Volume control in WinXP

[shmokes]

When I have my music going at a decent volume, Windows sound effects, like the noises it makes when coming out of standby, logging off, or when error messages pop up, etc., are too loud.  Can the volume for these by adjusted separately?  I assume that the Windows sound effects are Wave files, and if I adjust the Wave volume it affects my music.  Anybody know?

[fredster]

Look under the "options" in the volume control.

You can adjust wave files separately. That's about as far as you can adjust.

Are your files mp3's and they play at a different volume?  You can also try the control panel advanced settings.  Mine had another section for midi playback properties.

[Santoro]

Your MP3  app needs to support independent volume control.  I read that WMP and iTunes do. You will have to experiment - I am not sure if you can adjust the system sounds lower than the media sound though.  Now you have me curious - I am going to check that out.

Edit - I tried it and you can't.  The good news is that if you are willing to drop a few grand on a new PC in Q1 2007, I know that Vista solves this issue.     

fredster, MIDI and MP3 are very different animals.  Midi is processed by a different 'device' on your sound card, and is basically kind of like synthesizer sequences.  Here is a KeWl Green Day Midi file:

http://www.santoro.com/images/When_I_Come_Around.mid

 , no?

Anyway since MP3 playback and system sounds both use the WAV channel, adjusting the Midi volume won't help here.

Funny aside:  the website spellcheck suggests 'fraudster' in place of 'fredster.'

[shmokes]

LMAO

Thanks Santoro.  That's the same conclusion I came to but hoped, and half assumed that I had to be wrong because it seems like such a stupid design.  I'd install Vista today, but there's no compatibility info available for my RAID chipset and all of my drives are using either RAID 0 or 1 (or both). 

[Hoopz]

Is turning off the Windows default sounds an option for you?  I always turn them off as a rule.

[RayB]

check your CDROM audio settings

[Santoro]

check your CDROM audio settings

 

[Vigo]

check your CDROM audio settings

Are you are refering to the volume controls directly mounted on the cd-rom drive? That usually shouldn't matter with a newer computer.

[crashwg]

You can adjust the volume of the .wav files with Start/Programs/Accessories/Entertainment/Sound Recorder

Just find the file you want to quieted down, load it up, hit "effects/decrease volume" a couple times then save the file when it's quiet enough for you.

I had to do that for a .wav of a train horn that WS FTP Pro plays when it's done transfering.  It was extremely loud in comparison with everything else the computer outputs through the speakers.

Granted, you'll have to do this with each file that is too loud but it is a solution, just not a quick one...

[RayB]

check your CDROM audio settings

Are you are refering to the volume controls directly mounted on the cd-rom drive? That usually shouldn't matter with a newer computer.

There's sometimes volume settings in the drivers of the CDROM device. And also (more obviously) in the Windows settings...

[sphetr2]

Yes, why don't you just edit the file with Audacity or something?

[shmokes]

Well, like crashwg pointed out, it's not exactly a graceful solution.  There are quite a few windows system sounds, and each would have to be edited individually.  It may be my only solution, but it's a decidedly bad one.

I'm really looking forward to Vista.  It looks pretty damned excellent.

[ChadTower]

Try finding a minimalist sound scheme that only has sounds for the events you feel you need.  There are tons of them with varying amounts of event sounds.

[fredster]

There is software for it.

http://www.filedudes.com/SoundWheel-download-20249.html

Something like that.  Anybody load vista yet?

[shmokes]

I have RC-1 and RC-2, but haven't loaded it because there's no info on whether it will support my raid controller and all of my drives are in raid 0, 1 or both configurations.

[Santoro]

I have loaded RC1, and will be loading RC2 soon.  I really like it, but lack of driver support (especially the VPN SW I use for work) has kept me from spending much time in it.

[Santoro]

So it turns out Vista does fix this problem.  Works great.

[Howard_Casto]

So it turns out Vista does fix this problem.  Works great.

Ok now I'm curious... why the hell is there a volume control for quicken?

Don't tell me that every app can have a seperate volume control.  It's a great feature for the power user, but as I programmer I know this is going to start all kinds of confusion. 

Tech Support:  What's that ma'am you say you can't hear your word womp?  Did you try adjusting the volume to internet explorer?

User:  Huh?  What website do I go to to change the volume on the internet?



I'm starting to get a little worried about Vista.  All these new features are nice, but the last time m$ decided to add a bunch of radically new options (windows 95) it took them until... well..... now, to get things pretty stable.   I can only imagine the bugs they are gonna find the first 6 months or so. 


Wait I'm bashing m$ and schmokes is defending it.  Did hell just freeze over?

[FrizzleFried]

I'm really looking forward to Vista.  It looks pretty damned excellent.

That is the first time I have seen those words arranged in that order before...