[ SOLVED ] Laptop: how do I control subwoofer volume independently of speaker volume?

[m654321]

On an Asus G750JS I'm having problems when playing music.  The subwoofer frequently cuts out, when playing quite loudly, the sound being mainly limited to the inbuilt front speakers.
I need to be able to independently control (reduce) the volume on the subwoofer as I think too much power is going through it and making the cone 'stick' at the limit of its movement.
The problem has been reported elsewhere, though everyone else with this laptop model are using windows 8.1 or 10 and of course have Windows software to allow independent control of the subwoofer, see
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?50616-ASUS-ROG-G750JS-Audio-Subwoofer-Issue

How do I control the subwoofer volume independently from that of the front speakers in LL3.8?

Many thanks for any help with this

[Moltke]

Hi @m654321

I need to be able to independently control (reduce) the volume on the subwoofer

You could try alsamixer to see if there's an option for that. Open your terminal and type

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$ alsamixer this will open the tool in the terminal. Also, in pavucontrol there's a padlock, click on it to unlock other controls and see if that helps. Another option is to try "Pulse Audio Equalizer". To install it in your terminal type

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$ sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-equalizer and see whether or not there's an option that helps you to do what you want to. Sorry not to offer more help but I dont have a "home theater sound system"  to try with, I used to though, but I traded it for an old but really cool stereo sound system 

Hope this helps!

[m654321]

@Moltke

Many thanks for your reply - much appreciated. You've given me enough to be getting on with.
I'll report back here in a day or two, as soon as I've fixed the problem.

Cheers
Mike

[m654321]

Hi @m654321

I need to be able to independently control (reduce) the volume on the subwoofer

You could try alsamixer to see if there's an option for that. Open your terminal and type

Code: [Select]

$ alsamixer this will open the tool in the terminal. Also, in pavucontrol there's a padlock, click on it to unlock other controls and see if that helps. Another option is to try "Pulse Audio Equalizer". To install it in your terminal type

Code: [Select]

$ sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-equalizer and see whether or not there's an option that helps you to do what you want to. Sorry not to offer more help but I dont have a "home theater sound system"  to try with, I used to though, but I traded it for an old but really cool stereo sound system 
Hope this helps!

Okay, I had a closer look at each of these in turn, after everyone had woken up in the house and I could test it!

Pavucontrol is the one that works: looking at volume control for "All Output Devices" option - as you advised I clicked on the padlock and this shows separate sound controls designated 'front-left' and 'front-right'.  I found that the front left = subwoofer (bass); front right = rear speaker(s) (higher frequencies). Great, I now have control over the sound balance and have no annoying intermittent cutting out of the subwoofer anymore ! 

Just a comment on the other two you mentioned:
Alsamixer: only seems to have a master volume (not separate front speaker/subwoofer controls, at least I couldn't see them)
Pulseaudio-equalizer: not listed in Ubuntu 16.04 repository (but I think is listed in 17.04),  so consequently sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-equalizer did not work.

Many thanks again Moltke
Have a great day 

Mike

 

[Moltke]

Many thanks again Moltke
Have a great day 

You're welcome! you too have a nice day. Glad you sorted it out!

Pulseaudio-equalizer: not listed in Ubuntu 16.04 repository (but I think is listed in 17.04),  so consequently sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-equalizer did not work

Yes, you're right. Sorry about that, I tried here and it worked, I didn't installed it but I had the option

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The following additional packages will be installed:
  ladspa-sdk swh-plugins
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  ladspa-sdk pulseaudio-equalizer swh-plugins
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 35 not upgraded.
Need to get 515 kB of archives.
After this operation, 2,309 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] I just didn't remember that I'd already added the ppa for another purpose few months ago  , so in case you want to try again

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$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8 then do

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$ sudo apt-get update and finally

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sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-equalizer

[iwar]

Yes thanks moltke