On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 1:23 PM, Chow Loong Jin
<hyperair@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I think listening to music while chatting is not rare at all. I do it, and many
other people I know do the same. And considering how much noise was made over
the one-application-rules-the-sound-card bug that existed prior to ALSA's dmix
coming into the picture, I think it's not rare at all to have more than one
application playing sounds at the same time.
Some people do listen to music while talking to someone else on the Internet phone. I do it myself on occasion, but I don't think this is so common, though. The common case for simultaneous sound playback is a lot more related with applications such as IM clients playing short sounds while something else is playing in the background. People want to listen to music and still be able to tell when an IM arrives.
I'd be exceptionally bothered if my sound was automatically paused in order to
play notification sounds which appear every time someone sends me an instant
message (think rapid succession from someone who types fast, which is not at all
uncommon these days).
I guess almost everyone would be bothered in this case. This is the reason why I wrote:
> The only "normal" situation
> I can think about where it makes sense to have sound mixed or
> superimposed is when notification sounds ("you have new mail") play
on
> top of other sources. For this case, the volume of notifications
should
> be made so that they're audible over the sound that is currently
> playing, which is something that probably can be achieved
automatically
> anyway.
That is, notification-type sounds should be mixed with whatever else that is playing. I think, however, that their volume can probably be selected automatically in such a way that they are heard on top of the background. This way we don't force people to fiddle with another volume slider in order to hear their notifications.
As for playing videos, keep in mind that not all videos have sound. When I watch
a video that has no sound, I keep my music playing. When I watch a video that
has no useful sound (stupid background music that annoys me), I mute my browser
and keep my music playing. Such videos are pretty common on Youtube.
I bet most people won't bother to mute the video. Since most youtube videos aren't longer than two or three minutes, they'll just endure the music if they have to. So this is probably a rather advanced use case, but I may be wrong.
> So, for example, if you're playing background music and want to watch
> that video you just got from your pal over IM, you'll probably pause the
> music. And if someone calls you over Skype when you're watching the
> video, you'll pause it before taking the call. Given that this is the
> case, a single volume slider should suffice.
I have a habit of playing music (softly) while talking to friends on Skype due
to my multitasking habits, and due to the fact that I can't really function
properly without music playing.
Although I thing, as I said above, that this is not so common, it's still an interesting use case. If I'm listening to music and a call arrives, for example, I'd rather have the music paused automatically as soon as I take the call.