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Hardware - Support => Sound => Topic started by: m654321 on February 11, 2018, 04:23:42 PM

Title: Laptop: how do I control subwoofer volume independently of speaker volume?
Post by: m654321 on February 11, 2018, 04:23:42 PM
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 (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
Title: Re: Laptop: how do I control subwoofer volume independently of speaker volume?
Post by: Moltke on February 11, 2018, 05:24:49 PM
Hi @m654321

Quote
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  8) ;D

Hope this helps! :)
Title: Re: Laptop: how do I control subwoofer volume independently of speaker volume?
Post by: m654321 on February 11, 2018, 11:59:31 PM
@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
Title: Re: Laptop: how do I control subwoofer volume independently of speaker volume?
Post by: m654321 on February 12, 2018, 12:24:04 AM
Hi @m654321

Quote
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  8) ;D
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 !  8)

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

 
Title: Re: Laptop: how do I control subwoofer volume independently of speaker volume?
Post by: Moltke on February 12, 2018, 07:57:20 AM
Quote
Many thanks again Moltke
Have a great day  ;)
You're welcome! you too have a nice day. Glad you sorted it out! :)

Quote
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
Code: [Select]
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
Code: [Select]
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8 then do
Code: [Select]
$ sudo apt-get update and finally
Code: [Select]
sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-equalizer
Title: Re: Laptop: how do I control subwoofer volume independently of speaker volume?
Post by: iwar on February 12, 2018, 03:56:38 PM
Yes thanks moltke