Make the sound louder in Lubuntu

Question

I have a Toshiba r835 running Lubuntu 11.10. Turning the volume slider up all the way doesn't give very loud sound. I've tried typing alsamixer in a terminal and turning up all the levels there to maximum, but the speakers are still fairly quiet. Is there a simple way to increase maximum volume in software?

I understand that there are physical limits to the sound the laptop's speakers can produce, but I suspect my maximum volume is limited by software.

EDIT:

This is exactly the type of solution I'm looking for. However, it doesn't work for me. What I did:

sudo pico /etc/asound.conf

This file does not exist, so I create a new one, containing:

pcm.!default {
      type plug
      slave.pcm "softvol"
  }

  pcm.softvol {
      type softvol
      slave {
          pcm "dmix"
      }
      control {
          name "Pre-Amp"
          card 0
      }
      min_dB -5.0
      max_dB 20.0
      resolution 6
  }

I reboot the machine, and type alsamixer. I use my left/right arrow keys to inspect the various volume options. I expect to see a new option, called Pre-Amp, but I don't see one. This fix seems to work for other people. Why doesn't this fix work for me?

Answer 1

Quick Volume Changes PageUp increases volume by 5.

PageDown decreases volume by 5.

End sets volume to 0.

You can also control left & right levels for the current channel independently, as follows:

   [Q | W | E ]  -- turn UP [ left | both | right ]

   [Z | X | C ] -- turn DOWN [ left | both | right ]

If the currently selected mixer channel is not a stereo channel, then all UP keys will work like W, and all DOWN keys will work like X.

The number keys from 0 to 9 are to change the absolute volume quickly. They correspond to 0 to 90% volume.

for more information open terminal:

man alsamixer

Answer 2

a good way to increase volume is through vlc