SOUND:What's the difference between "Master" & "PCM"?

[MBMarduk]

I got this tiny problem with *I think* my soundcard.
Just for reference: It's an ooold SB ViBRA16C.

See, anytime I use it under Linux it's soundlevel (volume) is waaaay lower than when used under Winduhs.

In XMMS there's an option to choose whether the volume button controls the PCM (standard) or the "Master".

In XawTV there's "nothing": there IS a volume control which starts off always set to 0% but changing it doesn't do anything. My ears tell me the sound stays around 70%.

Games like Quake could prolly benefit from a volume boost as my amplifier's knob needs to be put twice as high as usual.

But my biggest concern is this:
...isn't there a universal sound-control utility for GNU/Linux ?
That way I could max up the soundcard's volume up front in a start-up script.

TIA
-Mike

[MBMarduk]

Bump.
All I'd really need is a util... :)
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:(

[Pras]

I use Mixer.app. It's for window maker but give it a try http://linux.davecentral.com/3438_audmixer.html

Here is tucows' list of console mixers: http://linuxberg.surfnet.nl/conhtml/mul_mixers.html

[Malakin]

If you're using kde, just run kmix. It's either on the taskbar, or under multimedia->sound or you could just type kmix at a shell. I've got the same sound card as you, the sound settings were pretty messed up. After you fix them make sure you choose "save current volumes as default".

[MBMarduk]

Great, thanks a lot!
-Mike

[MBMarduk]

Aumix is *it*!!
This is EXACTLY what I had in mind.
A console ( AND GUI ) proggy I put in my startup script.
Now my volume is maxed up upon boot! :)
Too bad it's not being maintained anymore and it doesn't support ALSA (they mumble something about the ALSA API in the readme-file)
Thanks again ppl! http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=405&release_id=8123