[kde-linux] KDE resetting microphone setting upon login

[Duncan]

Mark Knecht posted on Tue, 01 May 2012 11:28:12 -0700 as excerpted:

>> Personally, alsamixer has worked well for me, for years.
>>
> And that will work for me also, but it's clunky and not easy to remember
> which mic levels to set. My system has multiple sound cards, and each
> sound card has multiple inputs. If I find the correct inputs in
> alsamixer I can set the levels, and they stick through reboots, etc.,
> but it's just clunky.

Yes.  I think you're into audio more than most linux users.  KDE's phonon 
is supposed to help route audio for different purposes to different 
soundcards, for people with more than one, but there's a couple problems 
with that: (1) Not so many people have (or actually use if they do have) 
multiple sound cards, so testing isn't as thorough as it is for the 
single-card-used case, and (2) phonon only controls kde4-based apps.

Meanwhile:  I've read a lot about jack-audio, for the low-latency audio 
professionals need.  (For desktops, audio that plays without 
interruption, thus large buffers and higher latency, is ideal.  For 
professionals, latency is paramount, and they're prepared to deal with 
small buffers and the occasional x-run interruption in ordered to get the 
latency they need -- with the idea that if they're getting xruns, the 
system simply isn't upto the task.  That's where real-time kernels, etc, 
help out.

I don't actually know if you're an audio professional or not, or if 
you're using it or not, but if so, how does that fit into the rest of the 
picture?  As I've never used it, I don't actually know.  But from what 
I've read, it has its own ecosystem.  Not all desktop-audio apps support 
it as it really is more professional end, but from what I've read, within 
its ecosystem at least, it has its own mixers, visualizers, etc, 
supplying all that's needed... because it pretty much has to since 
ordinary desktop audio apps simply aren't designed to be low-latency 
enough to viably fit the requirements it's targeted at.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman