or at all[1].


> The fact that volume is low means probably that the application is also limiting it.

That would be "attenuating", almost certainly not limiting...

> For example you should look for knobs in the application tab of the sound panel. Or, if you accept a 
> reduction in quality, just use the sound panel and sw amplification, or install one of the many extensions 
> that tweak the sound menu.

This design choice has four problems, three of which are obvious:

1) There is no explanation-- either in the interface itself or even in the help docs-- for the
inconsistency between the min/max values of the shell widget and the min/max
values in the "Sound Settings" dialog menu.
2) Furthermore, there isn't any visual feedback when the user slides over 100%
But please understand software amplification does not
_guarantee_ distortion, and especially audible distortion, as Gnome's example sound
when click-dragging the volume-slider is perfectly suited to masking distortion on
a laptop.  Example: something simple like turning the slider red when going
over 100% would be inappropriate (see lecture example above).  But unlocking
software amplification with a toggle that has text saying "Warning: may cause
distortion" AND matching the shell volume slider with the same min/max after the
user clicks the toggle (with a "snap-to" tick to show where software amplification
occurs) would be appropriate.  (But by no means the only solution.)
3) Because of the slider discrepancy mentioned above, when the shell volume
slider is all the way to the right (i.e., max volume), it can mean anything from
"100% volume" to "maximum software amplification allowed by the other volume slider".
(Notice I cannot even tell you what percentage above 100 that value is, since
the "Sound Settings" slider doesn't give that information.)  Thus when the volume
in the shell is at max, which is probably often, the user cannot know for sure
what the volume level actual is by looking at the slider.  This defeats one of the
two purposes of having a volume widget in the first place: letting the user read the
state of their machine.  (The other is of course changing that state.)


And a broader problem for which I have no good solution:
4) Volume UIs tend to behave exactly the same, regardless of whether the speakers
are in a cheap laptop or inside the listener's ear.  In the case of the laptop, it is
perfectly reasonable to use software amplification, and even put up with the ugliest
distortion just to hear what a subject is saying in a poorly recorded clip.  Or
distort a piece of music so the person at the other end of the table can hear
a polyrhythm.  Doing this regularly will shorten the life of the laptop speakers, but
using a laptop regularly will shorten the life of the laptop so typically it all works
out in the end.

But if one habitually does these same things when the speaker is sitting inside the listener's
ear, one degrades the human hearing apparatus to be (probably) decades shorter
than the lifetime of the human, possibly more depending on the perceived loudness
of what is being played.  Laptops will shut down if it seems like heat is going to
damage the system, regardless of what the user happens to be doing at that moment.
Unfortunately I don't think there are enough clues for a DE to reliably guess when the
user is blithely shoving a speaker in his/her ears, but I think the cost of bothering
users on the off chance they are doing this might be worth the benefit of not
contributing to permanent hearing damage.  That doesn't mean shutting down, but
it could mean temporarily muting the sound and asking the user, "Did you just
shove some speakers in your ears?  If so, keep in mind that its very easy to
damage your hearing if you a) turn the volume up to hear soft dialogue and there
is a sudden, unexpected rise in dynamic level; b) listen to loud music for a
prolonged period of time without pause; c) trigger another sound (possibly inadvertently)
while you have the volume at a high level to hear something like quiet dialogue"


I don't know of any widely-used system that takes this last problem seriously, or even
attempts to measure acceptable levels.  (If there is one please let me know.)


-Jonathan

[1] Ideally every single user-device would have a hardware knob or control for master
volume and there would be no need for a DE to do software amplification.  Unfortunately
that's not reality, and there are many use cases (commodity headphones,
laptops, etc.) where the shell's virtual volume slider must serve as the master volume control.


>  
> Giovanni
>
> _______________________________________________
> gnome-shell-list mailing list
> gnome-shell-list gnome org
> https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-shell-list