Version: (using KDE 4.3.2) Installed from: Debian testing/unstable Packages It would be nice if KMix could show an input monitor, so it would be easy to see whether the microphone is working, and which volume it have.
I was about to add this wish and saw someone beat me to it. It would indeed be great if there are input level bars for the capture/input controls, for easy diagnostics and visual feedback that input/recording/mic is working right. Currently I use audacity for that, which is certainly overkill and less convenient.
*** This bug has been confirmed by popular vote. ***
The Pulseaudio KMix backend could possibly do it. Other backends are not capable to do it, as the mixer support in the drivers seem to lack this feature. For example I do not see ALSA support for this pn http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/alsa-lib/group___mixer.html . So as Pulseaudio is the only backend capable, I'll assign this wish over to the existing one. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 257551 ***
Marking it as a duplicate of #257551 is a mistake, since that bug is about a totally different thing.
About Pulseaudio in KMix. As have been said in bug 257551, this is the different bug. It means to show level of current playing audio for application, device and for recording. I'll attach some examples from pavucontrol and from Windows. The better way, I think is to show the levels in background of sliders, as Windows are implemented in.
Created attachment 72392 [details] Showing levels of current played app in pavucontrol The last bar is showing actual level of sound from Amarok (is changing in time)
Created attachment 72393 [details] Levels in Windows volume mixer The green bars are showing levels of current played sound