The K Desktop Environment

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3. Onscreen Fundamentals

KMix usage is straightforward. Every mixer device that your soundcard provides, is represented by a volume slider. Mono devices have only one slider, Stereo devices have two sliders. You are able to merge the two sliders of a stereo device to a single slider. Additionaly there is a panning slider at the bottom of the KMix window.

3.1 Volume sliders

The volume sliders show the volume of the selected device. Top is maximum, bottom is minimum volume. The slider can have three background colors:

The volume sliders have a context menu. Three entries are possible, but only the applicable are shown.

3.2 Panning slider

With this slider you can control the volume distribution between left and right speaker. This slider is an overall regulator, which affects all stereo devices (Mono devices are ignored). The middle position is the default. Dragging the slider to the left lowers the volume of the right speaker, dragging it to the right vice versa. The panning slider has a context menu which you can reach with the right mouse button. You can set the slider to some prominent positions with this menu.

3.3 Multiple Soundcards

KMix is prepared for multiple sound cards. If called via the KDE Panel, the default mixer is used. For the Open Sound System, this is /dev/mixer. For other operating systems or sound drivers, this may vary.

If you want KMix to use a specific soundcard (primary, secondary, ...), you must tell this KMix on startup. You can start the mixer with a device number. 0 means the default device, 1 your primary card, 2 your secondary and so on.

3.4 Key Bindings

KMix honors the following key bindings.

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