Volume adjustment and accuracy

[seani]

This is slightly (almost completely) OT as the question is prompted by the behaviour of Rhythmbox, but I think I can squeeze it in here. Please shift it somewhere more suitable if required :-)

I've found that most of the time I settle on a "rough" volume and then want to refine it a bit depending on the track. Sometimes the standard increment / decrement is too coarse; sometimes it may be fine enough, but it's hard to fine-adjust because it takes a delicate touch.

So is the minimum increment / decrement ultimately determined by hardware, and if so how coarse / fine are these tyically.

In the case of PC based software I always find myself wishing there were two sliders; one to get you to around the right level and another to vary up / down around that baseline by, say, 10% of the value in either direction. Or do I just have bananas for fingers and cloth ears?

[saratoga]

So is the minimum increment / decrement ultimately determined by hardware, and if so how coarse / fine are these tyically.

Hardware is typically limited to 0.75, 1 or 1.5 dB steps.  Software can further make adjustments of essentially unlimited resolution on top of that.

[soap]

That being said:  1 dB is widely considered to be the resolution of human hearing.  Is the problem that a single step is too coarse for you or that you are adjusting by more than one step accidentally?

[seani]

That being said:  1 dB is widely considered to be the resolution of human hearing.  Is the problem that a single step is too coarse for you or that you are adjusting by more than one step accidentally?

I rarely find it a problem with RB - which is why I say it's OT-quite-a-bit-ish. I get irritated by the standard Volume Applet in Gnome which doesn't seem to offer a fine enough resolution, or at least I'm unable to adjust it easily.

But by far the worst offender is the touch-screen volume bar on my Chumby - bloody awful.

None of which is at all RB related, being an ill-tempered rant about the design of an unrelated product - I'm off to complain in the right place I think.