LinuxMusicians

Condenser mic > presonus audiobox > cadence pulseaudio bridge > pulseaudio JACK source

The volume in pulseaudio is far too quiet, yet everything is maxed out. I can't increase the volume in JACK any farther because the levels are starting to clip. What could be causing this?

Levels are at 100% in pavucontrol.

if you install qasmixer, run it, press F6 to see the full mixer.
click on HW: Card in the box on the upper right. If nothing pops into view click on those other items there.
When you see a screen with a bunch of faders, click on the icon of a microphone on the lower right. After that, you should see a whole bunch of capture/mic device settings. They will probably be red. Click on the blue speaker icon next to the mic icon and you'll see a whole bunch of faders and switches for playback settings; they will blue. Essentially double check every single fader and switch of both blue (outputs) and inputs (red).

As far as I know, QasMixer runs on ALSA, so it's neither PulseAudio, nor JACK but interacts with both.
Be sure to set the preferences too.

The "radio style" buttons (circular on|off buttons) are the switches you can toggle.
Good luck.

It will look something like this until you click on the red mic button in the lower right:

protozone wrote:QasMixer to help solve levels issues.

Is there anything QasMixer can do, what alsamixer can't?

Gooberpatrol66 wrote:Levels are at 100% in pavucontrol.

alsamixer is installed by default on any system.
when open alsamixer in terminal, press "F6" to select your soundcard, and check the levels there.

It's at 100%.

Gooberpatrol66 wrote:It's at 100%.

Even when you select "Pulseaudio" and press F4:Capture ? You've set it to 100%?

Is microphone gain level set in USB interface so peak led flashes occasionally to confirm good audio level going to JACK?

suggest you connect level meters in JACK at USB input, to confirm level is good arriving in JACK
and also at output to Pulseaudio JACK Sink, to confirm level is not reduced in JACK

You might see drop in level at Pulseaudio Volume Control > Input Devices Level drop here would indicate problem with Pulseaudio JACK Sink

I suspect level drop is not until Pulseaudio Volume Control > Recording That would confirm problem is within Pulseaudio

For alsamixer, typically the F6 "- (default)" option has name PulseAudio
These level settings function the same as Pulseaudio Volume Control level settings in the tabs for "Input Devices" and "Output Devices"
If level is changed in pavucontrol, equivalent level control in alsamixer changes

The other alsamixer F6 options to select hardware devices are more important to check for correct levels that can't be inspected in Pulseaudio
However, I have found that most USB interfaces do not have any software level controls, just manual controls on the interface
If you can find the USB interface listed as a device in alsamixer, you may well find a blank space with no mixer elements