LMMS / LMMS/lmms

Inconsistency in Volume/Gain control ranges

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C++
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Description

Value ranges for volume knobs/sliders in various plugins and parts of lmms are all over the place.

  • Most of them (e.g. track volumes) use percentages, these more or less work as expected.
  • Some plugins do the dB scale mapping internally and expose dB values, ignoring the user's setting. Equalizer is a nice example.
  • Some use a 0 to 1 range (e.g. BassBooster), of course those won't display dB values at all.
  • The Delay (Feedback knob) and Flanger (Noise knob) effects use a 0 to 1 range with the volume knob property set (which of course expects a percentage), causing a 40 dB offset in the display.
  • The mixer faders are the wildest, as they seem to use percentages in the context menu, but 0 to 1 when automated.

Although the mixer faders were addressed in #5661, it was a dirty hack. The actual value ranges of controls need to be changed in order to ever reach a reasonably consistent UX.

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reviewing the volume controls named in the issue, including Equalizer, BassBooster, Delay, Flanger, and the mixer faders, then read the prior workaround in #5661. Define the affected control ranges and verify that display, context-menu, and automation behavior are consistent across the examples.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
audio-video-rtc, desktop
Issue type
Refactor
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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