[alsa-devel] Mixer volume/decibel mapping

[Sebastian H.]

>>>>> I thinks Sebastian's question is whether he can use
>>>>> snd_mixer_selem_set_playback_
>>>>> dB() set any values in between the volume steps
>>>>>
>>>>> e.g. Master volume control of ac97 is 1.5 dB per step,
>>>>>
>>>>> when using snd_mixer_selem_set_playback_dB() to set -0.9dB , how can
>> the
>>>>> mixer application know what dB value has been set since the value is in
>>>>> between -1.5dB and 0dB without snd_mixer_selem_get_playbackdB()
>>>>
>>>> Indeed I quite happy with what ALSA already provides (I'm just an
>>>> interested
>>>> amateur). My main problem is that there is no documentation for the
>> Mixer
>>>> API
>>>> and how things are related to each other. Like CTL, HCTL, Mixer and
>>>> SimpleMixer and of course volume and dB in the snd_mixer_selem_
>> functions.
>>>>
>>>> The root issue is that I wondered if the mixer application should offer
>> a
>>>> separate text input for decibel values besides the text input for volume
>>>> values. As pointed out this would not allow for finer grained volume
>>>> control
>>>> therefore for the moment I'll probably stick with a mere text label for
>> dB.
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>>> The main difference between those volume controls using TLV_DB_SCALE and
>>> TLV_DB_LINEAR is -6dB is at the middle of TLV_DB_LINEAR and TLV_DB_SCALE
>> has
>>> fixed dB value between any two steps.
>>
>> What's TLV_DB_SCALE and TLV_DB_LINEAR for?
>> A grep in the alsa-lib sources did not return anything.
>>
>>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/332631
>>>
>>> if the user has both hda onboard sound and emu10k1, he may notice that
>> there
>>> is big difference if he set volume at percentage instead of dB
>>
>> Interesting, that's my setup. I have an onboard HDA Intel and a
>> pci SBLive! Card and some el cheapo USB sound cards to experiment
>> with. Thanks I'll give the volume listening test a try at some point.
>>
> 
> 
> https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/alsa-bug/view.php?id=4883
> 
> Pekka Lampila reported that when he set -40dB and only get back -9999999 by
> his program alsa_mixer_test.c
> 
> I don't have emu10k1 so don't know whether this is a bug of alsa-lib or not

I also get a big jump from -39.60dB to -99999.99 dB for some emu10k1
sliders when I move them to the minimum although their advertised
minimum is -40dB. This looks like a way to express log ( 0 ).

(Sorry, I wrote this before with the wrong email address...)