<sigh> confused on sound issues

alright, I'm a newer linux user, and I'm having oddball sound issues on my one, and I've searched but I can't seem to hit the right search string.

Audio works fine on my Mplayer (mediamaster), and on the sample games. On the web though? nothing. no youtube sound, I've tried a bunch of different video sites, but no joy on any of them.

Additionally, VLC has no sound. Video plays fine, (the same video that Mplayer has sound with, VLC doesn't)

That one really throws me, because it's been my experience that VLC almost never has sound issues (at least in any format I've thrown at it)

I know there are some sound issues on the one floating around, but I can't seem to find the right fix. Any ideas?

 

okay...so I went terminal "alsamixer", and cranked the "sqm" slider (the one on the right on the opening screen) up to the max, and all of a sudden my audio is actually loud enough to hear. I realized that the audio was there from vlc, just waaaay too low.

So I guess my new question, is what did I adjust?