L5 call audio quality

[j_s]

@Shiach

This is helped by the generally weak audio with the Calls app: if the sliders are set to 100%, nobody is likely to find the sound too loud.

But it leaves the possibility that for some 100% would not be enough.

[Shiach]

@j_s

But it leaves the possibility that for some 100% would not be enough.

Yes.

(I now have to find something else to say, because I have just been warned that a post must be at least 10 characters long. There, I’ve said it.)

[amarok]

@Shiach

a post must be at least 10 characters long

Yeeeeeees!

[amarok]

@Shiach

your and my VoIP providers

For info, mine is not VOIP.

[dos]

@janvlug

In other words: is it possible to “break” the audio quality by changing the volume via the hardware buttons and volume sliders in GNOME settings?

You shouldn’t touch the microphone volume, the codec can amplify it a lot and it’s super easy to make it oversaturate and clip everything, especially given the tiny size of the slider in g-c-c. Leave that one alone unless you know what you’re doing.

Otherwise - no, changing the output volume won’t break anything.

@Shiach

There are three additional sliders that populate in the Settings>Sound page when a call is in progress and disappear again when the call ends. Two of those additional sliders are identified with a handset icon and the word “Calls” to the left of the slider. They are located just below the SystemSounds slider near the top of the page.

Those are just active streams. All applications that play or record sound appear there and you can adjust their volumes separately, just like on a PC. Icons and labels are taken from stream properties (as long as they’re filled properly by the application). I personally wouldn’t touch those unless there’s a really good reason to, as it’s way too easy to make it too quiet and then forget about it.

[Captain_Morgan]

I wish Gnome would expose sound settings of currently running apps, regardless if sound is output by these apps. Having these sliders show up and disappear just because the audio stream is started or stopped is not a good UX design. These can disappear if the app is closed, but should remain if the app is open, even if the app isn’t doing anything.

Use Case: once i start the audio stream i want the music blasting at max volume. I don’t want to fiddle with the slider once the stream has started.

That said that appears to be the Gnome design philosophy and i just disagree with it. Its also true with buttons, toggles, menues etc etc

[Shiach]

@Captain_Morgan

I don’t want to fiddle with the slider once the stream has started

With the Calls app, the “per application controls” (Loki’s terminology) are persistent across closing and restarting the app and even across reboot. Is that not the case for your music streaming app?

[Captain_Morgan]

Not for Goodvibes as an example, or “Calls” in puresos10 on L5, there is no slider. You have to start the audio stream a.k.a. start the call then magically the sliders shows up, even though the app was opened say 10 minutes earlier. As far as i have seen its not persistent at all. You stop the “Calls” active call, slider disappears (even though the Calls app is still active shown on the screen, with screen unlocked and open).

[Shiach]

@Captain_Morgan

Not for Goodvibes as an example

Just tried it with Shortwave. Moved the “per application” slider in Sound Settings, closed everything, rebooted, opened Shortwave and Sound Settings, started a stream in Shortwave. The per application slider in Sound Settings was exactly where I had reset it (and so, very perceptibly, was the audio volume of the stream).

Maybe Goodvibes is not a good choice for your usage requirement.

[Captain_Morgan]

@Shiach

started a stream in Shortwave

right thats the mistake, it should be there without having to start the stream, check shortwave again, but do not start streaming after reboot and opening the app. It could be that app works better though… I haven’t tried.

[Shiach]

@Captain_Morgan

it should be there without having to start the stream

Is “it” the volume setting? That is precisely the thing that has persisted through the reboot.

[Captain_Morgan]

@Shiach

Is “it” the volume setting? That is precisely the thing that has persisted through the reboot.

Its the dedicated “Volumes Levels” by app, its not the overall, “System Volume”, or the “Systems Sound” volume level that always shows. It is in settings Sound, Volume Levels, App Volume Level. The “App Volume Level” doesn’t exist until you start the audio stream.

[Shiach]

@Captain_Morgan

the audio stream

Are you interested in what you can hear when you start an audio stream, or are you more interested in what you can see or not see before you start the stream?

[Captain_Morgan]

@Shiach

what you can see

I am more interested in what i can see, because then i can move the slider to max. Once i start the audio stream, what i saw then is what i hear, max volume, if that makes sense?

[Shiach]

@Captain_Morgan

I am more interested in what i can see

I will take your word for it, but I cannot understand why anyone would be more interested in the appearance of an audio app than in the sound of it.

[Captain_Morgan]

@Shiach

cannot understand why anyone would be more interested in the appearance of an audio app than in the sound of it

I know sorry my brain is wired a little differently hhah than most people. But that also makes me a good software tester, i am better at breaking things or figuring out things that don’t make sense, or might not make sense.

[Shiach]

@Captain_Morgan

then i can move the slider to max

If you left it at the max, and if it persists through reboot as with Shortwave, then it will be at max again when you start it. There will be no moving of the slider needed or even possible, because it will already be at the max, whether you see it there or not.

[Loki]

@Shiach

Is this something that we are just supposed to know about?

It’s not a secret, most people familiar with the OS (or DE (Desktop Environment) to be more accurate) will be aware of them as they may have had a need to make adjustments there or may have stumbled across them in some other way.

@Shiach

you yourself, early in this thread, recommended adjustments to sound settings that turn out not to be the operative settings for an actual call with the Calls app.

I’m not entirely sure what you are referring to here or what point you are trying to make.

At the time when I had previously commented on this thread, there was an issue with outgoing voice call audio with many owners commenting that the audio sounded muffled, echoy, distant, garbbled or in some other way unintelligible, this was not an issue of basic volume control. I suggested muting (essentially disabling) the mic at the top of the handset, initially detailing th steps via pavucontrol GUI and later via pactl command line utility. It would not have been possible to make the required adjustments using the controls that you are referring. The majority that muted the top mic reported a noticeable improvement in call auido clarity/quality.

Note: This thread was created to discuss issue of audio quality not volume, the thread was started over 2 years ago, my previous contributions were over 1 years ago. The audio setup/config of the Librem 5 today is significantly different. Anything in this from approximately 6 months ago or prior is not applicable to the Librem 5 today.

[Shiach]

@Captain_Morgan

The “App Volume Level” doesn’t exist until you start the audio stream.

The slider position is not itself the setting, it is a visual representation of the setting. The setting is an electronically stored number that exists whether or not it is currently being displayed visually.

When I say that a setting persists across reboot, I mean that this number is the same after reboot as it was before. The evidence that it has remained the same lies in the fact that, when I elicit its visual representation by opening a stream, the slider is in the same position as it was when I left it before rebooting.

I entirely agree that it would be convenient to have a visual representation of the sound volume on the app page itself. It would be even more convenient to have the option of eliciting the visual representation without having to open a stream. There are audio apps that work that way - for instance, the Celluloid media player on my Lubuntu desktop does so. (I have to click on a speaker icon in a corner of the app page to see it, but I do not have to start a stream. The app-specific slider can be moved to adjust the setting, also without having to open a stream.) For some reason, the creators of mobile GNOME do not like that arrangement.

[JR-Fi]

@wimdows

Whatever all the icons stand for

A bit of a tangent but… The icon is a representation of a separate (not integrated) soundcard from a desktop computer. Not many use those these days as most motherboards and devices have integrated pretty good basic sound in/out capabilities (or it’s via BT phone or the like). There may be people even in this forum that may not have handled or seen one live due to owning and using laptops, not to mention phones.