Volume control beyond just the sound card itself

Hello all,
I have a sort of strange question.... I have noticed over the years that my
volume coming through the speakers would be arbitrarily changed by different
aplications. For example, if I turn on the computer and open Winamp, I get a
certain volume, and of course that is adjustable in Winamp AND from my regular
WinXp volume control.

Arny Krueger...

Winamp has an obvious volume control and a less-obvious volume control of
its own. It's takes precidence over any previous volume control settings and
AFAIK does not restore them when it ends.

OK, but let's say I watch a video of something in Windows Media player or
Quicktime or something. Then I close that. Now, going back to Winamp, the
overall volume is different. But in fact the volume level of both Winamp and

Arny Krueger...

The MS Meida player has a volume control of its own. See above. I believe
that QTime is the same.

the main Windows level are not changed.

Arny Krueger...

Applications can control the windows volume control if they wish. They may
or may not track other app's changes to the windows volume control as they
wish. They can also change the volume using their own indepedendent means.

OR if I open iTunes and do anything in there, it will affect the volume of other
things after I CLOSE iTunes and go back to Winamp, or whatever. I swear I'm not
making this up....

Arny Krueger...

It's how things work.

There's a larger problem here. AFAIK s' how Windows controls volume hasn't
changed conecptuall since Windows 1.0, and it inhereted those concepts from
the sound cards of the day which were very primitive.

What does control over volume mean in a multitasking environment?

Now, when I had my Turtle Beach card in the last computer, it had a default that
I could just choose, and clicking that would magically make the audio levels
from the speakers return to what you might call "factory." And remember I'm
not talking about changing the regular Windows volume slider at all....

Arny Krueger...

Often the vendor-supplied volume control application operates the same
Windowsw functions as Windows' own volume control application. In fact this
is pretty much the usual case.

Now I am on a new Velocity Micro 64-bit and chose a great video card, but went
ahead with the integrated RealTek AC97 audio. The driver doesn't have a setting
I can just revert to and make everything magically come back up to normal
volume. Its almost as if I have to go into every possible audio and video app,
boost the volume to each one to 100% then close the apps, so that my overall
system volume is back to normal/factory/whatever....

Arny Krueger...

Seems like a product opportunity - an application that reasserts
user-defined sound settiings, every time it is activated.

I know.... wacky.... has anyone experienced this????