Desktop Sounds and the Audio Panel

Documentation / Contents - System and Desktop Sounds

• Overview of System and Desktop Sounds
  • What It Is Not
  • The Window
  • The Help Button
  • Two Faces
• The Controls
  • Master Volume Control
  • Mute System
  • Enable Selected Sounds
  • Play Desktop Sounds Through
  • What Is Not Here
• Sound Schemes
  • Where Schemes Live
  • The Description File
  • Audio Formats
  • Writing Your Own
• What Makes a Sound
  • The Six Categories
  • Alerts and Status
  • Desktop Actions
  • Bell
  • Tunes
  • Accessibility
• Applying, Resetting, and Closing
  • Apply
  • Close
  • Reset ...
  • Help
  • Keyboard
  • Command Line
• Settings and Files
  • The Configuration File
  • The Accessibility Category
  • Environment Variables
  • How the Panel Reaches the Daemon
• Desktop Sounds and the Audio Panel
  • Which One Do I Want

Other cards

• Copyright Information

Desktop Sounds and the Audio Panel

Two panels deal with sound. This one deals with the DESKTOP; the Audio Panel deals with the HARDWARE.

This panel        does the desktop make a noise when you open a folder,
                   which sound scheme, and how loud the desktop's own
                   sounds are relative to everything else.

Audio Panel       which sound device, what gain, muted or not, what the
                   input actually measures.

Which One Do I Want

• No sound from anything on the machine: the Audio Panel. Check the output is not muted and the fader is up.
• Applications play fine but the desktop is silent: this panel. Check Mute System, the master volume, and the category checkboxes.
• You want desktop sounds out of a different speaker: the Audio Panel. This panel offers only the default output, on purpose.
• You want to record something: the Audio Panel.

The Audio Panel

cyhelp --book Audio --topic overview

The Master Volumes Are Different Things

The slider here is applied in software by the sound daemon to the desktop's own sounds. The faders in the Audio Panel are the sound card's own gain and affect everything the machine plays.

Setting this one to 0 leaves music playing. Pulling an output fader down in the Audio Panel does not.

The Other Books

cyhelp --book Audio --topic overview         the hardware mixer
cyhelp --book Schemes --topic overview       colours
cyhelp --book Fonts --topic overview         typefaces
cyhelp --book Mouse --topic overview         pointer and cursor
cyhelp --book Localization --topic overview  location and time
cyhelp --book Blueprint --topic overview     the desktop

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• Overview of System and Desktop Sounds