Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with volume

Why won't the volume work on my iPhone Vine app?

jitterbug perfume — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:37:00 -0800

How do I get my Vine app to have volume? I have tried deleting and reinstalling multiple times, I have tried closing and opening the app, I have waiting through two updates with bug fixes, there is still no volume (except occasionally for unidentifiable reasons). Not on my videos or the videos of others. The volume works on the videos once they are saved to my telephone. Any ideas? Anyone else experiencing this problem with this app?

Multi-preset kitchen timer recommendation?

kristi — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 10:03:06 -0800

Can you recommend a kitchen timer with adjustable volume, pleasant alarm sounds, multiple simultaneous timers, and multiple presets? My preferred way to time standard tasks in the kitchen (my tea steeping, eggs boiling) has been to use the Widgets on my Mac - I can set multiple timers and use custom tones for each one. (In fact, my favorite widget announces "Your tea is ready" using the built-in speech synthesizer.)

However, my Mac is far away from the kitchen, and sometimes I forget to turn up the volume, so I don't hear the alarm.

Is there a good device that

* can withstand being in the kitchen (so won't be destroyed by a spill)
* can track multiple tasks at once
* has preset times for common tasks
* has a pleasant alarm sound (ideally even different sounds for each timer)
* is loud enough to hear but not loud enough to make me jump?

I've looked at various options, but they all seem to have drawbacks I'd prefer to avoid:

* many digital kitchen timers are ridiculously loud and have annoying-sounding alarms
* these cube timers seem cool but I don't know what their alarms sound like, they aren't flexible (you're limited to the handful of preset times), and you can't set more than one at a time (unless you buy two or three cubes, I suppose)
* wind-'em-up egg timers seem imprecise and potentially too loud

Is there any way I can get multiple widget-like presettable timers in a kitchen-proof device that costs less than buying 4 iPods?

Thanks!

What to do about extremely loud dance music from nearby club?

Philosopher Dirtbike — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 21:26:15 -0800

I'm in the city center in Groningen, the Netherlands. It is almost 6.30am. For hour on hour now, I've been listening to throbbing bass from the dance club across the way, and I haven't slept all night. This loud music seems to be a new thing. What should I do? I live on the second floor (that is, there are two floors between me and the ground) in an apartment that is one street away from a dance club. I've lived here for four years, and never have I heard music from the there. But tonight there has been constant, throbbing bass from the club, such that it is impossible to sleep. The whole building is vibrating with the bass.

I'm afraid they've upgraded their sound system or something, and this is going to be the new status quo every Friday and Saturday night. If so, I'm going to go insane. What are the laws regarding noise in the Netherlands? Who do I complain to? Must I contemplate moving? I'm an American living here, so I'm not even sure where to start.

Unusual objects and their measurements

safetyfork — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:33:46 -0800

Please list your best, favorite, most interesting object that could be used as a unit of measure for one of the following: area, volume, or temperature. For your answer to be useful I require the object and its measure. The ideal object is unusual but relatable at the human scale. I'm thinking of doing a project that will use standard household items as well as more wacky objects as measures of things. Objects that are mass produced or that provide a repeatable experience are best to confirm the measurements but finding things that are also interesting is the challenge.

I have done some basic research that has turned up some wikipedia lists e.g. list of humorous units of measurement and list of unusual units of measurement. But the items are not as unusual or interesting as I had hoped. I've also done some brainstorming on my own but the results are tending toward filling out the more mundane end of the spectrum e.g. Giants stadium, olympic sized swimming pool, baseball, basketball for volume. Ignition point for safety matches, average human body, water boiling and freezing for temperatures. Etc.

Thanks and hopefully the results will find their way into a projects post at some point!

NPR is too quite on my phone.

Science! — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 15:44:38 -0800

NPR audio feeds are oddly quiet on my HTC EVO 3D, while Pandora, YouTube and any other audio is plenty loud. Is there some odd internal setting I need to change? I use my phone daily to listen to NPR, Pandora, and a variety of other media. NPR station feeds come in so quietly that I can barely hear them whether my phone is using it's own speaker or if it's hooked up to a (cheap) external speaker. I've streamed NPR feeds (4 different stations now across the country) through the NPR android app, through the TuneIn Radio app, and directly from a station's website through the browser and every single time the audio is very quiet.

Pandora, YouTube, MP3s, etc. really anything other than NPR comes in plenty loud both on the phone and played out into an external speaker. I work in an area exposed to customers, and I often have to reduce Pandora's volume (on the external speaker) to not interfere with customers. With NPR I'm always trying to increase volume.

The phone was recently upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich (no problems before the update), has not been rooted or had anything installed other than through automatic updates or downloading apps through Google Play. Phone speaker/media volume is always at it's highest and I adjust the external speaker accordingly. Reboots, removing the battery, have done nothing. I've been uninstalling downloaded apps, but nothing has changed.

And wash away the rain?

shakespeherian — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 10:54:09 -0800

What is the minimum mass that would be requisite to form a black hole? I realize that black holes are more a function of density rather than volume. Would this mean that theoretically if I could smash one or two atoms into a tight enough space, I could create a singularity?

How do I calculate price?

tintexas — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 09:53:45 -0800

Introduction to Markets/Auctions: I need a short book or paper that covers bids / asks I have some limited data on historical markets: selling offers, and whether/when they expired/sold. I would like to use this to construct a theory for my optimal selling price of a given volume.

This seems like a simple task, but it'd be nice to see the logic worked out clearly. Is there a go-to text for this?

Help me equalize the TV volume.

griphus — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 13:56:28 -0800

Can I rig some sort of home-made equalizer between my TV, speakers and PS3? Other ideas as to changing the levels of frequency ranges also welcome. I have a PS3 that is connected to the TV via HDMI, and speakers that are connected to the TV via 3.5". Right now, especially with the living room fan going during the summer (the hum is knocking out a nice chunk of frequencies,) we have to constantly adjust the sound. The quiet is either too quiet, or the loud is too loud. The PS3 doesn't have an on-board equalizer of any sort.

Short of buying an equalizer, is there anything I can do here to adjust the levels?

Size of this dog's bladder?

mikeand1 — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:34:59 -0800

Dog/veterinary filter: What would be the normal size and/or volume of the bladder of a 35-pound, adult, female Wheaten terrier?

Simple volume knob for sale?

electric_counterpoint — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 08:18:40 -0800

Why can't I find a desktop-style analog volume knob? I'd like to have a knob for controlling my computer speakers' volume on my desk. I'm picturing something like the Griffin Powermate, but because I'm planning to use this at work where I can't install stuff, I need it to be analog rather than USB/software-based. Where can I find one?

I'd think this should be the simplest thing in the world: two 1/8" jacks, with a pot wired between them. (And a big ol' stereo knob, naturally) It could be mounted in a tiny project box. I'd build it myself, but as Mitch Hedberg said, this is a half-assed commitment. So why doesn't this seem to exist?

Math is Fun

WhitenoisE — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 19:02:44 -0800

What are some ways to accurately measure the volume of very small amounts of liquid without complex equipment? I need to accurately measure the volume of droplets between let's say 0.1 to 2 μL. I cannot use a calibrated micropipette tube because the smallest ones available (10μL) are too big for the liquid to sit evenly.

I tried placing the droplets on a wax surface and measuring diameter with a micrometer, but there's no way I know of to calculate volume with this diameter since the droplets aren't spheres when resting on a surface. I think I would need a contact angle goniometer to begin to analyze the geometry.

I guess I can try placing the drops in oil and calculating the area that way but in reality I've tried different types of oil and the drops don't stay in a nice easy shape.

I have access to basic chemistry glassware and equipment but nothing fancy.

Consistent Volume on mac?

JJkiss — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 14:35:32 -0800

How do I keep the volume on my mac consistent in apps other than itunes? I like to stream movies on my TV thru my mac mini and often I have to adjust the volume 20 times during a movie because it gets so quiet I can't hear the dialogue and during action sequences, my ears start bleeding. I know in itunes theres a way to keep the volume consistent between songs but how to I do this through my chrome browser or general operating system?

I never thought I'd be complaining because I couldn't hear the commercials, but here I am.

unclejeffy — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:06:17 -0800

Why does my television's sound intermittently cut out? I've got a Vizio Jive 50" plasma television that's four years old or so. Just recently (~5 weeks) the sets sound has been acting funky. Often, when I turn on the set, I seem to be getting only the music from a commercial, for example. I can hear the background music, and I can see the actors' lips moving, but can hear no dialog. It's more common on commercials, but it also happens during the actual shows. Restarting the tv ALWAYS fixes the problem, but it's inconvenient, and I'm concerned about prematurely wearing out the set.

I should also mention that one of the sets' three HDMI ports produces no sound, either.

So, any ideas?

Google Chrome will only whisper to me.

mecran01 — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:18:12 -0800

When I am viewing flash-based streaming video like Hulu, Netflix or Youtube in Google's Chrome browser, the volume is only half as loud as when I watch the same content in Firefox. I am running Windows XP Home on an Acer x1420g-u5832.

Chrome has no extensions. I've uninstalled and reinstalled flash. I have uninstalled and reinstalled Chrome. My google fu has failed me on this issue--

thanks for any suggestions.

Needs to go up to eleven.

triceryclops — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 18:29:11 -0800

Is there a way I can increase the maximum volume/gain on my computer on a software level? The audio on some videos I try to watch on Youtube are too quiet to be heard on my laptop speakers even with both the YT volume and Windows 7 master volume maxed out. The audio on other videos is just fine though, so I know the hardware is capable of what I need.

The software I'm looking for should go in the virtual audio signal path between the master windows volume control and everything else. Does such software exist, or is there another solution to my problem?

Running Windows 7 64-bit, AMD Athlon II P340 Dual Core, 2.2Ghz, 3GB RAM.

Help me choose the "best" hardcover editions of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

GlassHeart — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 01:37:53 -0800

Help me choose the "best" hardcover editions of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. I want to get the "best" single-volume hardcover edition of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and also the "best" hardcover edition of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. But I'm not sure which editions to get.

My "best edition" criteria is as follows (you may still recommend editions if they don't fully meet the criteria below -- I don't really expect any edition to meet all of the criteria):

Must be attractive

Must be hardcover

Must have few, or no, textual or grammatical errors

Must have high-quality binding

Must have high-quality paper

Must have high-quality print

Must not be abridged

You may recommend both in-print and out-of-print editions, but I'll let you know that I likely won't get any edition that typically sells for more than $100 USD.

Thank you kindly. I'm confident that you folks on MetaFilter will help me find editions that I'm fully content with.

Which cake pan do I use?

Neely O'Hara — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 11:32:27 -0800

Emergency baking question - I don't have the size pan that I thought I had, and am not sure what to do. Help me figure out the alternative! So I am trying to make this Peanut Butter Texas Sheet Cake, and I thought I had a 10 x 15 jelly roll pan, but it turns out that it is a 12 x 17 baking pan instead. I can use either the 12 x 17 or a 13 x 9 pan, but am not sure which will get me the results that I want.

If I do the 13 x 9 pan, it is the same volume, but will be deeper. If I use the 12 x 17, the batter will be shallower. Looking at this website, I see how to adjust the baking times and temperatures to accommodate the different sizes, so that's not a problem. But what I really like about texas sheet cake is how dense and chewy it comes out, and I don't know which size is the best one to get that result. I am inclined to do the shallower pan, but wonder if I am going to wind up with a cake that is only half an inch tall! Either way, I'm sure it'll be tasty, but I'd like to get it as close as possible to the original.

So much for being discreet.

andrewcilento — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 10:40:15 -0800

I have some iPhone ringtones I've made with GarageBand that are entirely too loud. I cannot figure out how to decrease the volume. Any suggestions? I've got a bunch of ringtones (and now, thanks to iOS 5, alert tones) I've made by importing a file into GarageBand, finding the part of the song I need, and sending it to iTunes as a ringtone. The problem, that I hadn't noticed until recently, is that everything I've made this way is about three times louder than it needs to be. I've tried going back into GarageBand and decreasing the volume, I've opened them in Audacity and tried lowering it, but nothing seems to be working. Is there something obvious I'm overlooking, or a better way to do this?

I can't hear you over how awesome XBMC is (I wish)

Strass — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:01:58 -0800

Background music and effects are way louder than voices in XBMC, so much so that I have to get up and turn the volume down every time theme song or music comes on during TV shows or movies for fear of disturbing neighbors (not to mention that they're uncomfortably loud). The volume normalization that's part of my sound card doesn't seem to do much. It seems to be a problem when I play the videos in VLC as well, so it must be the audio stream of the file itself.

I don't really get how equalizers work, could that do anything? It doesn't seem like XBMC has anything built in that could do this either, and google hasn't turned up any plugins.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? Is there anything I can do to fix it?

Fading volume nicely with JS

The Winsome Parker Lewis — Sat, 14 May 2011 09:56:03 -0800

In jQuery (or vanilla JavaScript), how do I repeatedly call a method with a numeric argument that increases or decreases over time? I'm totally new to jQuery, so forgive me if this is obvious. I have an audio player with a setVolume(percent) method. Rather than jumping straight to a volume level, I want to fade in from 0% or fade out from 100% over a duration of, say, five seconds.

As far as I can tell, I want something like .animate() in jQuery, except that only modifies CSS properties. Instead, I want to fire the player's setVolume() method repeatedly. Any help you can provide would be great!

(The music was) Faraway, so close

Miss Otis' Egrets — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 12:58:33 -0800

So I was listening to the sound check for the upcoming U2 concert yesterday from my house, which is just over 2km from the stadium. I could tell that the sound was immensely loud at the source even though it wasn't rattling my windows or anything. How did I know it was a huge sound at a distance rather than coming from nearby? What auditory cues tell us this?

Remap Windows 7 volume controls?

sophist — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 19:36:54 -0800

How can I set up global hotkeys in Windows 7 to change the volume? I would like to remap the Windows 7 system volume controls to some combination of keyboard keys. Yes, I realize there are keyboards that have volume controls built in, that is not what I am looking for. I would prefer not to have to go through a third-party program, but if that is the only solution then it will have to work.

Laggy Volume Control

brenton — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:29:52 -0800

Volume control on my computer is laggy and slow and crashy. To the point where it's unusable. This has happened on every Windows computer I have ever owned. Is my volume control program allergic to me or is this a common problem? I've tried to find answers on Google, but nobody else seems to have this. I have to wait, sometimes minutes, for the volume control dial to become responsive so I can turn down whatever loud thing is interrupting the other members of the library.

Anyway, does anyone know of a way to fix it, or replace it with something less buggy?

If it's too loud...

murtagh — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 04:31:00 -0800

The maximum volume on my new iPod touch is down to around 80% after the upgrade to iOS 4.1. Help? The maximum volume is nowhere near as loud as it used to be after the upgrade. Have any of you faced this problem? Any advice as to how I can fix this issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

What have you done with my Volumes?

kanuck — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:27:40 -0800

MacFilter: Extraneous OS X volume suffixes? I'm running OS X 10.6.3 on a 2009 unibody Macbook. I use Carbon Copy Cloner to create and maintain a bootable clone of my internal HD on an external USB 2.0 HD (both HDs are the same size, with one partition). I don't usually keep the external drive attached; instead, I have CCC set to prompt me to do a backup when it recognizes that I've attached the appropriate volume (which I believe it does via GUID). Let's say the volume name on the backup drive is "Backup".

Over time, I've noticed that my /Volumes directory contains "ghosts" of Backup. So for example, even when the external drive is physically disconnected, I'll see:

/Volumes/Backup
/Volumes/Backup 2
/Volumes/Backup 3

These don't show up on the desktop. When I actually connect the external drive, I'll see:

/Volumes/Backup 4

and "Backup" will appear on the desktop.

The only information I can find regarding this behavior is:

Dealing with Mac OS X Volume Suffixes

which explains how to "fix" the problem, but not much on how it actually occurs or what is really going on. In addition to be confusing, I notice that the "ghosts" in my case are insidious in that they actually occupy space on my startup disk. My theory is that this is due to CCC getting confused by their presence and at some point essentially backing up the drive onto itself (!).

I'm looking for additional information on how these "ghost" volumes are created, how to avoid them, how they impact applications (esp backup), your experiences with them, etc.