Sound control

balanga · Jan 30, 2026

When watching YouTube videos I am unable to get the same max volume as I do listen to music.

Can someone explain if this is normal behaviour or if I can change things?

I've always stayed away from messing with sound controls and have left default settings and so am not aware of what can be done.

bda65 · Jan 30, 2026

Do you use a desktop with pulseaudio or pipewire activated? In that case you can use pavucontrol.

cracauer@ · Jan 30, 2026

Yeah, what does your audio chain look like?

Starting from which browser do you use?

balanga · Jan 30, 2026

bda65 said:
Do you use a desktop with pulseaudio or pipewire activated? In that case you can use pavucontrol.

I use whatever default FreeBSD gives me.

I really am a novice when it comes to multimedia on FreeBSD.

balanga · Jan 30, 2026

cracauer@ said:
Yeah, what does your audio chain look like?

Starting from which browser do you use?

I use Chromium.

Not sure what an audio chain means. Have never installed any audio drivers, I just use whatever gets installed with Chromium, mpg123, mpv, vlc etc.

Jim B. · Jan 30, 2026

As it happens, the current edition of the FreeBSD Journal has an article on the sound subsystem which you may find informative:

Vox FreeBSD: How Sound Works | FreeBSD Foundation

Vox FreeBSD: How Sound Works Vox FreeBSD: How Sound Works By Christos Margiolis Sound support for FreeBSD began in 1993, when Jordan K. Hubbard imported the generic Linux sound driver into FreeBSD, later known as the VoxWare sound drivers, written by Hannu Savolainen. Several new versions of the...

freebsdfoundation.org

MG · Jan 30, 2026

Youtube is a problem anyway because video's have different volume. I wonder why they don't just equalize everything after it's uploaded... Worse is surround records dumb converted to stereo, so the rear channels get equal volume.
I think it all lacks standards. The audio output of programs should bind to 1 master volume. Playing a demo record with any program should sound the same on max volume. Formats and codecs should also keep this rule. If the demo in mp3 has a different volume than as flac, we have a standard problem too.

cracauer@ · Jan 30, 2026

Youtube is also special because you can adjust the volume right in the video.

Maybe you turned that down?

AlfredoLlaquet · Jan 30, 2026

While you read all that, and check cracauer@'s sensible suspicion, you may also install an extension called Improvedtube or Improve Youtube. I use it on Firefox, but it seems to have a Chromium version as well. It lets you do a ton of stuff, among which to increase the volume of a video beyond 100% if I'm not mistaken.

YouTube Extension "Improvedtube" - Giving You tube control. Unprecedented Features. Open-Source

improvedtube.com

GitHub - code-charity/youtube: Open YouTube / Video browser-extension [top~1] Enrich your experience&choice!🧰200+options; clever features📌set&forget📌 - Longest-standing. Join🧩us?👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 ⋮ {playback|content discovery|player|extra buttons|distraction

Open YouTube / Video browser-extension [top~1] Enrich your experience&choice!🧰200+options; clever features📌set&forget📌 - Longest-standing. Join🧩us?👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 ⋮ {playback|content discovery|pl...

github.com

Espionage724 · Jan 30, 2026

I heard something a few months ago on Linux like FOSS OS-side codecs having lower sound quality on browser videos than non-FOSS (RPM Fusion, Packman; mega-repo non-distro stuff); not sure on specifics though (maybe FFmpeg libs? could be HW-accel wrappers too like Intel older FOSS vaapi vs FOSS media-driver vs non-FOSS media-driver and hookups for chip/GuC-specific bitrate stuff)

A quick test might be to yt-dlp a video and play it back on a native video player, and compare to YT in-browser. Could also try from a Linux LiveUSB too.

scottro · Jan 30, 2026

I'm pretty sure that I can make a video louder by using mixer. That is, meaning a youtube video. You could try, next time a video is too low, running the command mixer. It might show something like vol = 0.85:0.85 pbk as the first line. Then you can try doing

Code:

 mixer vol=1.0:1:0

That should make it louder. When done, you can do mixer vol=0.85:0.85 to bring it back to defaults.

balanga · Jan 31, 2026

AlfredoLlaquet said:
While you read all that, and check cracauer@'s sensible suspicion, you may also install an extension called Improvedtube or Improve Youtube. I use it on Firefox, but it seems to have a Chromium version as well. It lets you do a ton of stuff, among which to increase the volume of a video beyond 100% if I'm not mistaken.

YouTube Extension "Improvedtube" - Giving You tube control. Unprecedented Features. Open-Source

improvedtube.com

GitHub - code-charity/youtube: Open YouTube / Video browser-extension [top~1] Enrich your experience&choice!🧰200+options; clever features📌set&forget📌 - Longest-standing. Join🧩us?👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 ⋮ {playback|content discovery|player|extra buttons|distraction

Open YouTube / Video browser-extension [top~1] Enrich your experience&choice!🧰200+options; clever features📌set&forget📌 - Longest-standing. Join🧩us?👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 ⋮ {playback|content discovery|pl...

github.com

Thanks for the link but I'm baffled as to what to do with it. Is it a Chrome extension?

balanga · Jan 31, 2026

scottro said:
I'm pretty sure that I can make a video louder by using mixer. That is, meaning a youtube video. You could try, next time a video is too low, running the command mixer. It might show something like vol = 0.85:0.85 pbk as the first line. Then you can try doing

Code:

mixer vol=1.0:1:0

That should make it louder. When done, you can do mixer vol=0.85:0.85 to bring it back to defaults.

mixer vol=1.0:1:0:-

Code:

mixer: invalid volume value: 1:0
pcm0:mixer: <Conexant CX20590 (Analog 2.0+HP/2.0)> on hdaa0 (play/rec) (default)
    vol       = 0.86:0.86     pbk
    pcm       = 1.00:1.00     pbk
    speaker   = 1.00:1.00     pbk
    mic       = 0.50:0.50     rec
    rec       = 0.01:0.01     pbk
    monitor   = 0.42:0.42     rec src

bda65 · Jan 31, 2026

It's:

Makefile:

mixer vol=1.0:1.0

AlfredoLlaquet · Jan 31, 2026

balanga said:
Thanks for the link but I'm baffled as to what to do with it. Is it a Chrome extension?

Yes. Just look for it in the Chrome Web Store. It's name is "Improve YouTube." Here's the link in the store itself:

'Improve YouTube!' 🎧 (for YouTube & Videos) - Chrome Web Store

YouTube, tidy & smart? Supercharge YouTube! Give it strong features, filter only the videos you want & exactly the look you like

chromewebstore.google.com

Now that I've executed Chromium and gone to the Web Store I see there are a bunch of extensions for boosting and equalizing sound. Like this one:

music equalizer - improve sound for everyone - Chrome Web Store

The Sound Equalizer with Bass Booster is the ideal option to experience ultimate audio satisfaction directly within your browser!

chromewebstore.google.com

Or this one:

Sound Booster - increase volume up - Chrome Web Store

Volume Booster helps boost sound video or music on any tab! Increase volume and bass booster, equalizer. Volume control.

chromewebstore.google.com

balanga · Jan 31, 2026

bda65 said:
It's:

Makefile:

mixer vol=1.0:1.0

mixer vol=1.0:1.0

Code:

pcm0:mixer: <Conexant CX20590 (Analog 2.0+HP/2.0)> on hdaa0 (play/rec) (default)
    vol       = 1.00:1.00     pbk
    pcm       = 1.00:1.00     pbk
    speaker   = 1.00:1.00     pbk
    mic       = 0.50:0.50     rec
    rec       = 0.01:0.01     pbk
    monitor   = 0.42:0.42     rec src

cracauer@ · Jan 31, 2026

balanga said:
When watching YouTube videos I am unable to get the same max volume as I do listen to music.

How do you listen to music?

What happens with other audio playing in Chrome (not youtube)?

balanga · Jan 31, 2026

cracauer@ said:
How do you listen to music?

I only listen to music via music players such as mpg123 for example.

cracauer@ said:
What happens with other audio playing in Chrome (not youtube)?

Give me an example of what you mean.