Win XP individual program volume control?

September 30, 2004 8:13 AM

Is there something I can get for Win XP that can control the volume of each program individually? I'd like Windows Media Player to be loud (for those videos that have unexplained quiet sound) and Trillian and system beeps and the like to be barely audible. Is this possible?
posted by Orange Goblin to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

The way I've dealt with this in the past is to turn on wmp's graphic eq and just push all the sliders up.
posted by Flat Feet Pete at 8:47 AM on September 30, 2004

If there's an answer that also applies to Win2k, I'd be much obliged (except substitute WMP with iTunes).
posted by LeiaS at 8:48 AM on September 30, 2004

this frequently annoys me. on my system, it seems mp3s, quicktime, win media, system sounds, hell - everything EXCEPT CD audio is contolled by the WAV slider on the volume contols panel. i don't often listen to CD's, i rip them and play the mp3s. it's highly aggravating that once i get my music volume adjusted, all the various PONGS BLOOPS DONKS and BINGBONGS the system issues forth are loud enough to hear up the street. the volume sliders on winamp, winmedia, quicktime, etc don't seem to be stand-alone, they just manipulate the WAV volume, sometimes visually unsyncing the volume contol panel slider with reality. i've always chalked it up to insipid microsoft design - if there's a solution i'd love to hear it too!
posted by quonsar at 9:51 AM on September 30, 2004

winamp may have a 'use alternative volume control' option somewhere in it's dialogs which will make it's control internal. You can do the graphic eq stuff with winamp too, but you risk clipping.

These are all hacks, I agree it's a bit convoluted.
posted by Flat Feet Pete at 10:08 AM on September 30, 2004

Win2K - don't know about XP: The "Sounds and Multimedia" Control Panel allows one to set the volume of system sounds. You can also assign different sound files to the various system sounds. Wouldn't it be possible to find (or record) some low volume sound files and assign those? Of course this won't help control the volume of sounds that are generated not by the system but by apps.
posted by TimeFactor at 11:59 AM on September 30, 2004

For me, Winamp uses internal volume by default (at the very least it's an option), and Winamp supports .wma . You get the idea :p
posted by abcde at 12:39 PM on September 30, 2004