*sigh*.

winamp has options to change it either way.

you could always up the volume levels using the equaliser in WMP or whatever u use to play music.. but not too much or it will cause ur music to distort... seems to distort more in WMP than with iTunes or a winamp plugin..

what specific sounds are u talking about anyway?.. the normal windows sounds seem pretty quiet to me compared to the music.. are u sure u have the volume on WMP (or morpheus or whatever) at full?

getting another soundcard and using something like winamp to send audio to the other soundcard that isn't playing windows sounds is one of the better solutions.. but its a bit complicated. and it seems that Vista will sort out this 'problem'.

who said anything about downloading WMP9/10/11 ?
and service pack 2 is the best thing that ever happened to windows XP..

what?. just as good to set them all to max and just control it with the (physical) speaker volume. and it gives better sound quality.

There are many options, but that's the default (of 2.x, anyway), and not all apps have plugins to change such things.

That's because that music is poorly mastered. You should probably try reading up a bit on the basics of digital audio (mainly using PCM).

The important point, though, is this: 0dBFS is the maximum. You don't go louder. If you want good sound, you need range, and that means going lower. That's why movies, especially action movies, will be exceptionally soft on average, because they need more room for the crashes and bangs.

Try opening up something in a sound editor that you consider louder than those shell and app sounds, then load and look at something well-made, like pretty much any Pink Floyd (also because everyone's got to have some Floyd, right?).

i never said anyone said anyone said anything about downloading WMP 9, 10 and 11. and if you think service pack 2 is the best thing that happened to windows, then you are not very familiar with computers, or bill gates is related to you. besides, sp2 gives you WMP 9, and that sucks. anyway, if you play music on anything and someone signs in to yahoo or messenger or whatever or sends a message, there are sounds associated with that. i customize all mine so they sound cool. but, no matter what you have, the volume is always much higher than any media player you are listening to. it is also bad if you are in a chat room that uses voice, same thing happens. the ppl are talking, but if someone messages, it is enormously loud, like 3 times or more that volume of the ppl chatting. i have had 4 computers over the yrs and it is always the same scenario. i don't understand the question about having the volume at full on WMP. i already said i listen to loud music. i have it at like 3/4 i guess, don't pay much attn. i regulate sound with the little volume button on my speaker. i use little computer polk audio speakers with an amp.

Made for a pc? I didn't know pc's listened to music...

thanks for the winamp advice!