Firstly why is Kmix needed?

1) Obviously, to simply adjust the volume when watching a video or listening to music, etc.. This is best done with a plasmoid in the task bar.

2) To control the sound cards – that is, to actually configure the gain settings and mode switches on the cards as opposed to adjusting stream levels going to and from the sound cards.

For example:
- setting the microphone amp gain
- switching between HDMI, S/PDIF and analogue outputs

3) For hobby, semi-pro and professional studio users – to precisely set levels optimising the signal-to-noise ratio and avoid clipping. And yes I do set the controllers to exactly 0 dB gain when my laptop is connected to a Behring U-Control.

4) For fault finding – “Why can I not hear anything?” or “Why is my microphone not working?”

If each control had a level meter then you literately “see” if a signal is there and where it is (or is not) going.

For the KDE Desktop the only way to do the above tasks without resorting to the command line is to use Kmix.

(There is off course QASTools, but this development is floundering – it is a shame that KDE.org did not pick-this up and make it an integral part of the KDE suite.)

What does this mean for Kmix?

a) In the true KDE style make everything configurable, horizontal or vertical controls, gain setting numbers in db, %, or none etc.. .

b) Each control should have a level indicator – to be professional the k-meters used in jkmeter (http://kokkinizita.linuxaudio.org/linuxaudio/downloads/index.html) are as near perfect as you can get. (The indicators show both the RMS and Peak levels simultaneously.)

c) Each control should have a number indicating the gain setting in db and/or %.

d) Give each control a scale (tick marks) which show the gain steps that are really available for the sound card channel. Sometimes the mic boost is only available in 4 steps, etc..

QASMixer in QAStools does this perfectly, as it reads the ALSA sound card configuration to determine the correct display of each individual control. (See http://xwmw.org/qastools)

e) The different sound cards must be selectable within kmix, especially for Laptops where:

- one moment they are used to skype with the internal sound card / webcam
- the next moment they are connected to a TV (HDMI) to watch a film
- the next moment connect to a midi-controller-keyboard with built in sound card
- etc…

f) Kmix should be readily accessed with just one click on the task bar icon (not right and click and select from menu as now)

I’m sure there are a few more good ideas, but if the above was implemented, many of the shortcomings of the current Kmix would be laid to rest.

With best regards, Simon

http://quickgit.kde.org/?p=kmix.git&a=blob&h=49dd96ace720db1071c5f6225915d0aad405c873&hb=f7f58c8b4e8a0a317ba31574215dfcd9b7f998e3&f=src%2Fgui%2FControlSlider.cpp

You need to remember that KMix is part of the core desktop UI. People use it all the time, every day. You should expect them to react passionately when you propose making radical changes that they don’t like. You’re proposing changes that affect them personally, so you shouldn’t be surprised when they have strong feelings.

It’s frustrating when developers propose major changes and then take opposing comments so personally that they get offended–remember that the users are offended by the opposing changes! It would be good if developers viewed these kinds of core software as being more community-owned rather than personal, pet projects.

But then he decides to do it in a radically different way, a way that people actively dislike, a way that’s not logical, a way that is the opposite of real-life hardware UIs.

Why? Who knows? Maybe he wants to make a name for himself by doing something different. Maybe it’s his personal preference and he doesn’t want to write code to do it both ways. Maybe he is on a power-trip and wants to feel control over other people (I’m not accusing you of this, but I’ve seen it before).

In the end, it doesn’t matter why. What matters is that one person has control over something that is used by many, many people. What matters is that this one person needs to remember that, “with great power comes great responsibility.” What matters is that this one person needs to do what is best for everyone, not what he personally prefers, or what he personally thinks is best for everyone. “You’ll grow to like it,” or, “Someday you’ll see that I’m right,” or, “This is what the designers came up with,” or, “This is what fits with our vision”…none of these are acceptable reasons to the real people that actually use the software.

So please, by all means, take KMix to its potential as being the best FOSS desktop mixer app. But don’t reinvent the wheel. Mixers are rooted in reality, in real hardware–you won’t see any professional audio mixing gear with horizontal level sliders, because they fundamentally don’t make sense when compared to vertical ones. “Ugly” labels are a minor issue compared to the primary function, which is adjusting levels.

Anyway, I think this looks fine, and makes sense, and works well: http://alphapapa.net/outbox/kmix-vertical-sliders.png