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there is good feature in windows (for me:-D) : when using headset you can set volume of output sound to something other than when you're not! e.g I set the sound volume to minimum when I'm not using headset but when using that's very high. but there is no such feature in ubuntu! now is there any program or solution for ubuntu?

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Do you mean controlling the volume of individual programs? or do you mean having a seperate volume control for say your speakers and your headphones respectively? – Ctuchik Jul 28 '11 at 22:40
@Ctuchik No I mean I want to control individual volume when headset(or headphone or anything else is atached to my laptop) and another volume for when no sound device is plugged!! – Death Jul 28 '11 at 22:43
Ahhhh, I am not certain how that would be possible unless you used two seperate audio controllers. For instance if you used PulseAudio for the headset and maybe Alsa for the speakers. Or if either of those managers allowed for saveable profiles. – Ctuchik Jul 28 '11 at 22:54
@Ctuchik thanks for answer, is there any way to set individual volume for every program? – Death Jul 28 '11 at 23:39
I know in Pulse Audio there is an applications tab under sound preferences. Not sure if that will work for you. Alsa should have something similar, but I'm not sure. – Ctuchik Jul 29 '11 at 14:24

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

As far as I know in Ubuntu Alsa and PulseAudio Work together to provide sound Alsa detects and configures your sound hardware and PulseAudio decides what software can use the audio and what volume it will be.

Alsa can do this bit on its own but no where near as good as pulseaudio and Alsa is much better at the hardware side.

So if you want to change the volume of your speakers as opposed to your head phones open terminal and start

alsamixer

Image of Alsa Mixer

you should be able to change the volume of individual sound outputs from there (no mouse just arrow keys and m for mute and unmute.

To change the volume of individual programs would be pulseaudio's job so open the audio settings panel and change to the applications tab and change it two points however you have to have the program open first before you can change the audio level and it wont stick after you close the program

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up vote 2 down vote

And If you want to attach the action to a keyboard short-cut you will need to write a small script calling amixer (the command line equivalent to alsamixer).

Ps. if you need more information on amixer or help to write a script don't hesitate asking.

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